New at the Project SafeCom Shop: Frank Brennan's Tampering with Asylum, A Universal Humanitarian Problem
From the hand of Fr Frank Brennan, the Director of the Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre in Sydney comes the comparative study on asylum seeker policies 'Tampering with Asylum'. Published by the University of Queensland Press, it is what we have come to expect from Fr Brennan: a well-resourced and cogent argument in a look at Australia's asylum seeker policies - against the backdrop of how Europe manages both its borders and its asylum seekers. Full details of the publication: http://www.safecom.org/tampering.htm In October last year, Father Frank Brennan shared with a Tasmanian audience - during the Anglicare Tasmania Social Justice Lecture titled "Tampering with Asylum" that he had just "...circumnavigated the globe [....] looking at the treatment of asylum seekers in the United States and Europe." From that lecture: "In those parts of the world there are huge caseloads of persons seeking asylum onshore and each country has porous borders requiring sensitive international cooperation. Whether it be in Washington, London, Brussels or Berlin, asylum seekers and those wrestling with striking the right balance between border protection and asylum have all heard of Tampa and Woomera." "Even in the jail outside Berlin where persons are held in detention awaiting deportation, the young man who had been there one year had seen the Woomera protests on television and was sickened by the inhumane realisation that children are regularly held in detention in Australia." "One of the aspects of globalisation is that money and people are more mobile. Australia may be the end of the earth, but it is no longer inaccessible. Unauthorised movement from the third world to the first world, from insecurity to security, from persecution to protection is to be expected." More at: http://www.safecom.org/brennan2.htm Launched around Australia Last week Fr Frank Brennan, Director of the Uniya Jesuit Refugee Service in Kings Cross, spoke at his initial launch of his new book "Tampering with Asylum" at the Canberra Press club. This week and next week local State launches will take place around Australia of his "Comparative Study of Australia's Response to the First World Challenge of Protecting Asylum Seekers and National Borders". We have secured an early agreement with the publishers to stock the book for our supporters - in time for our Christmas orders. PUBLICATION DETAILS: OUR PRICE: $29.95 Title: Tampering with Asylum, A Universal Humanitarian Problem Author: Fr Frank Brennan Publisher: University of Queensland Press Format: Paperback Dimensions: 227 x 152 x 17 Number of Pages: 230 Publication Date: 6 November 2003 To order, go here: http://www.safecom.org/tampering-order.htm A Christmas present? Want it wrapped for Christmas? We'll do that at Project SafeCom with ALL our orders - provided you ask us in the comment box - for any order between now and Christmas! See our shop for more details: http://www.safecom.org/products.htm From Uniya's Media Release "With the Howard Government's revelation that 90% of the unauthorised boat arrivals in recent years have been proved to be refugees, it is timely to reassess the harsh measures instituted to process these people who were labelled as unlawful queue jumpers. Father Frank Brennan, Jesuit lawyer and human rights advocate, does so in his new book, Tampering with Asylum: A Universal Humanitarian Problem. The book compares Australia's dramatic over-reaction in closing its national borders to the Tampa's human cargo with the response of the United States and Europe, and offers a practical blueprint for countries wanting to humanely protect asylum seekers." "It is no surprise that Willie Virgile Brigitte, the Al Qaeda operative, came by plane with a tourist visa. He was never eligible for upstream disruption or mandatory detention. No terrorist has come by boat with wife and children and without a visa. Now is the time to scrutinise government's rationale for treating boat people in such a discriminatory way, in the name of national security." "Tampering with Asylum is a primer for more informed public discussion about the morality of Australia's asylum policy. It moves beyond the point scoring of political parties." "In the past Prime Minister Howard has boasted that Australia was a warm-hearted, decent international citizen. By comparing Australia's policy with the US, UK and Europe, the reader can appreciate the shortcomings in Australia's approach. Now that the boats have stopped coming it is time to put the 2001 election campaign tactics behind us and work towards more rational, cost-effective and fair ways of treating those groups who are most likely to be refugees, while maintaining the integrity of our borders." This book shows that both these objectives can be achieved by politicians of good will. Frank Brennan regularly visits detention centres in Woomera, Port Hedland and Baxter. After visiting Baxter last week, he said that the situation was getting 'more desperate'. Father Brennan has just returned from a study tour which took him to meetings with UN and international NGO refugee officials in Europe and North America. In Geneva, he attended the Executive Meeting of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some more quotes Below, some more quotes from Frank Brennan's 2002 lecture: The sovereignty of the nation state is morally justifiable only if the nation state discharges its primary obligation to protect the human rights and uphold the dignity of its citizens. This defect [of regarding asylum seekers as queue jumpers] is the equivalent of not having a parking permit when you have entered the carpark while fleeing a forest fire. To equate bona fide asylum seekers with queue jumpers is to equate the bona fide forest fire victim with the carpark cheat who simply wants to avoid the permit fee while jumping the queue. "....it is essential that political leaders respond responsibly to people's fears rather than feeding those fears and that they resolve people's fears with policies which are faithful to the values of the people and to the integrity of the social institutions. Because of the electoral fervour and the talkback radio lather about the issue, we Australians have not taken sufficient stock of the damage and cost being inflicted by the present policy." Yours Sincerely Project SafeCom Inc. P.O. Box 364 Narrogin WA 6312 Phone 041 70 90 130 web: http://www.safecom.org/refugees.htm . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
