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Keywords: Jrs

  • RELIGION

    Why Ali fled Afghanistan

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 April 2010
    21 Comments

    On Monday night on ABC1's Q&A, Tony Abbott was asked about the recent wave of boat people including Hazaras fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan. At the end of one recent meeting in Indonesia, a 15-year-old Hazara named Ali came and told me his heart wrenching story.

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  • RELIGION

    Uighurs failed by Cambodia's sham refugee law

    • Frank Brennan
    • 03 March 2010
    6 Comments

    In June last year a solitary Uighur from Xinjiang province arrived in Phnom Penh seeking asylum. On 18 December he and 21 other Uighur asylum seekers were praying when Cambodian police entered their safe house and abducted them at gunpoint.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Precarious lives: Involuntary displacement of people in Asia Pacific today

    • Mark Raper
    • 18 January 2010

    Significant agreement was achieved in Copenhagen on the present and future forcible displacement of people because of climate change and environmental degradation. Can global cooperation for the protection of vulnerable displaced persons be renewed to meet new circumstances?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Protecting children from bullies and bureaucrats

    • Michael Mullins
    • 23 November 2009
    5 Comments

    A Wesley Mission survey of 1200 adults found that being bullied as children caused 70 per cent of them to suffer from low self-esteem and a lack of assertiveness later in life. Federal Labor must explain what has become of its promise to appoint a children's commissioner.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What I learned from El Salvador's Jesuit martyrs

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 11 November 2009
    9 Comments

    í 16 November 1989. Bangkok. We looked forward to hearing from Jon Sobrino, the El Salvador Jesuit theologian, who had been speaking at another meeting. But at breakfast we heard the dreadful news.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Immigration reform review

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 11 September 2009
    1 Comment

    On Wednesday, the Senate made two decisions which take immigration reform forward. The reforms were approved with the support of the Greens and Independents, and one Liberal Senator. Reading the Hansard gives some insight into the current debate.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seekers are not criminals

    • Sacha Bermudez-Goldman
    • 21 April 2009
    9 Comments

    If we regard asylum seekers as illegals who burn boats to force themselves on us, we might choose to close our doors to them. Rather than criminals, we should regard them as human beings in great need, deserving our respect and compassion.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tim Fischer's Bhutanese blind spot

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 January 2009
    16 Comments

    Former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer is an outspoken promoter of Bhutan and its culture, which includes the concept of 'gross national happiness'. Human Rights Watch has used the term 'ethnic cleansing' to describe official attempts to preserve the country's cultural values.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Why saying no to asylum seekers is immoral

    • David Holdcroft
    • 01 August 2008
    3 Comments

    Australia's story as a people building a nation despite hardship resonates with the experiences of asylum seekers surviving insurmountable odds to reach our shores. We deny this parallel to the cost of the entire community.

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  • CONTRIBUTORS

    David Holdcroft

    • David Holdcroft
    • 18 October 2007

    David Holdcroft SJ is director of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Echoes of Calwell in Sudanese refugee cut

    • David Holdcroft
    • 17 October 2007
    6 Comments

    Is Australia's refugee resettlement program primarily intended to help asylum seekers, or assist Australia's economy and nation-building? We need to ask on which set of values we want to base our society.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Senseless death of Sri Lankan Good Samaritan

    • Danielle Vella
    • 03 October 2007
    4 Comments

    Last week, a local Jesuit Refugee Service coordinator in Sri Lanka was killed when his van was blown up by a mine in rebel-held territory, as he was delivering aid to displaced people and orphans. Typically the army and Tamil Tigers blamed each other for the blast, and we are unlikely to discover the truth.

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