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refugees

The way in which refugees are excluded is one of the most serious human rights issues facing non-citizens. Refugees may find themselves denied a wide range of human rights including such basic rights as freedom, the right to work, the right to education and the right to safety. Thousands of asylum seekers have lost their lives seeking to cross international borders.

Villawood Protests

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September 23, 2010
Villawood Protests

What is a “protest”? In the context of democracy we think of them as citizen action – citizens speaking to their government – expressing their dissatisfaction with a policy or state of affairs. What then are we to make of the actions of a few non-citizens protesting on the roof of the Villawood detention...
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“Crossing Over” – Harrison Ford stars as ICE Agent

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July 10, 2010
“Crossing Over” – Harrison Ford stars as ICE Agent

Crossing Over is a 2009 American independent film drama exploring the lives of illegal immigrants attempting to “cross the border” literally and metaphorically to achieve legal status in the United States.   The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter-terrorism and the clash of...
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Australia seeks to process asylum seekers in East Timor

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July 6, 2010
Australia seeks to process asylum seekers in East Timor

In a policy announcement echoing the discredited ‘Pacific solution’ of the previous Liberal Government, the new Australian government has decided to seek to detain asylum seekers in a ‘regional processing centre’ in East Timor.  The new Australian policy reflects a general hardening of policies towards asylum seekers in the lead up to national elections.  ...
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Remote Control Borders: Violating Freedom of Movement

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June 26, 2010

Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everyone has the right to leave any country.   Increasingly countries are cooperating to violate this human rights by preventing aslyum seekers and others from leaving a country to seek refuge in another country.  Some examples are: Egypt:  which prevents Africans from leaving Egypt...
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The Berlin Wall and Barack Obama

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November 12, 2009
The Berlin Wall and Barack Obama

  In recent days Germans and those affected by the Cold War are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is an anniversary worth celebrating. A chasm between the politics of the west and the communist world dissolved and people that had been kept apart for 40 years were...
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Angelina Jolie and the Refugee Warehouses

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April 24, 2009

What makes someone like Angelina Jolie take an interest in the lives of refugees?  What makes anyone take interest?   In this video Angelina visits refugees in Afghanistan.  It’s clear that there is no “foreignness” in how she relates to them.  She sees them as people who are suffering, and to whom we should respond.   
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