Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers Archives - Refugee Advocacy Network

HIGH COURT DECISION OPENS POSSIBILITY OF DEPORTATIONS TO DANGER

September 12, 2012

A High Court decision this morning (7 September) has dismissed an application of behalf of five asylum seekers seeking to extend judicial review to discretionary Ministerial decisions. In a similar application (M61) in 2010, the High Court found that asylum seekers were entitled to judicial review of appeal decisions. The High Court judgement means that there is now no legal impediment to the government moving to deport a large number of asylum seekers. Around 180 asylum seekers were attached to…

Migration Act stripped of human rights protections

August 20, 2012

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News

President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, has welcomed the efforts of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers to respond to the tragic loss of life at sea. Professor Triggs said the practical recommendations for a regional cooperation and protection framework, and significant increases in resettlement places in Australia for refugees, will contribute to reducing the risk of further maritime disasters. She has urged the government to implement these recommendations as soon as possible. “I am concerned…

Houston Committee Report on Asylum Seekers Disappoints

August 16, 2012

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Archived Press Releases

The Uniting Church in Australia has expressed its disappointment in the recommendations of the Houston Committee and called for a new beginning in the national debate on asylum seekers. “Today’s Expert Panel report is another fork in the road in this vexed debate,” said Rev. Elenie Poulos, National Director of the Uniting Church’s justice unit, UnitingJustice Australia. “As a representative of a Church that has long advocated for a more compassionate treatment of asylum seekers, we cannot welcome the re-introduction…

Labor for Refugees condemns “Expert Panel’s” targeting of families of boat people for punishment.

August 16, 2012

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Archived Press Releases

Labor for Refugees is deeply disappointed that the Prime Minister’s “Expert Panel” has continued to buy the falsehood that refugees are queue jumpers. That misguided and mischievous lie permeates all aspects of the report. The ‘Expert’ Panel says “those who continue to choose irregular maritime voyages to Australia to claim asylum should not be advantaged for doing so over those who pursue regular mechanism”. No real expert in the field of refugees could seriously believe that there is any “regular mechanism” for…

Protection sidelined in rush to implement deterrence

August 16, 2012

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Archived Press Releases

The Australian Government’s interest in the refugee protection measures recommended by the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers has not matched its haste to implement the Panel’s recommendations on deterrence, the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) says. RCOA CEO Paul Power said that the political debate and the activity within the Parliament since Monday’s release of the Expert Panel report had focused almost exclusively on just three of the Expert Panel’s 22 recommendations – those related to re-establishing forced transfers of asylum seekers to Nauru and Manus…