By Tania Penovic. This article is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The emergence of ‘no advantage’ as a guiding principle in Australian refugee policy is examined below with reference to recent developments in the management of asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat. On 28 June 2012, the […]
For just a few seconds, Yoga believed that she was back home in Sri Lanka but then she understood she wasn’t. Four days ago their ramshackle fishing boat ‘Kumudu Kumari’ ran out of fuel and foundered in the middle of nowhere but an Australian Customs aerial patrol had traced them and a passing merchant ship […]
By Sandra Renew. This poem is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. In the moment he decides to go he knows…. He knows that if he does not go he will be killed. He knows that when he leaves the desert and high mountains he can never go back. […]
By Susan Adams. This poem is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. We try our lives, father says in mail from his Island of Christmas to Jakarta nothing will happen otherwise. With time to wind, dreams become hope, secrets are a burden in streets. The manifest left for later. […]
By William Pitt. This poem is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The huts are falling on top of each other, all trying to find a bit of light; humanity […]
By Sonia Nair. This review is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. Sydney filmmaker Robin de Crespigny never intended to write a political book. But in a time when asylum seekers are the equivalent of a bipartisan punching bag and the terms “boat people”, “illegals” and “queue jumpers” have come to […]
From 19-22 November 2012, a team from Amnesty International, headed by Amnesty’s Refugee Policy Expert Dr Graham Thom, conducted the first independent investigation of the Australian immigration detention centre in Nauru to determine the human rights situation on the ground.
By Penny Gibson. This short story is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The apartment smelt of stale cigarette smoke when Bedar arrived. He stared around him in silence as Jerry busied himself with bags of food. “Last fella was a smoker,” he said. “You a smoker?” Bedar nodded. What had […]
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 […]
By Jess Kapuscinski Evans. I’ve been involved in the arts since I was a child, performing in teenage choirs and theatre groups just like many other kids my age. Unlike everyone else, I use a wheelchair full-time and need assistance with most tasks of so-called daily living. I have since gone on to have a […]
By James Petty. The question of human rights in relation to coercive treatment for substance use is, unsurprisingly, complicated. The concept of “addiction” exists within a complex web of legal categories, medical science, social values and cultural practices, all of which work to colour the way we view these issues. In 2010 the Victorian parliament […]
By Holly Kendall. Australia has just spent at least 24 million dollars to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Right Now investigates how Australia can use its seat to advance human rights in Australia. The Security Council was formed in 1945 under the United Nations Charter with the “primary responsibility for the […]
