Category: asylum seekers

Australia’s flawed human rights record

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There’s not too much coincidence about the timing of China’s social media campaign, accusing Australia of human rights abuses. The photo-shopped meme which has outraged all sides of the Australian government targets alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. Timely, given that next Thursday (the 10th), is International Human Rights Day. China, of course, is campaigning from a blood-stained corner, its long record of human rights abuses and accusations thereof, lurking in the shadows. I mention the…

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Asylum seekers and the seven-year itch

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If Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton ever had a lapse in judgement, it would be thinking that asylum seekers and their supporters have given up. Over a seven-year span, Mr Dutton and his predecessors have exposed asylum seekers to a punitive system (which is outside the UN Convention on Refugees). As you may hear this weekend, Sunday marks seven years of detention for those who were sent to centres on Manus Island and Nauru. At…

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