Labor and the Coalition have mostly agreed on harsh measures for refugees who flee here to escape war and persecution. Mano Yagolingam had been struggling, Chloe DS writes, largely because of being stuck in limbo for 12 years.
Tamil Solidarity
We are thrilled that Priya and Nades and their two children can return to Biloela in Queensland but we must keep the pressure on Labor.
Keeping people out of Australia under the guise of stopping “people smuggling” and “deaths at sea” is no excuse for government cruelty towards people escaping war, torture, persecution and death.
The truth is that Labor, like the Coalition, can be pressured by popular campaigns to adopt progressive policies; and we’d all be better off if Labor was forced to adopt better refugee policies.
Events over the last few weeks have revealed just how politicised Australia’s immigration policy has become.
The Radical Ideas 2015 conference organised by Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance was a three day conference of socialist ideas and activism.
Within hours of the Australian Border Force — Prime Minister Tony Abbott's paramilitary amalgamation of the Customs Service and immigration department — announcing on August 28 that they would be joining the Victorian police and privatised public transport operators in Operation Fortitude.
Media reports about a deal being struck this week between the Australian government and Cambodia to resettle refugees from Nauru have been denied by Immigration and Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison. However the government has confirmed that negotiations towards a memorandum of understanding were continuing.
The 10th national conference of Socialist Alliance is taking place at a time extreme inequality, intensified conflict and ecological crisis on a global scale. The 85 richest individuals in the world now hold as much wealth between them as the 3.5 billion poorest people in the world.
The Socialist Alliance demands that the Sri Lankan government stops the bombing, shelling and all military operations against the Tamil minority, and starts political negotiations based on the right to self-determination of the Tamils. We also demand the Australian government: