Churches may host asylum seekers
ANGELA POWNALL,
May 19, 2010, 2:45 am
The Federal Government is looking at properties owned by church groups in WA to house asylum seekers spilling over from Christmas Island.
Two religious groups revealed yesterday that immigration officials visited their properties - a former agricultural college and a residential student hostel - in the Mid-West.
The properties are on the market in Tardun, 150km east of Geraldton, and have been inspected by the Immigration Department in recent weeks.
Officials have also been quietly phoning churches, asking them to nominate convents, monasteries and boarding houses where at least 100 families might stay.
The Government has already expanded the Christmas Island detention centre and last month began moving people without visas to detention in Darwin and Port Augusta.
Ray Hevern, leader of the Pallotine Fathers and Brothers in Australia, said officials had visited the former Wandalgu Aboriginal student hostel more than once.
"When the Government investigates an option like that, it would be normal, I imagine, to send out an exploratory party to see if it was worth being interested in, then follow that up with a more professional assessment," he said. "That appears to be what they are doing."
Mr Hevern said he had received no formal offer from the department. He said the organisation would be prepared to sell or lease the hostel to the Government.
Christian Brothers WA regional manager Vince Sinagara said immigration officials looked around the former Christian Brothers' Agricultural College, which closed in August 2009, about two weeks ago.
"It's a huge property with school buildings and accommodation," Mr Sinagara said. "We're looking at the possibility of selling or leasing it. The message was they would contact us in due course but we've got nothing in black or white from them as yet."
The Uniting Church in WA said it had had "general conversations" with the Federal Government about "possible alternatives for vulnerable asylum seeker families".
Christian Brothers Oceania province leader Vince Duggan confirmed the search for more accommodation on the mainland was underway.
It is understood officials were making the calls as recently as last week, seeking places for families and unaccompanied minors who sailed to Australia without parents.
The Sydney-based Josephite sister, Kathleen O'Connor, was also aware of verbal requests from officials.
A department spokesman reiterated the Government's policy pledging to keep children and families out of high security detention centres.
"The Department of Immigration has been investigating a range of private properties around Australia - including some owned by churches - as potential additional accommodation options for families and children should the need arise," he said.
"This may provide an alternative and more suitable accommodation option to the use of motels or serviced apartments, for instance."
The Opposition said failed policies had forced the Government into "billeting" asylum seekers.
Read it somewhere that the Feds have hired a motel somewhere in north Queensland complete with 24 hour security staff to prevent residents' excursions into the local community.
I'll bet the owner of the motel (be it run down or not) is doing backflips over his new 100% occupancy rate funded by the tax payer (you and me).
I for one can't think of a better way to spend my tax than helping the worlds most vulnerable. Solving the problems before they get out of control is of cause preferable and also worthy of my tax. Since that hasn't happened, lets look after each other as best we can. Get to understand one another better and we may have a chance of less conflict.
No-one seems to give a flying one about that tho do they?
To getfunky, without quoting you in full,
"a topic that is actually worthy of more public attention and should be an election issue - instead of the immigration and/or boat arrivals?"
Absolutely, the immigration and/or boat arrivals issue is just being used as a political football.
"You tirade about 'the illegal immigrants'"...... No I don't. I tirade about the pissant policies and double standards from ALL sides of parliament.
"I don't think you (or GD etc) would bother to start a thread on aged care, hospitals, schools etc etc?"
That is easy enough to do but this thread seems not to have played itself out fully yet.
... this may be old news but it plays on my mind......this may be a little of topic but wtf is with pauline hanson .. that old ranga bitch wont sell her house to anny one not (visualy australian)...i wish some one would slap some sence into the racism mother@^*!.. who would say something like that on national tv .. i wonder what her family and friend think when she says some thing so wrong ..and she usto have some small say is this countrie ... i didnt reall all 14 pages of this tread so srry if it was already spoken about ..
I have a wife of 21 years and two teenage children. Their safety and welfare comes before anything else in my life and probably my own safety and welfare. Fortunately I have never been put to that test.
The examples you show are that of a criminal nature whereby someone has broken a law and been handed down a punishment.
There is nothing 'illegal' about seeking asylum.
I would disagree in with what you say in so far as who is a better judge of policy than those who have experienced it.
Well yes, but only because they were the first things that came to mind.
It does apply to ALL decisions though.
In council matters and government matters and judicial matters
You cannot take part in discsussion of vote on matters in which you have a vested interest.
Any matters at all.
I have a wife of 21 years and two teenage children. Their safety and welfare comes before anything else in my life and probably my own safety and welfare. Fortunately I have never been put to that test.
People smuggler informant wanted revenge
An Iraqi asylum seeker who worked for people smugglers in Indonesia while being a paid informant for Australian authorities has given evidence against an accused smuggler.
In the Perth District Court today, Waleed Sultani said he had worked with Hadi Ahmadi in Java in 2000 and 2001, assisting asylum seekers wanting to board boats to Australia.
Mr Ahmadi, 34, was extradited to Australia from Indonesia on people-smuggling charges in May 2009.
He has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of illegally assisting more than 900 asylum seekers on four boats to reach Christmas Island between March and August 2001.
Under questioning from crown prosecutor Ron Davies, Mr Sultani said he and Mr Ahmadi worked for people smuggler Sayeed Omeid in Jakarta.
He said their job was to meet prospective passengers, sign them up with Mr Omeid and look after them.
"We have to talk with them to be passengers for Omeid," he said.
They found hotels for the passengers and when boats were ready to leave, organised buses and accompanied them to the departure points, Mr Sultani said.
"I did that many times with Hadi."
Mr Sultani, a former tank commander in the Iraqi army who fled dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, said Mr Ahmadi collected money from the passengers, always in US dollars, to pay Mr Omeid.
He said that while he was working for Mr Omeid and two other people smugglers, Hasan Ayoub and Ali Jenabi, he was regularly reporting to the Australian embassy in Jakarta on their activities.
Mr Sultani said he had originally paid Mr Omeid $US2000 ($2398) to be put on a boat for Australia, but when that fell through, the money was not refunded and he had no choice but to work for him to try to get his money back.
Working as an informant for Australian authorities was a chance for payback.
Mr Sultani came to Australia in 2002 and was provided with accommodation by the Australian Federal Police until 2005.
He is now an Australian citizen and in 2004, was a witness in the trials of Ayoub and Ali Jenabi in Perth and Darwin.
When questioned, Mr Sultani said that after the pair were convicted and jailed for people smuggling in 2004, he was given a $250,000 reward for his work for the AFP.
He said he had given information on people smuggling on the condition he would not be charged.
Under questioning from defence counsel Jonathan Davies, Mr Sultani said he fled Iraq during Saddam's rule and could not go back for fear of arrest and persecution.
He said Hadi Ahmadi's family were well known in Iraq and he agreed they were "of very high character".
On Tuesday, the jury heard that Mr Ahmadi was the son of a Shi'ite ayatollah who was killed during the failed uprising against Saddam in 1991 during the first Gulf War.
The trial, set down for 10 weeks, continues before Judge Andrew Stavrianou.
You lot still on about this ****, and 12 pages of it
Take a bex and a good lay down, the lot of yas
So Mr Sultani is not disputing the fact that he assisted in the people smuggling??
He is only disputing the allegation that it was "illegal", because he was in the pay of the Australian Tax Payer at the time.
Ooooohhhh, well that is alright then. Have we (The Australian Tax Payer) sufficiently remunerated your defence councel????
The information below should be read by everyone, whether you agree to its contents, or not !!!
*** NOW, LET ME SEE IF I'VE GOT THIS RIGHT....
IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOUR.
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.
IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.
IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.
IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND
YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.
IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO A POLITICAL
PRISON TO ROT.
IF YOU CROSS THE AUSTRALIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET:
* A JOB,
* AN INTERPRETER,
* FREE LEGAL AID,
* A DRIVERS LICENCE,
* A SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER,
* WELFARE,
* CREDIT CARDS,
* FREE EDUCATION,
* FREE HEALTH CARE,
* DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
* THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DO NOT GET ENOUGH RESPECT.
Sensationalism? Then think about just this one [not so] small aspect...
The Australian Federal Government provides the following financial assistance:-
BENEFIT AUSTRALIAN AGED PENSIONER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN AUSTRALIA
Weekly allowance $253.00 $472.50
Weekly Spouse allowance $56.00 $472.50
Additional weekly hardship allowance $0.00 $145.00
TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT $16,068.00 $56,680.00
If I were a refugee, why would I look for work? And the current Government is saying that 'elderly Australia' is going to put the country $100 Bn into debt in the next few years?!
Please forward to all your contacts so that we can lobby not just for an increase in the aged pension and to put the welfare of Australian pensioners first, but the welfare of refugees further down the list - well after our Defence men and women, our farmers and the average Aussie battler. After all, the average pensioner alone has paid taxes and contributed to the growth of this country for the last 40 to 60 years; a Defence member voluntarily endures hardship, prepared to give up their life to preserve the way of yours; and the farmer/battler who are the backbones of this Country and Culture - never reaches for a handout but always willing to lend a hand...
When these people rarely, if ever, speak out they are shunned, ridiculed and dismissed by the Government and barely makes a headline in the news. When refugees/immigrants speak out about repression and insensitivity to their culture in Australia, it gets widespread media coverage and quick resolution by Government bodies.
*** I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION - HAVE A GOOD DAY (AT WORK)
^^^^
That's a strange first post. Don't bother to read any of the past 12 pages. Don't bother to come up with any resembling original thought. Just cut and paste some redneck rantings found on the interweb and expect to get some credit? I think not.
People smuggler gives evidence in Perth
By Lloyd Jones,
June 3, 2010, 5:30 pm
A convicted people smuggler has told a Perth court he had to pay off authorities in Indonesia when he organised boats to take asylum seekers to Australia.
The Indonesian man, whose identity has been suppressed, told the District Court on Thursday he operated as a people smuggler both to help asylum seekers and make money.
He was called as a witness in the case of Iraqi man Hadi Ahmadi, who was extradited to Australia from Indonesia on people-smuggling charges in May 2009.
Ahmadi, 34, has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of illegally assisting more than 900 asylum seekers on four boats to reach Christmas Island between March and August 2001.
Giving evidence on Thursday, the convicted people smuggler said he saw Ahmadi many times at people smuggling meetings in Jakarta hotels and on beaches where boats were loaded with asylum seekers.
Following an application by lawyers acting for the Australian Federal Police, Judge Andrew Stavrianou suppressed publication of the convicted smuggler's name and any evidence that might identify him.
The man told the court he would book bungalows on a beach with a jetty and arrange a large boat to stand off the beach while smaller boats ferried asylum seekers out to it.
Up to 300 passengers would be loaded on the big vessels for the trip to Christmas Island or elsewhere in Australian waters, he said.
The witness, who served prison time in Australia but had his sentence cut for assisting authorities, said that when he organised people smuggling in 2000 and 2001 there were many asylum seekers wanting boats.
He said he saw Ahmadi many times at beach departure points, organising passengers he had brought there by bus.
Speaking through an interpreter, the man said such operations needed a lot of funds to cover costs "including to pay authorities to do what I have to do".
"I knew this was an illegal job and very high risk ... can you prepare a boat to go to Australia for free?"
The witness said that at the time, no one got deported and Indonesian immigration authorities didn't "give a damn about this".
"As long as they (asylum seekers) don't break the law or get in trouble, even if they overstay their visa, they can stay anywhere and walk free."
The witness said he wanted to help asylum seekers for humanitarian reasons, knowing they had fled from threats in their own countries.
He said he had pleaded guilty to people smuggling, feeling he had to take responsibility for his actions and turn his life around.
"It's a moral call that I have to settle," he told the court.
The jury trial continues and is set down for 10 weeks.
GD - what is going on? No sooner than Mark_Aus removes the finger from his do you come up with five coming out of yours!
You posted a query a while back asking what one could do to solve the problems that cause people to flee their countries. Understanding the root cause of the problems goes a long way. It is not an exaggeration to state that the majority of countries that are unstable have been destabilised by Western money, very often in cahoots with the governments of those countries.
Australia is just as guilty as the USA et al. Look at the complicity involved with Rio Tinto and mining rights in Zimbabwe. It would not do to upset Rio Tinto so we sit back and watch as they rape the country. Those refugees leave for South Africa.
The refugees that appear here are mostly running from our attempts to secure cheap oil by destabilising their governments and their countries. If you do not believe it get " Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins, former chief economist of Chas T Main. It should give you a new perspective.
Refugees are collateral damage to economic policy which is based on getting as much as we can out of a third world country for as little as possible. The "aid" that is supplied usually goes toward exacerbating the problem deliberately rather than actually helping. The refugees usually serve as an example of how backward and hopeless their homelands are rather than pointing toward the actual causes.
It has been going on for decades and is blanketed in bull**** designed to polarise understanding of the real causes.
And it gives me the ****s!
Two asylum seeker boats intercepted
June 4, 2010, 6:16 pm
Two asylum seeker boats have been intercepted in northern Australian waters within a day of each other, with the opposition claiming it shows the government's border protection policies have failed.
The second boat was stopped 10 nautical miles north of Ashmore Island at 8.37pm (AEST) on Thursday.
Initial indications are the boat was carrying 54 asylum seekers and three crew, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said.
HMAS Maryborough members boarded that vessel only 25 hours after it was involved in the interception of another entry vessel 127 nautical miles southwest of Ashmore Island.
The first boat, intercepted on Wednesday night, was carrying 28 asylum seekers and two crew.
Both boats take the tally of asylum seekers vessels intercepted in Australian waters this year to 60.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the two boats were proof that the government's border protection policies were "a rolled gold bucket of failure".
"Two boats arriving in one day as the Rudd government moves 750 asylum seekers to the mainland shows the chaos of Labor's failed immigration and border protection policies," Mr Morrison said in a statement.
The coalition has promised to reintroduce temporary protection visas, which Labor scrapped in August 2008.
The latest passengers will be taken to Christmas Island for health, security and identity checks to confirm their nationalities.
In April, the government announced it would suspend the applications of Sri Lankan asylum seekers for three months and delay by six months the processing for people from Afghanistan.
ods 1,
who are you? do you enjoy regurtitating boring facts that may or may not be true? Do you have compassionfor life? people? do you have kids? How can you be arraogant enough to develop a dogamtic stance when you have no idea of the reality? Have you travelled overseas at all and if so has the helplessnes of others not touchedyour soul?
The facts are we (australians) are blessed, by fortune. Others are not we can afford spriritually and financially to support tese people who are fleeing from genuine terror.
Just imagine terror.
Boat intercepted off northern coast
June 5, 2010, 1:12 pm
A boat carrying 39 suspected asylum seekers has been intercepted off Australia's northern coast.
The 61st vessel for this year was stopped northwest of Ashmore Islands on Saturday morning, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said in a statement.
It was first spotted by a Customs and Border Protection aircraft before being intercepted by HMAS Maryborough.
The 39 passengers and five crew on board will be taken to Christmas Island for identity, security and health checks, and their reasons for travel will be established.
Their nationality is yet to be confirmed, but if they are Sri Lankan or Afghan asylum seekers, their claims will be suspended in line with a change in government policy announced in April.
Leonora asylum camp 'could hold 200'
MALCOLM QUEKETT and YOLANDA ZAW,
June 7, 2010, 2:30 pm
Up to 200 asylum seekers could eventually be moved from Christmas Island to Leonora, the Federal Government revealed today as the first group of 87 boarded flights expected to land this afternoon.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the first group of Sri Lankan, Afghan and Iranian asylum seekers will stay at the temporary accommodation for three to six months while they are processed.
With Christmas Island reaching capacity Senator Evans said the Government was looking for other locations across Australia to house asylum seekers.
He said the former mining camp, which has had extra accommodation installed, could be used to hold up to 200 asylum seekers.
"We have no plans for expansion at the moment but there is capacity for 150-200 maximum," Senator Evans said.
He said 300 male asylum seekers would be sent to Curtin detention centre in Derby over the next two weeks.
An Immigration Department spokesperson said the first group of asylum seekers to arrive in Leonora were from 21 family groups.
They boarded two flights from Christmas Island this morning and were due to arrive in Leonora about 4pm.
They would be met at Leonora airport and taken by bus to the reactivated mining camp where they will be accommodated.
When they have settled in it is expected they will be allowed into the town under escort.
This morning a green screen was visible between dongas inside the central compound, about 80 metres inside the facility' outer fence.
Meanwhile, the detention centre on Christmas Island is soon expected to exceed its design capacity of 2500.
Four boat loads of asylum seekers were intercepted between Wednesday and Saturday, meaning there are still about 180 boat people to be ferried to Christmas Island for processing.
There are 2428 asylum seekers on Christmas Island and the new arrivals will take the centre well above its capacity.
