Niko Leka
Green Left Weekly
27 February, 2010
An asylum seeker accused of rioting in the Christmas Island detention centre on November 21 recently contacted a refugee advocate about living conditions inside. The refugee advocate asked Green Left Weekly to withhold both their names.
At the trial of the accused rioters on January 20, the magistrate did not issue [...]
Insights News
March 2 , 2010
The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, the Rev. Alistair Macrae, and Anglican Archbishop of Perth, the Most Rev. Roger Herft, have voiced concerns for the wellbeing of asylum seekers on Christmas Island following a recent visit. A delegation of church leaders visited Christmas Island at the end of February [...]
Our asylum seeker numbers are also in line with global trends. UNHCR has reported a 12% increase in global asylum seeker numbers worldwide from 2007 to 2008, partly due to ongoing conflicts in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sri Lanka.
And other developed countries have received far greater numbers of asylum seekers than Australia. For example, in 2008 the US received [...]
Christmas Island is no place to detain children From Amnesty International, 19 June 2009
This morning, dozens of children - under the watchful eye of the Australian Government - were escorted to school by guards. This evening the children will return to a fenced facility on a remote island and do their homework in demountable buildings, [...]
Reform of detention debt regime under threat - please write letters From AJA (A Just Australia) June Newsletter, 2009
Many of you will know that Australia is the only country in the world that charges asylum seekers for the cost of their detention (even if they are proven to be refugees) which is a contravention of [...]