The Uniting Church accused the Australian Government at the inquiry of using its discretionary immigration powers inconsistently for asylum seekers of different nationalities.
The Reverend Elenie Poulos from Uniting Justice Australia - an arm of the Uniting Church - said there was a discrepancy in the way discretionary powers had been used to grant a large number of East Timorese permanent visas, while people of Sri Lankan background with similar circumstances were overlooked. The difference was the plight of the East Timorese had a high public profile, and was the subject of intense community pressure, while that of the Sri Lankans - some of whom had spent a similarly long time in Australia, and had Australian-born children - was not, Ms Poulos said. She also said the Refugee Review Tribunal carried a perception of a "lack of independence" and of being driven by a "political agenda". She said the tribunal was also "inconsistent". Ms Poulos said the tribunal seemed to be "ad hoc", with the outcome of decisions depending on "who's hearing the case". http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/21/1066631430817.html This message was sent through MyMail http://www.mymail.com.au ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
