Sarah Stephen

  • Government tests Labor with islands' excision

    On June 18, the federal government was forced to introduce into the Senate regulations it had drafted 12 days earlier to excise some 3500 islands from Australia's migration zone, islands which run from 200 kilometres south of

  • Ruddock warns public servants

    Immigration minister Philip Ruddock, in the June 7 Canberra Times, warned public servants not to get involved in politics by supporting the World Refugee Day rallies for refugees' rights on June 22-23. Andrew Hall, spokesperson

  • Let Afghan asylum seekers stay!

    If the 1100 Afghan asylum seekers being detained in Australia, Nauru and Manus Island had been allowed to apply for refugee status when they first arrived, most would already have been resettled in Australia. Now, after the ousting

  • EAST TIMOR: People to people solidarity

    I participated in a work brigade in East Timor from May 13 to 26, organised by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor/Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASIET/ASAP). Seven people made the trip to Dili to

  • NEW ZEALAND: High Court finds detention breaks UN rules

    An interim ruling by New Zealand's High Court has found that the Labour-Alliance coalition government's policy of routinely detaining asylum seekers who arrive without authorisation is in violation of the United Nations refugee convention.

  • Government condemns asylum seekers to death

    Only 40 of the 327 Afghans on Nauru who have had their claims processed have been accepted as refugees. "The rest may have perfectly rational fears of famine, lawlessness and postwar devastation, but they don't count", declared the

  • 'Mandatory detention is child abuse'

    The government is responsible for “institutional child abuse”, according to a May report by two Melbourne organisations — the Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace (CCJDP) and the Western Young People's

  • EAST TIMOR: Timor Gap protests dog Howard

    DILI — May 19 marked the turning point of a historic period of transition for the East Timorese people. It was the last day of operation for the UN Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET), bringing to a close

  • Ruddock sends refugees back to starvation

    In response to the Easter protests outside the Woomera and Villawood detention centres, immigration minister Philip Ruddock declared that there were no refugees in Australia's detention centres, only "rejectees". They are not

  • Fewer refugees to be allowed to stay

    Immigration minister Philip Ruddock announced on May 7 that Australia's immigration intake for 2002-03 would rise for the fifth consecutive year. The federal government will allow between 100,000 and 110,000 new migrants into the

  • NEW ZEALAND: Refugees not so welcome

    Last September, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced that the Labour-Alliance coalition government she leads would be willing to take a small number of the 430 refugees aboard the MV Tampa, which was then stranded in seas off Christmas Island by the Australian government's refusal to let it dock.

  • NEW ZEALAND: Tampa captain a 'real hero'

    The New Zealand government announced on May 6 that it would accept 140 refugees — 71 Afghans and 69 Iraqis— to ease pressure on United Nations refugee camps in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Nauru. Fourteen of the refugees