refugee rights

In recent months, allegations of abuse, ill treatment and mismanagement, as well as hunger strikes, suicide attempts and breakouts have all served to reveal the cracks in Australia's harsh and disciplinary system of detaining asylum-seekers.
Our system is in crisis. Urgently, we must find a reasonable and safe solution to the treatment of asylum seekers who arrive on our shores. For many people fleeing torture or death, it is impossible to obtain the necessary travel documents. It can be too dangerous for them, there may be no office at which to apply, or they may be unaware that they need to seek permission to flee for their lives.

When asylum seekers who are unable to safely obtain travel documents arrive in Australia, such as the 14 Afghanistan refugees that were picked up by the Tampa, (Under obligations of the 'Law of the Sea') the Tampa rescued a boatload of people in international waters. Under humanitarian law the Tampa must be allowed to drop off those people who were resc...