12 August 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/12/rsl-lobbies-peter-dutton-to-stop-deportation-of-vietnam-war-veteran
11 August 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-11/afghan-asylum-seeker-in-limbo-ahead-of-forced-repatriation/6689578http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-11/afghan-asylum-seeker-in-limbo-ahead-of-forced-repatriation/6689578
8 August 2015
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-student-dragged-on-ground-sent-to-darwin-detention-centre-20150808-giuqdx.html
12.8.15
stop sending afghan asylum seekers back to Afghanistan
The Afghan Government wants to stem the flow of forced returns from Australia...
seehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-11/afghan-asylum-seeker-in-limbo-ahead-of-forced-repatriation/6689578
seehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-11/afghan-asylum-seeker-in-limbo-ahead-of-forced-repatriation/6689578
Newsletter for 12 August 2015 - Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts
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10.8.15
$10 million splurge to rename Australian Border Force
Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the swearing in ceremony of the inaugural Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last month. Photo: Andrew Meares
What's in a name? If you're the newly created Australian Border Force, the answer is about $10 million – splashed on military-style uniforms and thousands of signs at airports and detention centres to create a fresh, hardline image.
The uniform splurge follows recent reports by former detention centre workers that detainees at the Australian-run camp on Nauru have not been provided proper clothing, forcing parents to cut holes in their children's ill-fitting shoes.
The swearing in ceremony of the inaugural Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg. Photo: Andrew Meares
Australia's newly named paramilitary border force began operating in July, triggering the 10th rebranding of the immigration bureaucracy since World War II.
The new name drew ridicule when flagged last year, described variously by critics as "hairy chested", deliberately threatening and a "marketing disaster".
Costings supplied to Fairfax Media shows the government spent $6.3 million kitting out 4500 ABF officials with new uniforms, insignia, name badges, buttons and safety helmets.
Veteran public servants were reportedly unhappy at being forced to wear the military-style uniform to work after a lifetime of civilian service.
However a department spokeswoman said the new agency and its law enforcement officers must be "properly attired and well equipped".
"It is custom and practice that uniforms and equipment for law enforcement operatives be provided by their employer," she said.
At a Senate hearing last month detention centre workers described as "horrendous" the clothing situation for detainees at the Nauru detention camp.
"Parents actually had to cut holes in their [children's] sneakers because their feet were growing too much and their shoes were too small," said former worker Samantha Betts.
"Children would often ask us to help fix their thongs, which we tried to do on several occasions … with bread ties and bits of string."
Another case worker said a pair of pink hotpants had been provided to an elderly Burmese woman to wear as shorts.
The government spent a further $3.5 million on other rebranding activities such as new livery for 300 vehicles, including boats, helicopters and other aircraft.
New signs were erected at 11 international airports and more than 700 signs were required for seaports, depots, offices and immigration detention facilities.
About 8000 "Border Watch" signs replaced the previous "Customs Watch" signs. Thousands of vessel port and date stamps were also replaced.
A spokeswoman said the money was sourced from the department's budget allocations and came at "no extra expense to taxpayers".
The government has said the creation of the ABF, which consolidated customs and immigration border operations, would save hundreds of millions of dollars to be reinvested into the super-charged agency.
Some department insiders were said to be unhappy at the "militarisation" of the new regime. The department reportedly faces the public service's greatest executive brain drain since the 1980s after a quarter of its upper ranks were either shown the door or left after the merger.
Despite the millions of dollars being spent on the ABF, its employees are facing cuts to pay and entitlements, triggering an internal revolt.
Since 1945 the immigration bureaucracy has been known by various names including the Department of Labour and Immigration, Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Customs functions have also been rebranded, including in 2009 when the former Labor government dispensed with the Australian Customs Service, renaming it the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.
At the time, the Coalition questioned the cost of rebranding, and asked why the name change was needed when the government could have simply absorbed border control functions into the Customs Service.
9.8.15
Brisbane student dragged from school and sent to detention centre August 2015
Brisbane student 'dragged on ground', sent to Darwin detention centre
Milad Jafari's wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, was forcibly transferred to a Darwin detention centre without a chance to say goodbye to her husband. Photo: Supplied
A Brisbane man says he has been left "heartbroken and hopeless" after his wife was forcibly detained by immigration officials and refused permission to say good-bye to her husband before being sent to a Darwin detention centre.
Australian resident Milad Jafari, 21, said his wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, also 21, was taken from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation centre, where she had spent the past eight months and taken to Darwin on Friday.
The following day, more than 100 people gathered in Brisbane city to protest the move and the Border Force Act.
Mr Jafari said his "heart is broken" by the decision. The couple married in October 2014 and Ms Shamsalipoor was placed in detention in Brisbane after two years in the community, two months later, after her asylum claim was rejected.
Mr Jafari said his wife was determined to continue her schooling, to achieve her dream of being a midwife, and spent her time in detention finishing Year 11 and Year 12.
She was three months away from graduating from Yeronga High School when she was taken, with Mr Jafari saying she was "dragged on the ground" by officers after she resisted immigration officers and asked to call her husband.
"I have been here for four years, I have been trying to develop as much as I can, you know, I have been trying to be an engineer, she was trying to be a mid-wife, she was always dreaming about this," Mr Jafari said.
"...That is not Australia that is not the country I believe in, it is not the people of Australia – Australian people care about us, they care."
The Immigration Department told the ABC that the move was for operational reasons and it was attempting to resolve cases of failed asylum seekers living in the community, with the expectation they would leave voluntarily, with the option to detain them if they did not co-operate.
But Mr Jafari said his wife had fled an extremely unsafe situation in Iran, which was not easily proved, but had left Ms Shamsalipoor "terrified" of returning. He also believed that her marriage to him will have put her at further risk, if she was forced to return.
"I haven't been eating, I have been having some trauma at night, I couldn't sleep," he said.
"Deeply...it hurts really hard. It's like they have taken part of me out, they have taken something that was really part of me, they have taken part of me and I can't feel life. It has been eight months now, and now it is worse. I haven't been to Darwin, and even I go to Darwin, if they deport her back...do you know what will happen to her?
"Does the Australian people consider this? Do they know how ugly those governments are in Iran? They don't.
"...If she goes back to Iran, there will be something really bad happen. And then, then, I cannot survive. That is what I am saying to people. I cannot survive."
Yeronga High School teacher Ken Myers, who is also the director of Helping Hands International Australia, a refugee relief centre, said while he had seen a number of students moved previously, he had not "seen anything quite like this before".
"The whole school community is really hurting," he said.
"Our students, our teachers – teachers by nature are typically compassionate people, because that is what the profession requires, you become a teacher because you want to help somebody.
"...I understand the government believes that what they have done is appropriate, and they have worked within the laws they have written, I understand that part, but everyone I talk to, and sure, everyone may not agree with me, but everyone I have spoken to, is saying, 'where is Australia's compassion?'
"...Where is that compassion from Australia?"
Mr Myers said Ms Shamsalipoor had spent four years at the school working hard to be able to contribute to Australian society.
"She was performing, she is an arty type girl and she wants to be a midwife," he said.
"She is doing appropriate subjects to do it and she is getting As, Bs and Cs in everything she is doing to achieve it.
"She is not a straight A student, but she is a hard worker and she is succeeding in every subject.
"She wants to be a mid-wife, she wants to contribute to Australia and every indication from her teachers is she will succeed.
"So there is a person here who has the potential to contribute positively to the country – but no, we lock her up in detention."
Mr Jafari, who will have to leave his family and job to follow Mojgan to Darwin, said all he wanted was the chance for a normal, safe life.
"...I just got married. Everyone else goes on a honeymoon, everyone else is going to their new house, we have never experienced that. For 18 years, we have never had a peaceful life. I and my wife only want to live. Not to have a good job, not to have a great job. We just want to [contribute] to this country."
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-student-dragged-on-ground-sent-to-darwin-detention-centre-20150808-giuqdx.html
8.8.15
Mohammad Nassim Najafi died in detention centre in Perth
How Mohammad Nasim Najafi died in a detention centre
Two weeks after being beaten and placed in a solitary cell, asylum seeker Mohammad Nasim Najafi was dead. These were his last days.
Supplied
Mohammad Nasim Najafi.
It started with a night attack. Three weeks ago, a group of criminals broke into Mohammad Nasim Najafi’s room in the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre outside Perth, scattering his belongings and beating him......
for full story
5.8.15
Newsletter 5 August 2015 - Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts
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Guardian article " Manus Island rejected asylum seekers to be deported by PNG"
Full article at
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/02/manus-island-rejected-asylum-seekers-to-be-deported-by-papua-new-guinea
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/02/manus-island-rejected-asylum-seekers-to-be-deported-by-papua-new-guinea
People who are issued the removal notice are to remain in detention in the mean time, but are warned they “may be held in any location, including correctional institutions, while your removal is being effected”.
In a section headed “Do I have any other options?” the document states “No”.
“You do not have the option of remaining in Papua New Guinea,” it says. “You do not have the option of going to Australia. You will never go to Australia.”
Asylum seekers held on Manus Island who are successful in applying for refugee status are supposed to be resettled in PNG, under the Rudd government’s Regional Resettlement Agreement of July 2013.
According to a statement by the PNG prime minister, Peter O’Neill, just 129 detainees had been granted refugee status as of May this year. Another 400 had their refugee application rejected and had been deported.
31.7.15
Where are the boats?
There are two stories that have allowed us to pull aside the veil of secrecy around what is happening at sea with asylum seeker boats.
The boat on the way to New Zealand in June made a distress call and was found by the Australian Navy and returned to Indonesia. It was by luck only that on that return trip no one drowned.
In July a boat from Vietnam reached the West Australian coast. The Border Protection authorities did not know about the boat.
http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/asylum-seeker-boat-arrives-off-western.html
This is very significant. The story we have been told is that, as a result of Government Policy, no one has died at sea.
But if a boat does not make a distress call, the Navy does not know of its existence.
Therefore they do not know how many asylum seekers have died at sea which is the main argument for "stopping the boats".
Please email us at bellingen.rar@gmail.com with your ideas
breaking news 12 August Afghan Government wants to stem flow of forced returns from Australia
see http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au/2015_08_01_archive.html
The boat on the way to New Zealand in June made a distress call and was found by the Australian Navy and returned to Indonesia. It was by luck only that on that return trip no one drowned.
In July a boat from Vietnam reached the West Australian coast. The Border Protection authorities did not know about the boat.
http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/asylum-seeker-boat-arrives-off-western.html
This is very significant. The story we have been told is that, as a result of Government Policy, no one has died at sea.
But if a boat does not make a distress call, the Navy does not know of its existence.
Therefore they do not know how many asylum seekers have died at sea which is the main argument for "stopping the boats".
Please email us at bellingen.rar@gmail.com with your ideas
breaking news 12 August Afghan Government wants to stem flow of forced returns from Australia
see http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au/2015_08_01_archive.html
30.7.15
Asylum Seeker boat arrives off Western Australia Coast UNNOTICED
Suspected asylum seeker vessel heading for Dampier off WA's North West coast
Updated
A suspected asylum seeker boat has been spotted off Dampier in Western Australia's North West region.
A Federal Government source has confirmed to the ABC a boat was sighted and will be intercepted.
The ABC understands the boat could be carrying asylum seekers from Vietnam.
A spokesperson for oil and gas company Modec confirmed crew members on one of their tankers off Dampier sighted what appeared to be an asylum seeker boat at first light this morning.
Numbers could not be confirmed but the spokesperson said those onboard appeared to be in good health.
The ABC understands the North West-based police boat Delphinus has been deployed to search for the suspected asylum seeker boat.
The police vessel had been involved in the search for three missing fishermen and their vessel off the Dampier coast until this morning.
Police have been told the suspected asylum seeker boat was believed to be about 70 kilometres offshore.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it could not comment on the sighting.
A spokesperson for Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said the Government did not comment on operational matters.
The Greens have criticised the level of government secrecy surrounding the boat's arrival.
"There's no justification for the minister and the department to keep the Australian people and the Australian Parliament in the dark," Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"Be upfront about what has occurred here, and just have the guts to tell the Australian people what indeed is going on at our borders."
WA Premier Colin Barnett said he believed West Australian police were "looking after the situation" until a Commonwealth naval vessel arrived.
"This boat while I think it's approaching our coast is still well offshore and it's under surveillance," he said.
"So the situation is in order.
"I think the Abbott Government is doing an enormous amount and has stopped the arrival of boats."
It is almost two years to the day since an asylum seeker vessel arrived at a floating oil platform 200 kilometres off Dampier with 17 people from Vietnam on board.
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