On Sunday, thirty-six refugees exiled to Nauru by Australia flew to the USA to be resettled. They are Afghan, Pakistani, Rohingyan and Sri Lankan. The group did not include refugees from Iran or Somalia or any of the Muslim majority countries banned from the US, which account for about half of all refugees on Papua New Read more
The recent drowning of hundreds of illegal migrants off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa has caused a stir, as spectacles tend to. But, really, this is no more than a freak occurrence. Like mass shootings in America or child abductions by strangers, it is a statistically insignificant event attached to an emotive story. Freak Read more
Pressure is growing on Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott to put politics aside and sort out the border protection mess. On Thursday The Australian reported Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has been given the authority to put the Nauru detention centre on the table in talks with the Opposition aimed at ending the stand-off over offshore Read more
The following is from the text of Fr Frank Brennan SJ’s speech ‘Principles for a Coherent Refugee and Migration Policy’, presented to the Society of Independent Scholars, National Library of Australia, 3 November 2011. In 2009, I was privileged to chair the National Human Rights Consultation Committee. During that inquiry we commissioned some very detailed research Read more