ERC Media: Asylum boat tragedy: End politicking & double our intake -- 19 Dec 2011

The Edmund Rice Centre director, Phil Glendenning, today expressed his deep sorrow at news of the weekend asylum boat disaster. “This event is an utter tragedy,” he said. “We offer heart-felt condolences to the families of all those who have perished.”

“First, Australia should double our annual national humanitarian migration intake - with the increase taking the form of a major program of settlement of refugees from within our own region. Such an initiative would remove the incentive for people of jumping on a boat and risking their lives.”

“Second, our politicians have got to stop playing partisan politics with this issue. The level of leadership displayed by both major political parties on this issue has been simply appalling.”

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ERC Media Release: Open Statement on Asylum Seekers -- Prominent Australians -- Sunday, 9th October 2011

A group of prominent Australian individuals and institutions, has signed an Open Statement on Asylum Seekers .

The Statement calls on the Prime-Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to abandon their separate plans for off-shore processing of asylum claims in favour of humanitarian policies similar to those enacted with bi-partisan support in the aftermath of the Vietnam War during the 1970's.

Signatories include former Prime-Minister Malcolm Fraser; eminent jurist Elizabeth Evatt; former Minister of Immigration in the Fraser Government, Ian Macphee; 2010 Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry; 2011 Senior Australian of the Year Professor Ron McCallum; child psychiatry expert Professor Louise Newman; together with other leading academics, and human rights and legal experts.

National institutional signatories of the Statement include the Refugee Council, the Council for International Development, the Catholic and Uniting Churches, and the international development agency of the National Council of Churches.

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Just Comment Vol 14 No 3: Riots - the Language of the Unheard

In the scramble to comprehend London’s August riots, almost every commentator opened with a ritual condemnation of the violence.

There was no doubt that arson, muggings and lootings are ugly occurrences. But it just seemed too easy to dismiss it all as mindless and needless, opportunistic theft and violence, ‘pure criminality’, or the work of a ‘violent minority’.

A reasonably objective view of Britain’s political landscape and the civil unrest witnessed in Britain would suggest that the responsibility lay exactly where it always has since the beginning of ‘civilisation’: the leaders responsible for the society they have helped to create.

It is no coincidence that this violence in London takes place against the backdrop of a global economy poised for free fall. John Kenneth Galbraith has set out the causes of recession: bad income distribution, a business sector engaged in ‘corporate larceny’, a weak banking structure and an import/export imbalance. With no jobs and no sense of a future – a human catastrophe was waiting to happen!

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ERC Media: “Nauru & PNG invalid”: legal opinion to ERC -- 5th Sept 2011

In response to last week's decision from the High Court, to disallow the deportation of asylum seekers to Malaysia, the Edmund Rice Centre sought expert legal opinion as to the effect of the ruling on possible deportations under Section 198A of the Migration Act to Nauru or to Papua New Guinea.

ERC Media: High Court decision an opportunity for new asylum paradigm -- 1st Sep 2011

“The High Court ruling on deportations to Malaysia, should serve as call to reflection by the major parties to forge a new policy framework – focussed on compassion, empathy and respect for the human dignity of the vulnerable,” said Edmund Rice Centre director, Phil Glendenning.  

“The Edmund Rice Centre calls on the major political parties to respect the full significance of the Court's ruling by moving away from the bipartisan commitment to 'deterrence', in favour of a new paradigm through which Australia can recognise the vulnerability of arriving asylum-seekers, and offer them a humanitarian and just response,” he said.

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Just Comment Vol 14 No 2 -- Insidious Violence - Depleted Uranium Weapons

The 2004 US assault on the small Iraqi town of Fallujah was one of the most horrific war crimes of our time. And yet today, another war continues daily in Fallujah. The populace is gripped by a stealthy killer - a slow and silent violence where the best medical advice given to young women is: ‘Do not have babies!’.

An average of three babies are born daily with severe deformities. Many are stillborn, others live a few hours, and most who survive live for only a few months because of their severe abnormalities. A new study, ‘Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,’ showed higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations than recorded among atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The prevalence of these conditions in Fallujah at levels many times higher than in nearby nations proves that a high proportion of the weaponry used in the US assault on Fallujah contained depleted uranium, a radioactive substance used in shells to increase their effectiveness. Fallujah provides us with stark evidence as to the urgent need for a treaty to ban depleted uranium weapons.

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ERC Fact-sheet: 10 Essential Facts About Asylum Seekers

Over the past 10 years, advances have only been made in improving Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, once a critical mass is achieved of people with adequate command of the facts.

To this end the Edmund Rice Centre has a strong history of investing in the process of community education on many levels. An important part of this has been the publication of factsheets such as the widely distributed series Debunking the Myths on Asylum Seekers . 

In the current stage of the ongoing national debate on asylum policy ERC has produced another important factsheet: 10 Essential Facts About Asylum Seekers .

You can assist our efforts to achieve this much needed critical mass by downloading a copy of this fact-sheet and emailing it on to family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Already we have heard from some people who have made photocopies to distribute through local churches, schools, universities and community groups.

Download page

Pacific Calling Partnership at UN Climate Summit

PCP at Cancun COP16 in Mexico Dec 2010

Click here to watch our 5min video on YouTube

Just Comment Vol 14 No 1 -- Disaster Capitalism

The concept of ‘disaster capitalism’ was conceived by extreme neoliberals at the University of Chicago dedicated to eliminating the public sphere so that business would be free and unfettered; and almost all social spending cease.

It feeds on the misery suffered by people whether in war, terrorism, natural catastrophes, poverty, trade sanctions and market crashes. Disasters are opportunities to generate huge profits and earnings.

The concept also applies in countries such as Australia where people who are asylum seekers are detained in centres, and prisoners held in prisons, run by ‘for-profit’ corporations. This new economy is outlined in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The scheme always exploits people for profits.

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ERC Media Release: Deep fears held for Malaysia deportations deal

ERC Media Release -- Sydney, Mon 9th May 2011

According to the Edmund Rice Centre, Malaysia's poor human rights record and refusal to sign the Refugee Convention, raise deep fears for the asylum-seeker deportation deal announced by the Australian Government at the weekend.

“Whilst we welcome the announcement that Australia will take more refugees, this idea of trading one group of vulnerable human beings for another group is not the way to do it.” he continued.

“The Edmund Rice Centre renews our call for disciplined bipartisanship on this issue. The human lives at risk are too important for poll-driven endless partisan point-scoring. In international terms the numbers coming to Australia are tiny. The vast majority of asylum-seekers coming to this country, arrive by plane - not by boat,” he said.

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ERC Media: Australia at asylum policy crossroads -- 23 March 2011

Proposal for 'better way' to replace mandatory detention regime

Sydney Wednesday 23rd March 2011

In the wake of a week that saw Australian Federal Police using tear gas and 'bean-bag bullets' to end asylum seeker protests on Christmas Island, Edmund Rice Centre Director, Phil Glendenning, today called for a major policy overhaul of Australia's management of asylum-seekers.

Writing in Australian Policy Online, Mr Glendenning called on the Federal Government to give serious consideration to 'the better way' long-proposed by the many in the immigration and asylum sectors.

“At some point we have finally got to discover the decency to accept that this way of detaining and punishing people has got to stop,” he writes. “We need to join with those western nations that provide community supervision of asylum seekers. It’s time for a system overhaul to bring us into line with these standards.“

Read more              Read ERC opinion editorial in Australian Policy Online

ERC Cancun Diary: latest news from ERC delegates at UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico

ERC supporters would be well aware that through the work of our Pacific Calling Partnership initiative, ERC has been able to support attendance of delegations from Australia and climate vulnerable Pacific Island communities to the 2008 Bali COP14 and 2009 Copenhagen COP15 UN Climate Change Summits.

The goal of these efforts is to raise consciousness of the human face of climate change - which should be above considerations of a scientific, political or economic nature. Our positive experiences at these earlier events have affirmed for us the value of the investment in effort, time, finances and and carbon impact. 

Therefore, thanks to the support of our donors, we again have sent a team to the UN COP16 Climate Change Summit being held in Cancun, Mexico from 29th November 2010 to 10th December 2010. Read here in the ERC Cancun Diary the day by day news, analysis and reflections of ERC's Phil Glendenning, Jill Finnane, Maria Tiimon and others attending the summit in Cancun as part of the Pacific Calling Partnership delegation.

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Please consider if you are able to make a further donation to support ERC's hands-on advocacy work for the vulnerable.

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Subscribe to our eNewsletter: ERC InTouch

ERC InTouch is published monthly with a shorter events update distributed in between each full edition.

• read the latest edition ERC InTouch: Thurs 30th Sept 2010 
• to receive ERC InTouch by email: subscribe here
  

ERC Media: People Before Politics: Asylum Bids Provoked by Horrendous Violence

“Asylum seekers do not come to Australia because they think that the government has ´softened on border protection´. Asylum seekers come to Australia because of horrendous violence and conflict in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.¨

A Well-Founded Fear -- Nationally televised documentary on Asylum Seekers

www.erc.org.au/deport/petition

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ERC Media: Asylum Seeker Documentary Provokes Overwhelming Response

Australians urgently need to encourage the Government to continue with constructive immigration reforms.

Edmund Rice Centre director, Phil Glendenning today called for Australians to make known to the Federal Government, their support for the process of reform of the Howard Government's immigration regime and it's inhuman treatment of asylum seekers.

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Add your name & details to ERC's online petition to the Minister for Immigration

ERC Submission: Violence against Women and Children

The Federal government is developing a National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and Children. Lilla: International Women's Network, initiated by the Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) has made a submission to inform the development of this National Plan.

In this submission, Lilla argues that grass-roots women's initiatives are the fundamental building blocks of any effective, sustainable and long-term effort to eliminate violence against women. Lilla urges the National Council overseeing the developement of this new National Plan to adopt as a key over-arching strategy: the empowerment of women from victims of violence to agents of social change.

The full submission can be read here.

ERC Submission: Immigration Detention

The Edmund Rice Centre has made a submission to the Federal Parliament's Inquiry into Immigration Detention. The Inquiry which was called in June by Senator Evans, the Minster for Immigration is being conducted by Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Migration.

ERC submits that:
• Australian reception of asylum seekers should embrace a continuum of measures ordinarily based on well-supported accommodation with communities which may, in extreme circumstances, include detention.
• Any decisions concerning which measure to apply in particular cases should only be applied after proper judicial review according to the principles of proportionality and necessity consonant with Human Rights Law.
• Wide community involvement and engagement with Government is the best way to fulfil Australia's commitments under the Convention.

The full submission can be read here
 

ERC Media: Urgent Need to Protect Those Deported To Danger

An Edmund Rice Centre call in the wake of tragic death in China

The tragic death of the man known as Mr Zhang who was forcibly returned to China by Australian immigration is not an isolated case.

Edmund Rice Centre Director, Phil Glendenning, said today that the latest tragedy reveals once more the serious errors in Australia’s treatment of people seeking protection.

Recently returned from a research visit to five countries monitoring rejected asylum seeker safety, Mr Glendenning said, “Australia has deported many rejected asylum seekers to situations where they are being persecuted and their lives are at risk.