In 1999, ninety-seven percent of applicants from Iraq and 93 percent of applicants from Afghanistan were recognized as genuine refugees by Australia.
Australia is a signatory to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states: “No child shall be deprived of their liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily.”
No country, other than Australia, detains unaccompanied children [...]
Buddies member, Meg Fitzsimmons worked tirelessly towards the end of last year in organising a raffle to add to the funds to help bring Malik out from Afghanistan. First prize was a beautiful hand-made quilt, crafted by the Patchwork Group of Buderim Craft Cottage. Second and third prizes were hand embroidered book covers on a [...]
Estimates of the cost per day per asylum seeker vary. DIMA estimates $104.00. Accountant Naomi Edwards, in the Sydney Morning Herald estimates costs of detention at $117 per day, with the cost of housing an average total of 3500 people per year $150 million.
Edwards estimates that allowing asylum seekers to live in the community and [...]
Offshore refugees are people who apply to enter Australia from overseas and who have usually been identified by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as people requiring permanent resettlement in a safe country.
Onshore refugees are the ones who make it to Australia – either by plane or by boat - and then apply to [...]
Refugees/ Asylum Seekers/ Migrants
Who is a refugee?
According to the United Nations Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (also called the Refugees Convention), a refugee is someone who is outside their own country and cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of their:
race
religion
nationality
membership of a particular social group or
political opinion
Who [...]
Woomera
May, 2002
Dear Barbara:
Thank you for your nice card, and nice things you’ve written to me.
My name is _____ and I am six years old, a girl from Afghanistan. I don’t like to be in the refugee camp. I am here with my parents and my brother, who is 8 years old, for 11 months.
I like [...]
Written in a letter from an Afghani doctor detained for 32 months in an Australian detention facility:
Dear Barbara,
Smile is coming out from hearts and if someone has a damage heart, how he can smile?
Dear Friend:
Your heart is damaged. If your child has a damaged limb or is sick what do you do? You do the [...]
(A letter from a father of six, after 29 months in detention in Villawood)
Dear Barbara Brewster,
Hi! Thank you for your nice and lovely letter dated 22 march 2001 I am happy to understand that Australia have many compassionate people.
I have spent 29 months in detention away from my wife and 6 children. In fact, I [...]
(A letter from Dr. X, a cardiologist in detention )
My Brave Friend, Dear Barbara. 26/9/02
Hello
How are you? (hope fine). I received your lovely letter. So I was very very glad to hear from you. thank you very much for the phone cards and photos. Your kind is unforgettable in my life.
I am very very sorry [...]
These letters were written to Buddies from within the walls of detention camps. From a father of six children separated from his family for more than two years while he searches for a safer haven for them, to a six year-old girl’s experience of the sorrow and frustration that surrounds her, these letters put a [...]