Can't name names but it looks deadly. I don't think any bloke could compete with that.
Wasn't you was it cassa? Yes, I'm sure they're all basking in luxury in those detention camps, swanning around poolside as they chomp the caviar and chuckle amongst themselves that the Australian taxpayer is footing the bill. 
He's quite entitled to feel proud that he works hard to support his family - he should be, as I am that I do the same for mine. But to imply that the detention centres are some kind of tropical resort is the comment of a fool.
Up to 12 asylum seekers drowned in an attempt to reach Australia, survivor says
By Stephen Fitzpatrick
June 14, 2010 7:49AM
UP to 12 asylum seekers are believed to have drowned last week after a failed attempt to reach Australia from Indonesia, including at least two Sri Lankans from the Merak boat intercepted last year at Kevin Rudd's request.
The Afghans and Sri Lankans who died are understood to have been trying to transfer from a small fishing boat to a larger Australia-bound vessel in stormy weather at night.
Only two asylum-seekers and one crewman escaped when their craft capsized, according to fellow refugees who have been in contact with the survivors, The Australian reports.
Indonesian authorities say they have no record of the incident, which the survivors have said took place last Monday.
The two survivors, as well as two of the dead, were from the Jaya Lestari, the 30m wooden cargo boat bound for Australia that Indonesia seized off western Java last October in order to send a message to people-smugglers as a favour to the Prime Minister .
Dozens of the original 254 people on board the Jaya Lestari escaped early this year. The remaining 122 were eventually transported to the Australian-built detention centre at Tanjung Pinang, on Bintan island.
Some of the escapees reached Christmas Island several weeks ago. Many are believed to have been hiding from Indonesian authorities in Jakarta and elsewhere, awaiting their chance to make the trip to Australia.
A spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said a maritime incident in Indonesian waters would have to be confirmed with Indonesian authorities.
"Any loss of life as a result of people-smuggling is very sad and is a warning to all those who might contemplate such a dangerous journey that they or their loved ones could die," she said.
From HREOC website.....
Does Australia’s mandatory detention system breach human rights?
The Commission has consistently called for an end to mandatory immigration detention because it places Australia in breach of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The ICCPR and the CRC require Australia to respect the right to liberty and to ensure that no one is subjected to arbitrary detention. If detention is necessary in exceptional circumstances then it must be a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim and it must be for a minimal period.
The Commission accepts that immigration detention may be legitimate for a strictly limited period of time in order to obtain basic information about health, security and identity. However, under current practice, the detention of unlawful non-citizens is not an exceptional step, but the norm - and it is often for lengthy periods.
The Migration Act does not permit the individual circumstances of detention of a non-citizen to be taken into consideration by the Australian courts. It does not permit the reasonableness and appropriateness of detaining an individual to be considered by the courts. Australia is therefore in breach of its obligations under the ICCPR (article 9(4)) and the CRC (article 37(d)), which require that a court be empowered to order an individual’s release from detention, if appropriate.
For further information see:
* The Commission’s submission on the Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009
* The Commission’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration Inquiry into Immigration Detention in Australia (2008)
* A last resort?: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2004)
* Those who’ve come across the seas: Detention of unauthorised arrivals (1998)
Children’s rights
In A last resort? the Commission found that Australia’s mandatory detention laws led to numerous breaches of the CRC, including those provisions requiring special protection for child asylum seekers and refugees.
In particular, the Commission found that the mandatory detention system leads to a fundamental breach of a child’s right to be detained only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. In addition, long-term detention significantly undermines a child’s ability to enjoy a range of other important human rights, for example the right to education and the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
In 2005 the Migration Act was amended to affirm the principle that children should only be detained as a last resort. Children are no longer detained in high security immigration detention centres. However, children are still held in lower security immigration detention facilities and in community detention, as discussed above.
For further information see:
* The Commission’s report: 2009 Immigration detention and offshore processing on Christmas Island
* The Commission’s 2008 Immigration detention report
* A last resort? National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2004)
What the UN thinks
Big time.
Another asylum seeker boat arrives in Australian waters
June 15, 2010 8:37PM
AN Australian navy patrol boat has intercepted a boat carrying suspected asylum seekers off Australia's northwest.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said HMAS Armidale, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel southwest of Ashmore Islands today.
The vessel was initially located by a Border Protection Command Dash 8 surveillance aircraft.
Mr O'Connor said initial indications suggested there were 33 passengers and three crew on board.
"The group will be transferred to Christmas Island for security, identity and health checks, and their reasons for travel will be established," he said in a statement.
"While their nationality is yet to be confirmed, if these asylum seekers are Sri Lankans or Afghans, the processing suspension introduced by the government on 9 April 2010 will apply."
Christmas Island drug charge
June 16, 2010, 1:55 pm
A 45-year-old man has been charged with importing methamphetamine from Malaysia to Christmas Island.
Customs and border protection officers suspected the man was concealing drugs internally when he arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Christmas Island on April 9 this year.
He was referred to the Australian Federal Police and taken to hospital for a medical examination.
It's alleged the man passed four foreign objects containing methamphetamine weighing about 65 grams, Customs and the AFP said in a statement on Wednesday.
The man was to appear in the Christmas Island Magistrates Court today, charged with importing methamphetamine.
The maximum penalty for the offence is 25 years in prison.
@ gypsy and others.
Unless anyone has any strong opinions to the contrary, perhaps Gypsy should post a link to the website the paper clippings come from. That way those who want to read **** journalism still can.
Everyone could continue contributing to the thread or let it fade off their radar as they wish.
I realise that Gypsy started the thread but kinda think that continuing to post the news clips isn't adding to the debate.
I suggest this because its gotten to the stage that no one is likely to read it all and most comments posted don't refer specifically to any of the articles posted. Gypsy is barely commenting.
I guess gypsy will decide but maybe you could red or green thumb this post to give opinions as posting opinions to this kinda unrelated post will just make an even longer thread that has gone off track.
Smedg,
I have a huge amount of empathy for your sentiment here but don't try to kill it. After all it is an ongoing issue. You never know, there is a small possiblity that we may be able to get a lever in the chink and pry the gap open.
Gypsy has a problem with refugees and the way we treat them. If we turf the topic we leave her in ignorance and that would not be nice!
I don't think GD has a problem with the refugees. I think she, like I, has a problem with the half assed way the government is dealing with the problem.
Keep them coming GD.
I don't have a prob with GD posting updates but the drug charges one has fek all to do with the issue on this thread, and falls in with the common habit opnents in thsi argument have of misleading information/terms for asylum seekers etc. Ultimately it weakens your cred if you attempt to attach unrelated/misleading stuff to your argument.
BTW - how about some balance and posting some stats on how many succesful cases of asylum seekers integrating into society there. Or the relatively low crime rate amongst these people? It seems that stats are right there at your fingertips so why not excercise or cross train that statiscical thirst you have GD?
Listening to ABC local radio Perth this morning I was dumbfounded to hear a lady caller prattle on about how bad it is that "these 'illegal immigrants' get a free ride" when she knows a German lad who has been on a temporary work visa getting mucked around and then giving up on the process nad heading back to deutschland.
She has a point about the difficulty in immigrating but what totally dumbfounded me was her then ranting on about how nice "these people" refering to German and Europeans are. She knows because she went on - at length - about the rural town she grew up in (I think it was Norseman) had lots of post-war refugees arrive and "those people were fantastic the way the appreciated the opportunity and became part of the town". "I went to school with them and they had to put up with some teasing but they were great."
She continually referred to 'Those people" who arrived illegally and "The refugees I grew up with" and attempted to paint them as being differant somehow, but couldn't, for life nor money, see a parrallel between the (mis)fortunes of those that arrived post-war and the refugees arriving now. The only way I could see that she arrived at a differance was simply the ethnicity and/or religious make up of the current arrivals. That is straight out discrimination I think.
Having grown up with people from less fortunate backgrounds - then being given a chance you'd think she would get on board with current refugees. unfortunately it seems instead of rubbing shoulder with the current arrivals she prefers the distance of a telephoto lens and the insulation/mis-information skewed media coverage gives. When coupled with her earlier experiences this is pure ignorance. 
My neighbour is an 80+ post-war refugee, as is his wife - who he met in rural work training/placement camps in Oz. He feels exactly the same way and (even during the Tampa boolocks) and feels no commonality or empathy with asylum seekers today. I find that truly kn bizarre!
BTW - my neighbour didn't arrive via an illegal smuggler's boat. Quite the opposite Oz was welcoming migrants at the time and whilst he was in Europe he was actually given the choices of going to Oz, NZ, Sth Africa etc. He chose Oz and was shipped to the Eastern states. Didn't dig it so opted to come to perth and has worked hard, paid taxes and lived a bountiful life ever since.
If only that freedom of choice was available to the poor souls he writes off today. Maybe he has become too Ozzy?
Surf's up for former asylum seeker at mid winter ball
Malcolm Farr
June 16, 2010 10:27PM
AN Afghan refugee who was in Curtin detention centre not long ago paid more than $16,000 for surfing lessons from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott last night.
And he believes he can teach Mr Abbott a thing or two about asylum seekers.
The money came from activist organisation GetUp, which bid on behalf of Riz Wakil in the Canberra Press Gallery's Mid-Winter Ball charity auction.
Mr Abbott offered an auction item of a surfing lesson followed by a beachside breakfast.
Mr Wakil, who arrived in 1999 and is now an Australian citizen running a Sydney printing business, said: "He can teach me a thing or two about surfing and I'll teach him what refugees go through to build a new life in Australia."
An afternoon of barefoot bowling with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan went for $12,600 in the eBay auction - to Channel 10's 7pm Project.
Lunch or dinner with Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard fetched $10,100 and a meal with all five Green senators brought in $7000 from unnamed bidders.
It was Mr Abbott's first attendance at the ball in any capacity. He doesn't like black tie events but wore the suit in which he married wife Margie, who accompanied him last night in a rare visit to Canberra.
Young asylum seekers prepping for new WA school term
Josh Jerga
June 15, 2010 2:49PM
YOUNG asylum seekers housed in the remote West Australian town of Leonora have begun being measured for uniforms in preparation for their enrolment at the school next term.
About 30 children between the ages of three and 17-years-old are being housed at the disused Gwalia lodge, currently being used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.
Last Sunday, 86 asylum seekers, consisting of 21 families, were transferred to the town from Christmas Island, where the offshore detention centre is nearly at capacity.
On Tuesday, P&C members of the town's only school, Leonora District High School, visited the complex to take measurements from the children for their uniforms.
They will be enrolled there next term.
The Leonora library has been approached to supply more books to the school while the federal government will fund extra resources and teaching staff.
Immigration workers at the temporary accommodation play games of volleyball and cricket with the asylum seekers throughout the day.
Some of the workers come from Leonora, with an immigration spokesperson saying ``the detention centre's service provider have made a commitment to employ locals wherever possible''.
The majority of the centre's staff are being housed at the nearby Leonora lodge, where there is no self catering facility meaning many are spending money in the town.
However, a large proportion of food and other items for the the asylum seekers at the Gwalia lodge has been sourced from Kalgoorlie.
Seventy-two-year-old butcher Neil Biggs had initially been told by immigration officials they would purchase their meat from him.
More than a week later he has yet receive one order leaving Mr Biggs disappointed.
``If your government can't support you than who can?'' He said.
Indonesian detention boss rejects claims
Adam Gartrell, Indonesia Correspondent,
June 15, 2010, 11:19 am
The head of an Australia-funded Indonesian detention centre has angrily rejected claims his guards use stun guns to subdue detainees.
Sugiyo, the head of the Tanjung Pinang Immigration Detention Centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan, says the allegations are rubbish.
"It's not true," Sugiyo told AAP.
"We do have small stun guns but they have never been used.
"No one has been electrocuted here."
Afghan asylum seekers housed in the facility have claimed officials use the stun guns and deny them medical assistance, as well as making threats to kill, according to a story aired on ABC's Lateline.
It is not the first time detainees at the facility have alleged abuse. Afghan detainees claimed last year guards had beaten them.
But Sri Lankan detainees agree the latest allegations are untrue.
"They have electric guns but they have never used them," a Tamil who has been in the facility for several months told AAP on condition of anonymity.
Guards have punched Afghan detainees but have not been violent towards Tamils, the detainee said.
Sugiyo said the detainees who made the allegations were trying to create controversy to speed up the processing of their refugee claims.
But Greens leader Bob Brown called the allegations "very disturbing".
"If Australian money is going into detention centres then it needs to be humanitarian," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The use of Tasers and treatment of asylum seekers as if they're criminals is just not on."
Independent senator Nick Xenophon said the abuse claims were further reason all processing should occur on Australian soil.
Australia funded a multi-million dollar refurbishment of the facility last year.
The centre was used to house the 78 Tamils from Australia's Oceanic Viking after a month-long stand-off late last year.
It also now houses more than 100 Tamils who were involved in a separate six-month stand-off with Indonesian authorities at a Javan port.
getfunky,
I believe the refugee situation, post WW11, and as it is today, are totally different.
You can put a morality spin on it and I am sure most people will agree we have a moral obligation to help our fellow man in the BEST way possible.
No one could possibly agree that allowing people to make perilous sea journeys to one of our isolated out posts or even to our mainland shores is the BEST way to help our fellow man.
The BEST way to help them is by using our influence and resources to help them in their own country.
When they come to Australia they have HUGE cultural, social and economic problems to be surmounted before they can hope to be a CONTRIBUTING member of our society.
If they do not want to become a CONTRIBUTING member of our society, they are IMMORAL and have no right or business being here.
Throwing welfare dollars at them does not help them or do Australia any good.
Enough IS enough.... The illegal boat arrivals must be stopped.
You can quote %ages boat/airplane illegal arrivals and whatever else you like. Illegal boat arrivals are a PROBLEM not a SOLUTION.
The cost in human lives is just too high, let alone the cost in dollars.
Australia has the opportunity NOW, not to repeat the mistakes that have been made in the UK, Europe and the US.
The first step. Stop the boats.
Cisco I'm not attempting to moralise but to rationalise. I just find it absolutely stunning that people who have themselves fled to a more prosperous life (in my neighbour's case his life wasn't in danger he was an economic refugee as such) have no empathy for those who not only flee economic but religious and personal persecution.
Ditto for those that have lived beside and admired refugees in the past but think the current arrivals somehow differ?
Cisco I don't understand some of your arguments below.
You talk of costs but keeping detainees erm.. detained for longer than neccesary (as the white knights of policy did for a decade) adds enormously to the costs. People are hard to hide you know. Now i jest a bit but keeping them hidden offshore is costing us big time. More so than on the mainland (from what i have read) but it is a harder pill for the public to swallow. The public like a lot of sweetener and want all the roughage well hidden.
When they come to Australia they have HUGE cultural, social and economic problems to be surmounted before they can hope to be a CONTRIBUTING member of our society.
Granted the ordeals that some have been through and the after effects don't disappear overnight. However whilst they are here and if they are found to be genuine refugees then they deserve the right to health care. Keeping them detained indefinately increases the problems - as has been repeatedly show.
If they do not want to become a CONTRIBUTING member of our society, they are IMMORAL and have no right or business being here.
I agree but I don't think anyone informed is actually trying to suggest the majority of genuine refugees don't want to give this life a red-hot go.. just as post-war immigrants did also. Figures (that admitedly i don't have to hand
) show pretty positive results accross the board. Our economy (right or wrong) is crying out for lesser educated workers and educated alibaster Ozzy's wont stoop to jobs deemed menial, so there is a void that can pretty easily be filled there for a start.
Australia has the opportunity NOW, not to repeat the mistakes that have been made in the UK, Europe and the US.
Depends if you think giving a fellow human being an opportunity to live a life (relatively) free of fear, famine and persecution is a mistake doesn't it? I think we have an opportunity to improve ourselves and our self awarness in the global picture... that's just me tho.
BTW - It's hard not to get distracted but I guess this original issue was about the boat arrivals. I still say there is bugger all you can (legally) do about boats arriving. They will come - despite policy and decades of stats show that. It is a total misconception that the former govts policies decreased boat arrivals. It is events around the globe that lead to asylum seekers attempting to reach Oz. We get the choice to behave humanely or inhumanely when they arrive -- and that is about all we can actually affect.
Thought for the day:
Can we do a boat swap? For every load of asylum seekers that arrive - that need to be housed, fed, educated and given health care - can we swap a boat load of dinky di boguns? Thereby reducing the costs of housing, feeding, educating and healthing up. 
Upside = Asylum seekers will be more likely to make something out of their chances and add to society.
Downside = If you have shares in Winnie blues and Jim Beam they are sure to plummet.
In almost related tales...the other week I very nearly got run over on my pushie by a crazy crack-head bogun! this pillor of society - without looking - violently reversed out into traffic in front of myself and another car, then held up traffic, to wind down her window and (out front of her squid's school) yell "Faaaarrrrrkkk UUuuuuuuuu!!" at me!! With veins protruding from her Winne Blued throat, and one hand saluting out the window, she then sped off (in the 40 km zone) no doubt wondering what has happened to this sunburnt country
I'd swap her for a boat load of future Ozzies anyday.
BTW - had to replace my tyre after that. Add that to the cost of her liver and lung health requirements later in life (plus therapy for her poor squid) and the boaties are looking the cheaper option.
Disclaimer: Everything above - except for the crackhead nearly cashing in my chips - is a laff and not to be taken seriously so don't expect anyone to come and collect the boguns next door anytime soon.
"The Pan Javanese government/military "
These people make me shudder..very scary dudes.
there is a Afghanistan cafe at the international eating house in Vic.Park, W.A
they are on holidays at the moment, the veggie curry is AWESOME.
around $12
I think that representation of our pollies is far too mature to truly capture them GD.
