melbourne indymedia

Rallies in Sydney (audio), Melbourne, Darwin and Canberra have been held to support the West Papuan Asylum Seekers and protest their movement to Christmas Island for processing, and the Howard Governments impending signing of a security treaty with Indonesia. Under the treaty Australia would recognise the territorial integrity for Indonesia over West Papua which protects the Indonesian military's ability to continue their long-standing history of human rights abuses, without criticism.

The Immigration Department (DIMIA) are being strongly criticised by asylum seeker advocates, as well as the Greens, Democrats and Socialist Alliance, for detaining the West Papuans on Christmas Island. The International Commission of Jurists as well as many other groups and organizations around Australia stated that they are genuine asylum seekers and should be released into the community on bridging visas.

Raise the Flag and Cry Merdeka
Australia West Papua Association
New Internationalist on West Papua (2002)

From the newswire
The fourth anniversary of the Tampa crisis was remembered on Friday by protests in Sydney and Melbourne. In 2001, in the lead up to an election, the Australian Government used SAS troops to board the Norwegian Container vessel, Tampa, to prevent 438 asylum seekers from landing in Australia and seeking refugee status. Many of the people became occupants of the Government's "Pacific Solution" on Manus Island and Nauru, before finally having their refugee claims assessed. [Full Story | Report and more photos ]
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No Border Network | Refugee Action Collective (Vic)

Refugee activists protested on Friday to demand a Royal Commission into abuses of power within the Department of Immigration, and the resignation of former Minister for Immigration, Phillip Ruddock and present Minister, Amanda Vanstone. The protest in Melbourne was in response to the case of Australian woman Vivian Alvarez Solon who was wrongly deported to the Philippines four years ago and "untraceable" until recently, and that of an Ahwaz Iranian asylum seeker, currently facing forcible deportation.

Maria Selga, Chairperson of the Centre for Philippine Concerns Australia - Victoria, said "The Filipino community, with a population of more than a hundred thousand, will not take this issue lightly. The experiences of the past week have encouraged us to join the many voices that clamour for changes in the Immigration system..."

A spokeperson for the Refugee Action Collective, Lauren Ireland, said "Just two days ago, Minister of Immigration, Amanda Vanstone was claiming her department was unable to locate Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez, who had been wrongly deported to her country of birth, the Phillipines, four years ago. She was soon found and identified in the very same place she had been dumped and was being cared for in a hospice for the dying, run by an Australian priest. Alvarez was stripped of her human rights and then simply forgotten about." [Report and Photos of protest]

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Immigration Minister censured by the Senate Family want Great Grandmother out of Detention Alive Not Dead

[Nauruwire | Refugee Action Collective | Project Safecom