15 Henley Rd
(PO Box 2219)
Homebush West,
NSW 2140
AUSTRALIA
Ph: (02) 8762 4200
Fx: (02) 8762 4220
Int'l Ph: +61 2 8762 4200
Int'l Fx: +61 2 8762 4220
Email: erc@erc.org.au
Located just 100 metres to the south of Flemington Railway Station. Link to new location on Google Maps
5 Abingdon St
(Postal: 84 Park Rd)
Woolloongabba,
QLD 4102
Ph 1: (07) 3103 7376
Ph 2: (02) 8090 1976
Fax: (02) 8762 4220
Staffed part-time
- please call for appt
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Description
: A group of prominent Australian individuals and institutions, reflecting a broad-ranging centre-ist perspective in the political spectrum, has signed an Open Statement on Asylum Seekers . The Open Statement emphasises the need for an alternative policy direction in Australia's treatment of asylum seekers and outlines key elements of that new direction. The Statement grew over the past month out of concern for the need within the national debate on asylum seeker policy, for alternatives to the off-shore processing positions of both major parties. 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. |
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Full Text
: 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. The release of the Statement precedes the expected resumption in Federal Parliament this week of the debate on the Government's proposed legislative amendments aimed at removing the safeguards in the Migration Act that were recently ruled by the High Court to prohibit the off-shore processing of asylum seekers in Malaysia. A spokesperson for the group called for other institutions and prominent Australians, together with the public in general, to register their support as co-signatories of the Statement by making direct contact or by visiting the websites of the signatory institutions. |
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| ERC_release_Prominent_Australians_Statement_on_Asylum_9Oct2011.pdf | 119.72 KB | 10/08/2011 | Download |
| Open_Statement_on_Asylum_Seekers_9Oct2011.pdf | 70.94 KB | 10/08/2011 | Download |
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ERC initiative the Pacific Calling Partnership promotes awareness of the devastating effects of climate change on low-lying island communities of the Pacific. The PCP campaign goes beyond both the science and the spin to make evident 'the human face of climate change'.
Update: ERC Director, Phil Glendenning, recently returned to Australia from Afghanistan after 10 days interviewing returned asylum seekers again in Kabul.
ERC is redoubling our efforts to find a third-country resettlement option for those returnees from Australia with whom we have been able to make contact. We need financial support to achieve this.
Such work uncovers high levels of risk for the deportees (and for our researchers). Research publications are available here.
Listen to Phil speak of the visit to ABC Radio National's Phillip Adams.
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