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All in this together? The pandemic, people seeking asylum, and refugees in Australia. Kaldor Centre online panel discussion.

Will you stand with Labor against racism?

April Newsletter – Demand COVID-19 safe accommodation for refugees

Labor for Refugees strongly supports the position of a number of organisations regarding the urgent need to release immigration detainees in line with recommendations of peak medical bodies and human rights lawyers advising the federal government on their response to COVID-19. In particular, Labor for Refugees endorses the statement made by Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow who has declared that these detainees should be put into community detention where it is safe to do so.  He said that putting people in community detention would enable these people to practise social distancing, as we are all urged to do, and that this must be done as soon as possible.

Commissioner Santow’s position aligns with the joint position of the World Health Organization (WHO), UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration (OIM) and UN Commissioner for Human Rights.

The link to Commissioner Santow’s SBS interview, where he clearly sets out his position on this issue and the reasons for it, follows

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/human-rights-commissioner-calls-for-immigration-detainees-release-over-coronavirus-infection-fears

The Asylum Seekers Centre needs your support.

Our March meeting brought forward to Thursday 19 March 2020.

First Meeting for 2020

Operation #NotForgotten is an initiative involving sponsorship to Canada for those refugees who cannot go to America to restart their lives. Please read about this initiative HERE and if you can support it with a donation, or by circulating the information, please do.

Judith Betts, 2019, ‘Malcolm Fraser’s real mistake’, Inside Story, 12 April 2019. https://insidestory.org.au/malcolm-frasers-real-mistake/

Judith Betts and Mehal Krayem, 2019. ‘Strategic Othering: Framing Lebanese Migration and Fraser’s ‘mistake”, Australian Journal of Politics and History: Volume 65, Number 1, 2019, pp.100–114.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.12538

Judith Betts and Claire Higgins, ‘The Sri Lankan Civil War and Australia’s Migration Policy Response: a historical case study with contemporary implications’ (2017) 4(2) Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies 272,  

https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/sri-lankan-civil-war-and-australias-migration-policy-response-historical-case-study