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Keywords: Unhcr

  • EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

    Migrant myths and memories

    • Julie McNeill
    • 24 August 2011
    4 Comments

    Sociologist Eva Cox heard all the vitriol about boat people when, as a five-year-old Jewish girl, she fled Nazi Germany and headed to Australia. My nine-year-old mother was a different kind of boat arrival: one of 135,000 'child migrants' imported under the 'Populate or Perish' policy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'Boat people' and the ethics of presence

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 17 August 2011
    29 Comments

    Suppose that in France under Hitler's occupation, a bloodied man arrived at our doorstep asking for shelter from a Nazi mob. The claim made by the presence of the endangered and injured man would precede questions of fairness and relative need.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    An ethical defense of the Malaysia solution

    • David Palmer
    • 16 August 2011
    20 Comments

    In this debate, moral passion is common, especially among those who cast themselves as refugee advocates. But moral passion should not be confused with moral superiority. Any claim to occupy the moral high ground in this complex area of public policy is at best brave and at worst self-serving.

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  • RELIGION

    Malaysia solution pros and cons

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 July 2011
    30 Comments

    The Malaysian solution is unprincipled, but it might just work — stopping the boats. If other countries try to replicate it, we will have to tear up the Refugee Convention and start again. And the plight of unaccompanied minors transported from our shores to Malaysia will be on our conscience. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Refugee lotto

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 27 July 2011
    3 Comments

    An old legal maxim is 'hard cases make bad law'. Maybe complex cases compromise policy. Refugee law and policy is complex and the Malaysian agreement signed this week is another example of a compromise on human rights principles for political expedience.

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  • RELIGION

    Churches and the Malaysian Solution

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 July 2011
    12 Comments

    This is not a regional solution to a regional problem, but a bilateral attempt at solving an Australian problem. To stop the boats, one needs to engage in measures contrary to the Refugee Convention. Church groups can not endorse something they know to be either unworkable or immoral.

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  • RELIGION

    Human rights and Christian lawyers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011
    5 Comments

    When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Back to basics on asylum seeker policy

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 23 June 2011
    2 Comments

    The Rudd Government promised positive reforms after a decade of 'boat people'-bashing from the previous government. Three years later, we are back where we were. To understand how this happened it is helpful to overview the changes under Labor and the gradual decline in 'key immigration values'.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Good news about the Malaysia solution

    • Caz Coleman
    • 13 May 2011
    5 Comments

    Just as it should be the role of lawyers and refugee advocates to analyse the disadvantages and possible unlawful elements of this announcement, we must also consider the opportunities. The Malaysian agreement may also deliver good news for some asylum seekers and the refugee sector.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Why Malaysia is no solution

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 May 2011
    27 Comments

    Anne Frank described a refugee as a parcel that is sent from post office to post office. The 'Malaysian solution' is like solving the problem of overloaded post offices by sending incoming parcels straight to the shredder.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seekers testing Labor's conviction

    • Susan Metcalfe
    • 07 April 2011
    22 Comments

    Paul Keating said: 'Governments that wander along uncertain about where they are, looking over their shoulder, invariably get run over themselves.' If Labor doesn't stop looking over its shoulder on asylum seekers, it will miss another opportunity to stand up for what it says it believes in.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    No apologies for Howard's unjust war

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 20 December 2010
    7 Comments

    With no hint of regret or apology, John Howard has defended his decision to join the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He gives no consideration to the just war criteria. This is not surprising, as on all these principles the case for a just war fails.

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