Asylum Seekers – Our December & January Theme

By Right Now
Aerial photo of Nauru

Throughout December 2012 and January 2013 Right Now will publish a number of articles around the theme of asylum seekers. This time around we’re taking a more creative turn – with the majority in December being short stories and poems.

To get you ready, here’s a bit of a retrospective …

Over the past year-and-a-half, Right Now has published a number of articles and interviews on the major developments: the signing of an agreement between Australia and Malaysia to “swap” asylum seekers in July 2011, the High Court’s freezing and ultimate invalidation of the deal on legal grounds in August 2011, attempts by the government to amend the Migration Act in September 2011 and June 2012 to resurrect the deal, and the establishment of an Expert Panel to look at the issue with “fresh eyes” following the failure of those attempts. Recently, we interviewed panel-member, Paris Aristotle, on the eventual Report.

Throughout this whole period, views on the morality of offshore processing and treatment of asylum seekers have been provided by barrister Julian Burnside AO QC, Right Now Editor-in-Chief André Dao, and legal researcher Sienna Merope.

Our final themed month in 2012 focuses on asylum seekers in the wake of the most recent development – that recommended by the Expert Panel – a return to offshore processing.

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