In the dead of night on July 26, a young Sudanese man, whom we will call βWalleedβ, was forcibly removed by police from a van.
Video footage shows a dozen protestors shouting βWe love youβ and βWe will not let you be forgottenβ as he is dragged into Melbourne airport. Refugee activists had surrounded the van and blocked it from entering the airport for a few hours before police moved in.
Immigration detention in Australia
A crowd of about 200 attended the Wollongong welcomes refugees rally on June 25. Held during Refugee Week, the rally and march aimed to show support for people seeking asylum in Australia, to call for the closing of all the detention centres, and to let the government know that Wollongong welcomes refugees.
In May last year Nazanin, a 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, was raped on Nauru.
It took three months and a medical emergency for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to send her to Australia for treatment.
At the time, the department said Nazanin's mother and brother would also be brought to Australia to provide critical family support.
After three years of campaigning, Tamil refugee Ranjini was suddenly released from Villawood detention centre on November 12. Even though she had been granted refugee status, Ranjini was whisked off the streets of Melbourne and locked up in 2012, due to a sudden ASIO decision to declare her a threat to national security.
Yet another refugee has been found dead while in the care of the Immigration Department thanks to Australia's harsh and punitive refugee policy.
Thirty-year-old Iranian Kurd, Fazel Chegeni, who first arrived in Australia in 2011, died after escaping from the detention centre, although how he came to be found dead remains unclear.
As of December last year, anyone who is not an Australian citizen who has spent 12 months or more in jail can be deported at the discretion of the immigration department. By September, 75 New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders were being detained on Christmas Island awaiting deportation.
Pressure from activists for super funds to divest from Transfield Services, the biggest contractor in the Australian immigration detention industry, is increasingly bearing fruit.
Carol Hucker worked on Manus Island as a counsellor for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) and as a case worker for the Salvation Army from June 2013 to July last year. This is the first of a multi-part series and covers the period June to July 2013.
Behind the Wire is an oral history project documenting the stories of men, women and children who have experienced mandatory detention. It seeks to bring a new perspective to the public understanding of mandatory detention by sharing the reality of the people who have lived it.
ΒιΆΉΣ³» Weekly photographer and Socialist Alliance member Ali Bakhtiarvandi was one of those interviewed. This is a brief excerpt of his story. You can read the full story .
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The Greek government said on April 17 that it was releasing detainees in its neglected immigration centers.
βThe people that were there, were living an indescribable barbarity,β said Greek immigration minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou. According to Christodoulopoulou, many of the detainees were illegally being held indefinitely.
Rallies calling for the closure of refugee detention centres were held across the country on March 29. The Refugee Action Committee Canberra released this statement on March 25 in the lead-up to the rally.
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Activists from Canberraβs Refugee Action Committee (RAC) took to a boat on March 25 to highlight the plight of asylum seekers and refugees.
The RAC activists held up banners advertising the upcoming Palm Sunday Rally for Refugees.
I am a political science student, two years into a bachelor degree at the University of Western Sydney. I major in Social and Cultural Analysis.
I am also an activist, I campaign day-to-day on campus and on the streets, talking to students and workers.
I am a young, unemployed, queer woman and activist from a working-class family.
I am not the typical Legislative Council candidate β but that is exactly why Iβm standing.
Through my candidacy, I seek to actively challenge the notion that the 1% represents the 99%, or that you should be forced to vote for the βlesser evilβ.
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