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Keywords: Protection Visa

  • AUSTRALIA

    Burying Australia's inhumane refugee laws

    • David Manne
    • 19 May 2008
    5 Comments

    Australia's refugee regime may represent the Western world's worst practice. The Government has abolished flawed and dehumanising temporary protection visas, but a more substantial review is required to ensure asylum seekers enjoy equal protection under Australian law.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Refugee refusual echoes 'Tampa election' rhetoric

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 19 February 2008
    10 Comments

    Senator Chris Evans refused a protection visa to convicted people smuggler 'Mr A', even though he was assessed by Immigration as a refugee. Senator Evans had an opportunity to improve upon the previous government's treatment of asylum seekers, but instead reverted to the same hostile rhetoric.

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  • RELIGION

    The hard life of Christians in Bethlehem

    • Abe Ata
    • 13 December 2007
    3 Comments

    The situation of Christians in Bethlehem is difficult, and many are leaving. It is hard to shed tears for Jewish victims of the Holocaust while living under Israeli military occupation, and it is equally difficult being part of a Christian minority in a predominately Middle Eastern Muslim society.

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  • RELIGION

    Lawyers' role in a democracy

    • Frank Brennan
    • 29 November 2007

    The power of the State can be exercised capriciously and unaccountably when the “Don’t ask; don’t tell” approach to government is immune from parliamentary, judicial or public scrutiny. It is the task of lawyers to make it more difficult for politicians to take this approach.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Immigration law under Labor

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 31 October 2007
    1 Comment

    ALP Immigration Policy includes both change and continuity. It gives more priority to teaching English over testing, but there's still too much reliance on ministerial discretion rather than the judicial system.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Christmas Island lesser of two evils, but not good

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 25 October 2007
    1 Comment

    Compared to that on Nauru, the Christmas Island detention facility might seem to be surrounded by calm seas. But it is exposed by distance, and if a storm of government hostility to asylum seekers blows again, the processes of determining claims there appear to leave asylum seekers dangerously exposed.

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  • RELIGION

    Protecting human rights in the next Federal Parliament - Frank Brennan

    • Frank Brennan
    • 25 October 2007

    There are times when we Australians get the balance between national interest and individual liberty wrong, especially when the individual is a member of a powerless minority. One way of improving the balance is including the judiciary in the calculus, as has now happened in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

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  • RELIGION

    Frank Brennan replies to Tony Abbott on religion in politics

    • Frank Brennan
    • 25 October 2007
    1 Comment

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  • RELIGION

    The impact of leaky asylum boats on the Federal Election

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 September 2007
    4 Comments

    The Howard Government must be given credit for increasing the size of our migration program, including the refugee and humanitarian component. But the deliberations of civil society should provide a fair go for all refugees, including those who arrive by boat without a visa.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Law overboard in pythonesque Section 501 application

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 25 July 2007
    5 Comments

    Under Section 501 of the Migration Act, you can be told: 'you fail the character test, please respond, but we cannot tell you what are the accusations against you'. Dr Mohammed Haneef has experienced the worst case scenario.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Refugee policy still broken after Rau scandal fix

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 June 2007
    3 Comments

    Australia's treatment of refugees has been out of the headlines for some months, perhaps due to changes in the Department after the Cornelia Rau scandal. But despite some improvements, Australian refugee policy remains destructive.

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  • RELIGION

    Poor fellow my country

    • Frank Brennan
    • 09 July 2006

    The following is an edited text of an address given by Fr Frank Brennan sj ao, at the launch of his most recent book, Tampering with Asylum.

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