TWO more asylum-seeker boats carrying a combined total of 57 people, including six crew, have been intercepted in the Timor Sea heading for the Australian territory of Ashmore Reef…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: boat price. The blog is also related to: boat brands.

Recently, I’ve been reading a series of local history booklets put out by the Toronto Public Library Board.

I was at an academic conference last week, and it struck me how it seems that the default attitude is ‘doom and gloom’.

Racism? Marginalisation? The gap between rich and poor? Australian xenophobia? Yep, they are all rampant, you could think.

I am writing a PhD thesis about the success of integration of Hazara holders of Temporary Protection Visa holders into Australian society.

It’s a good news story.

And every so often I worry that it is not dark enough to be taken seriously.

But I am a natural optimist, and always am amazed by how many Australians welcome new settlers, and not by numbers who don’t want them.

The blogger at PoliticalOwl brought my attention to the most recent Morgan survey of what Australians see as the important issues, and the good news is that only 7% of Australians rate asylum and refugee issues as the most important problem facing Australia.

This is up from 1% last May, and 0 last November – but still – I see it as good.

‘Pollyanna’ Possie

Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre sent me this comment in an email today, and I think it is worth posting verbatim:

“We have the Indonesian Navy interdicting and shooting at boats on the high seas, now the Sri Lankan Navy are also doing our bidding- what’s next? Getting the Taliban to bomb the Hazaras as they struggle on foot and donkey through the mountain passes to Quetta where they might set out for Australia.”

Enquanto estou ocupado com a minha possível transferência para mais perto dos estúdios da Asylum, não tenho tempo para ver as bombas que vão lançando, mas tenho tempo para dar uma vista de olhos no que aí vem e já tenho que me conter nos festejos. O primeiro western Asylum vai sair em Março do próximo ano e vai chamar-se Gunslinger. Vai ser realizado pelo estreante atrás das câmeras Shane Van Dyke, filho de Barry Van Dyke e neto do apresentador de TV Dick Van Dyke. O pai Barry vai entrar no filme juntamente com Greg Evigan (que vai entrar no “mais-que-certo-sucesso” Megaconda), Sage Mears e Brian Wimmer. A Asylum promete muitos tiros de Colt, tabaco de mascar, dançarinas de saloon com ligas e shots de whisky com fartura.

Para não nos deixar já em pânico por ter que esperar até Março para ver Gunslinger a Asylum tem outra supresa agradável agendada já para a passagem de ano (há quem vá para Varadero, Serra da Estrela, Andorra ou Praça do Comércio, eu cá prefiro um filme Asylum e uma garrafinha cheia). Princess of Mars de seu nome, tem a super-estrela Antonio Sabato Jr no papel principal e conta ainda com a ex-estrela porno Traci Lords. A história, baseada no livro com o mesmo nome de Edgar Rice Burroughs (o gajo que escreveu o Tarzan) gira em torno de duas raças que estão em guerra e um soldado americano cai no planeta deles.  O teaser já está online e pode ser visto aqui.

South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group

Demonstration
Saturday 28 November at 11am
Outside the Town Hall, Sheffield

South Yorkshire says
No to Deportations and Destitution

Asylum seekers in South Yorkshire are facing threats such as:

• forcible deportation to face certain danger in Zimbabawe, Afghanistan and Iraq;
• forced into destitution because they are not allowed to work and have benefits withdrawn
• benefits being cut by £7 to £35 a week
• being forced to travel the length of the country to make a claim for asylum

Coming up to Christmas, it’s time to show that the people of South Yorkshire stand in solidarity with those seeking asylum from war, persecution and torture.

Asylum seekers are human beings – they have human rights too.

For more information, contact dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk

Al Jazeera seems to have got closer than any other news service to the business of people smuggling.

Crikey featured this video today that shows Afghan asylum seekers arriving in West Timor, on a boat bound for Australia, and an interview with a smuggler.

The passage from West Timor is apparently the shortest to Australia, but still takes 72 hours on a fishing boat.

We learn that about 50 people are involved in each operation – at $US 10,000.00, that’s $250 each – if it’s divided equally. Not a get rich quick scheme – or get rich easily, especially for the boat operators who know that there are regularly boats that don’t make it.

When I’m ill, which is rare, I find that I experience the most lucid dreams… and some could border on nightmares..  prompting the nocturnal visit of that galloping black stallion to the semi-conscious mind.

The first which took place on Saturday night was brief but memorable. I can’t have been under for long when I became aware of a small creature  jump onto the bed behind my head and the pillow. It pattered around and sniffed a little the way a cat would. When I came to I reached out and turned on the bedside lamp to check for its existence. There was no feline presence and all windows and doors were shut.

On Sunday in my dream, I had to find shelter for the night  and was wandering through the city suburbs. There were some students out in the park. I jumped the fence into the grounds of a large old  building. Immediately I was noticed by a young lad of whom I enquired if he was a student too, he said he was a security guard. He then exited the scene, possibly on his rounds and so I approached the building. The main door was open and inside was one of my friends. My friend said I could sleep on the floor of his room but disappeared out of sight in the dark so I was left alone.

I became aware of dormitories and the voices of what seemed to be nurses or carers. The people in the beds were sick. But I needed to sleep a few hours so I found an empty bed in a large hall amongst other occupied beds and found it was more like a white linen covered bench than a bed. I heard the movement of what I supposed was staff in an adjacent room so quickly turned out the three lamps around the bench and settled down. I hoped they wouldn’t suspect my presence as I wasn’t a guest really or a resident.

However shortly afterwards, the door of the dormitory creaked open and in the dark I heard footsteps. They must have sniffed me out because the next feeling that gripped me was a frightening numbness. I couldn’t move and felt completely immobile. I feared they’d suffocated me with a blanket or injected me with anaesthetic. Fortunately I woke up in my own bed and drenched with perspiration. It must have been the painkillers having the effect.

At least I had escaped the asylum.

Florence Mhango and her daughter Tionge (10), known to her friends and family as Precious, were detained this week when they went to sign at the Home Office. They have been given removal directions for a flight to Malawi from Heathrow at 19.00 on Monday 23rd November.

Florence and Precious moved to the UK in 2003 with Florence’s husband – Precious’ father. Florence left her husband in 2006 after suffering years of domestic violence and abuse. Florence is terrified of returning to Malawi because of what her husband and his family may do to her and her daughter. Florence’s mother has already been threatened by her husband and his family and if she is returned there is a real danger that Florence and Precious will face harassment and violence.

Precious will also be at risk of Female Genital Mutilation if she returns to Malawi.

Florence is active in her local church and she and Precious are important members of the Cranhill community in Glasgow. The UKBA have said that Precious would be able to adjust to living in Malawi despite that fact she has lived here since the age of 4 and doesn’t speak Chichewa, the native language of Malawi.

Florence’s friends and supporters in Scotland are shocked by the UKBA’s attempt to forcibly remove them from their home in Glasgow. We are calling for them to be returned to live in peace in Glasgow where they belong.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Please fax Kenyan Airways to tell them you do not want them to participate in deportation flights and that you want Florence and Tionge Mhango to stay in Glasgow where they belong. Please quote flight number KQ101, Heathrow to Malawi on Monday 23rd November at 19:00. Download model letter.

Kenyan Airlines: World Business Centre 3, Heathrow Airport, Hounslow, Middlesex, TW62TA

Tel : +44 20 82831800

Fax: +44 020 8283 1880

Also contact Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, asking him to exercise his discretionary powers to stop the flight and release Florence and Tionge from detention. Download model letter. If you are writing your own letter or email, please include their Home Office Reference number: M1369020.

Sources for this message:

UNITY

ANSU UK – Download more info in ANSU UK pdf

Fax: + 44 (0)20 7219 5856 Phone: +44 (0)20 7035 4848 or 0870 606 7766

By Email : johnsona@parliament.uk

Or: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

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In the news: MSP makes plea over asylum family’s Dungavel detention (BBC news)

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Emergency
At 8am on Tuesday 17th November Child M, his older brother and their mother were detained by 8 immigration officers at their home in Manchester. They were locked in a secure van and taken to Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre. The family were told that they would be placed on a flight to Tehran at 6.30 on Friday evening. Child M’s mother collpased on the journey and was taken to an Oxford hospital for treatment. She entered Yarls Wood in a wheelchair. Child M’s legal team immediately intervened to prevent their deportation. They submitted fresh evidence to support their asylum claim to the UK Border Agency and sought a Judicial Review at the High Court.

Under pressure from constituents, Gerald Kaufman made representations to the Home Secretary on behalf of the family. Other MPs including Chris Huhne contacted the Home Secretary to support Child M. Members of the campaign, friends and supporters deluged BMI offices with phone calls and emails demanding that they refuse to transport the family.
The Guardian newspaper, local TV and radio covered the story.

A partial victory After a traumatic 72 hours the legal team succeeded. The deportation was halted at 4.30 on Friday afternoon. The family were not deported but returned from Heathrow to indefinite detention at Yarls Wood.

The UK Border Agency has agreed to consider fresh evidence in support of the family’s asylum claim. An expert witness has recently authenticated the Iranian arrest warrant for Child M’s mother and confirms that she will face persecution and imprisonment if forced to return to Iran.

Child M and his family remain in detention.

The Child M Campaign demands:
- The immediate release of Child M and his family from detention
- Their right to remain safely in this country

We would like to thank everyone, on behalf of Child M and his family, for their support and action over the past few days. We remain deeply concerned about the welfare of Child M and his family. We need to keep working hard now. The danger for this family is not over.

Please visit the website for campaign updates.

Child M Must Stay Campaign
http://www.childm.org.uk

Contact details:
Denise – 07847190426 (Press enquiries)
Emma - emmainmcr@btinternet.com (campaign enquiries)
Pat – 07534144361 (campaign enquiries)

21 Nov 09. Message from the Child M must stay campaign

We were advised just before the flight deadline last night that the family of Child M has been returned to Yarl’s Wood and the deportation abandoned for the time being. We are continuing to press for the full release as a nine year old child is being locked up in a detention centre, which is utterly inhumane.

BMI was deluged with calls and there was widespread lobbying of Gerald Kaufman that we want to continue. People can also contact the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to make their views on bundling children on to planes quite clear. We also contacted the national and local press and received considerable interest in a very short time. This helped to focus the minds of the Home Office and BMI.

Thank you to yourself and everyone who has acted on Child M’s behalf. We will need to do so again.

Who is “Child M”?

Child “M” (who can’t be named for legal reasons) is aged 8. He is here in the UK with his mum, brother and sister. They face persecution if they are returned to Iran – they are accused of circulating Salman Rushdie’s book ‘The Satanic Verses’. The British government has refused their asylum claim and tried to deport them.

Go to the Child M website for the full story www.childm.org.uk

This weekend I got the book Asylum: Inside the Clossed World of State Mental Hospitals by Christopher Payne. I saw a recommendation on Kitzune Noir a few weeks back and I just knew I must have it.

Asylum is a photography album of the inside and outside of many mental hospitals across the United States. The forward, written by neurologist Oliver Sacks, is an interesting review of the entire concept – how it came to be at the beginning of the 18th century and it’s decline after the 1950s. He wrote about the Kirkbride Plan – a special design of the layout of institutes that was meant to promote comfort for patients, but eventually becoming too expensive to maintain. He also discusses how mental hospitals become a place of confinement, rather than a haven.

Payne’s photographs are simply amazing. They show in great detail the outside of hospitals and the inside of wards; untended forgotten gardens and dismal corridors with paint peeling off the walls. Looking at all the abandoned corridors and rooms makes you imagine them busy with strange patients wandering around and doctors tending them. I try to picture people living and working in such a morally questionable environment.

It’s a fascinating book. Browsing it fills me with inspiration and curiosity. I wish there was more stuff to read on this subject, but I guess that’s what Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization is for.

Check out the book’s website: www.asylumbook.com.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Rights of the Child. On this occasion Save the Children Denmark is giving its annual Children’s Rights Award to unaccompanied minors.

Meanwhile, DR reports:

A growing number of child refugees arriving in Denmark unaccompanied by their parents wind up in jail.

This year alone, Save the Children Denmark has knowledge of 16 children who have been remanded in custody for up to 60 days. The reason is that they have been in possession of forged documents.

Some have been consigned to alternative detention facilities, while others wind up in regular prisons such as Vestre Fængsel.

So prison is the first thing some children from war zones experience upon arrival in Denmark.

The Ministry of Justice and The Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs both say the other one is responsible in the matter.

MP Karsten Lauritzen from the ruling party Venstre says that many asylum seekers lie that they’re underaged in order to have a stronger asylum case. And besides, these children aren’t imprisoned for nothing: it’s illegal to travel on forged papers.

It’s true that Denmark hasn’t implemented the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Danish legislation, although it has ratified it, so although it is a breach of the convention to imprison unaccompanied minors, it may still be in accordance with national law to do so.

What the government seems eager to ignore though is the difference between legal and legitimate.

NCADC is checking it’s membership list. We need you to confirm that you wish to be a member. It’s free, and all you have to do is download an application form, fill in your details and email or post it back to us.

Membership is open to all individuals and organisations who support our aims and objectives which are:

- To educate the public on anti-deportation issues.
- To give advice and support to all individual campaigns which seek assistance.
- To lobby to amend law and practice which lead to unjust or inhuman deportation and assist in mounting effective campaigns against such deportations.

Click here for full details and to download an application form>>>

A new initiative has been launched by Citizens for Sanctuary. The Sanctuary Pledge aims to build a lobbying movement to build public and political support for the provision of sanctuary for people fleeing persecution. The pledge builds on the work of the Independent Asylum Commission, and, in the run-up to the UK general election, commits those who are asking of our vote to do five things:

1. Campaign responsibly, positively and sensitively in the 2010 election
2. Use ‘sanctuary’ instead of ‘asylum’ when communicating with the public
3. Support policies that will end the detention of children and families for immigration reasons
4. Promote tolerance and neighbourliness between local communities
5. Safeguard the long-term future of sanctuary

www.sanctuarypledge.org.uk

The UK government has published some major legislative proposals with a draft immigration simplification bill and a proposals to reform the asylum support system.

Taken together, the proposals have been described by the Refugee Council as showing, yet again, “total disdain for people who come to our shores in fear for their lives and ask for safety”. More vulnerable people seeking sanctuary will find themselves criminalised, marginalised and stigmatised. Access to justice and welfare support is further eroded in these proposals, while the “get-tough” language of the government has now become indistinguishable from that of the racist BNP.The asylum support consultation proposes to repeal the notorious Section 9 of the 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act, but suggests other odious measures to force people to leave the UK by withholding welfare support for families and children. Section 9 withdrew support from families whose asylum applications had been refused leaving them destitute and with threats to take their children into care. Although it is understood that Section 9 is to be dropped because it failed in it’s aim to force people to leave the country, rather than out of any concern for child welfare, it is to be welcomed.

Sadly, a new proposal is to remove cash support from families with children and move to a new version of the hated voucher system – a move which the Refugee Council makes a mockery of the UKBA commitment earlier this year to promote the welfare of children in the asylum system. A commitment already revealed as seriously failing in a report from Refugee and Migrant Justice – “Does Every Child Matter?” – which revealed that the UKBA is routinely flouting its Code of Practice to safeguard children.

Refugee Council comment>>>
The draft Immigration Bill info on UKBA website:>>>
The asylum support consultation is open to 4 February. UKBA welcomes your comments>>>

Every child matters?
It appears that UKBA is not the only agency failing in it’s duty of care towards refugee children. The Guardian reported this week that almost 150 children and young people – mostly unaccompanied children in the immigration and asylum system -disappeared from local authority care homes last year. The Care Leavers Association gathered information from 202 local authorities. That Local Authorities appear to be failing in their duty is of grave concern, particularly given the children’s treatment by the UK Border Agency.

Sad news came through this morning that Rose-Jane and baby Natale were deported, despite a passenger protest. Four policemen and four Home Office officials boarded the flight with Rose-Jane and spoke to passengers who were refusing to fasten their seatbelts and they capitulated. She is going to go to the British Embassy in Kenya to appeal against her removal.

Speaking to a supporter by telephone just before take-off, Rose-Jane wished to thank everyone who had supported her by writing letters on her behalf.

http://bit.ly/rosejane

Published: vybes.com

It appears that the Australia’s three-way stand-off with Sri Lankan asylum seekers onboard the Oceanic Viking and Indonesia may be over. It began:

on October 16 when a boatload of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, all ethnic Tamils, were rescued from their sinking boat by the Australian ship, but in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone.

Initially Indonesia refused to allow the boat to dock at an Indonesian port, but after negotiations … Indonesia took the boat “on humanitarian grounds” because there was a sick child on board.

But the asylum seekers refused to leave the Australian ship, demanding they be taken to Christmas Island for processing by Australian authorities.

Oceanic Viking breakthrough: asylum seekers to come ashore

There has been a spike in asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat following the increasing violence in Afghanistan and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Kevin Rudd’s government has been heavily criticised for both its handling of the Oceanic Viking incident and refugee policy in general. His stance is supposed to be tough on people smugglers and border security but humane towards refugees. Critics see it as either too hard or too soft. It’s either encouraging so-called boatpeople or abusing the rights of asylum seekers.

Veteran News Limited journalist Piers Ackerman prides himself on his right wing zeal. Never a friend of Labor governments, he rarely misses a chance to go for the throat:

The Rudd Government has only succeeded in making Australia a more enticing destination for wannabe migrants who don’t meet the nation’s needs, it has helped people jump the queue of refugees seeking resettlement and it has boosted the bank balances of international people smugglers.

Rudd’s red carpet to asylum seekers

Jeremy Sears of An Onymous Lefty is a regular critic of Ackerman. He addressed his remarks to those whom he sees as driven by xenophobia:

One of the most obvious questions I’d like to ask the “THEY’D BETTER NOT LAND HERE” crowd is – where would you like to send them?

//
// //
// You realise that what the people on the boats are doing is precisely what you would do in the same circumstances.
And yet you want them STOPPED. You want them LOCKED UP. You want them SENT HOME.
And the party that promises to treat these people the worst, that party will get your vote?

I’m not scared of the “boat people”. I’m scared of YOU.

Mark Thompson blogs at Seeking Asylum Down Under. His detailed responses to the current situation have looked for the positives in a sea of negativity:

Rudd is between a rock and hard place, politically speaking, as the Coalition [Liberal and National parties opposition] and its conga line of fear mongers in the media whip up the refugee issue yet again. Many people are very prone to xenophobic responses on ‘boat people’, choosing to believe the fear drum beaten relentlessly by Turnbull, Stone, Andrews and Ruddock et al. There appears to be something in a large slice of the collective psyche that responds negatively to people arriving on boats.

His hope is for multi-lateral approaches to asylum seekers:

Australia must model best practice in this area, ensuring the provisions of international legal instruments and human rights conventions are followed to the letter. This can be a win/win for asylum seekers, the respective processing authorities, and the countries in the firing line. Opening a regional dialogue and developing a well-resourced multilateral approach, empowering all parties with a stake in a solution to this growing human crisis, would be a good start.

Labor all at sea on asylum seekers – but an opportunity presents itself.

Although this issue has generated a lot of heat and was a crucial part of the 2001 Australian Federal election, very few bloggers have posted about it lately. Perhaps it’s just too complex or a case of Tampa déjà vu.