Fighting for justice and dignity: Interview with Behrouz Boochani
Right Now speaks to writer Behrouz Boochani about his call for a Royal Commission into Immigration Detention.
Refugees & asylum seekers
Labor’s Mandatory Sentencing Problem
Labor’s own 2023 National Platform opposes mandatory sentencing. So why is the Albanese Labor Government introducing mandatory sentencing laws now?
No refuge: Unpicking the 2021 Australian Budget
Every year, there are high hopes that the budget will usher in new policies for refugees and people seeking asylum. Unfortunately, the 2021-22 budget appears to forecast another bleak 12 months for refugees.
The African Australian Question Part I: Trying to form an identity on an anxious and isolated island
This is the first part in a two-part series on Australian identity and the African Australian Question.
Right Now’s Most Read Stories in 2020
Our three most-read stories this year encapsulate the adage ‘the personal is political,’ exploring wider issues in the world through lived experiences. Look out for these writers in 2021.
No fair go for the forgotten ‘legacy caseload’ asylum seekers
Dr. Sangeetha Pillai writes about the story of Zaki Haidari and how he got caught up in Australia’s ‘legacy caseload’ legal limbo.
Arrival
Angela Costi’s poem considers how the stories of newly arrived people can be undermined by legal definitions, how Australia’s migration law is designed to keep them in a state of ‘arrival’.
The Subtle Art of Cultural Activism: a Review of Stateless
Based on the true story of a woman wrongfully detained in offshore detention, Stateless challenges our capacity for empathy.
A Source of Shame: Australia’s Failure to Uphold the Human Rights of Refugees
Australia’s public health response to COVID-19 demonstrates a double standard that blatantly disregards refugees and asylum seekers’ fundamental right to health.
Incremental Changes
In this moment of rising authoritarianism and political theatre, Dave Clark reminds us not to lose sight of the cumulative effects of small shifts and injustices.
The Legacy of the Asylum Seeker Phone Ban
A proposed law that recently went before the Australian Federal Parliament would have given the Department of Home Affairs the power to ban access to mobile phones and other communication devices for some of the most vulnerable and isolated people in Australia: the refugees, asylum seekers and other non-citizens who are held in immigration detention.