Category: Refugees

The Future for Refugees in Rural Australia

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Australians who support asylum seekers and refugees have been optimistic of improved policy since the Labor Party won the Federal election on May 24. As you can see by the above chart, there is daylight between the tough policies of the former government and the more compassionate policies of Labor and The Greens. While we wait for clearer direction from the new government, Australians who care about refugees ramped up their efforts for Refugee Week…

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Ukraine, refugees and compassion fatigue

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People who feel moved to support refugees in their time of need are prone to a syndrome known as ‘compassion fatigue’. This post-traumatic-stress type condition sets in as events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfold. Compassion fatigue is just that – an overwhelming sense of hopelessness as yet another refugee crisis occurs with few answers in sight. It’s not much of a comparison, but consider Queenslanders told to evacuate their homes on Sunday due to…

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Christmas in Afghanistan

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A few days before Christmas, the US announced it was easing aid sanctions against the Taliban, rag-tag rulers of Afghanistan. The hard-line Muslims insurgents over-ran the capital, Kabul, in August. Thousands of citizens were evacuated from Kabul Airport, with tens of thousands left behind. Since then, Afghans have been forced into starvation by a combination of famine and US aid sanctions. The US has been trying to use aid sanctions as a lever to force…

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Down the rabbit hole, looking for trouble

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The phrase ‘going down the rabbit hole’ could well apply to my activities earlier this week, as I set out to research ‘alternative’ social media networks including those adopted by the right wing. Before I disappeared down the burrow, I had some idea what I would encounter, having last year researched 4Chan and 8Chan. My research was thwarted right at the start by Amazon’s reported move to ban Parler from its web-hosting network. Apple and…

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