Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) or RAC, are a grassroots group of activists concerned with refugee rights operating in Melbourne, Australia. RAC has organised around issues they deem inhumane by the Australian Government in relation to asylum seekers, such as organising protests and vigils [1] [2] [3] as well as being involved in more militant action such as breaking out and hiding detainees. [4]
RAC was set up in late 2000 by a range of activists in response to the former Howard Government's policies toward the mandatory detention of refugees and the issuing of temporary protection visas which they branded as racist. [5] RAC activists were involved in breaking out detainees from the Woomera Detention Centre in 2002, [4] protesting outside the Baxter Detention Centre in 2005 [1] and protests against the Tampa incident of 2001, where 438 asylum seekers were denied entry into Australia by the government. [6] [7]
By 2009, RAC began focusing their attention on the Rudd-Gillard Government's position on Tamil asylum seekers. [8] In 2010, RAC were amongst a coalition of groups calling on the government to "end the freeze on asylum seeker claims" and opposing what they call "another Tampa election". The move followed the government's decision to freeze processing of all claims by asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and the re-opening of the Curtin Detention Centre. [9] RAC also protested outside the Maribyrnong Detention Centre in 2010 after a Tamil detainee went on hunger strike after his refugee claim had been accepted but still awaits security clearance from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. [10]
Socialist Alternative (SA) is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia. As a revolutionary socialist group, it describes itself as aiming to organise collective struggles against oppression and inequality, while promoting the need for a revolutionary movement that could one day overthrow capitalism. Its members have been involved in organising numerous protest campaigns around issues such as LGBT rights, climate change, racism and refugee rights. The organisation also intervenes into the trade union and student union movements. It has branches and student clubs in most major Australian cities, and publishes the fortnightly newspaper Red Flag.
The Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (IRPC) was an Australian immigration detention facility near the village of Woomera in South Australia. It was opened in November 1999 in response to an increase in unauthorised arrivals, which had exceeded the capacity of other detention facilities. It was originally intended to hold 400 people, however at its peak in April 2000 it had nearly 1,500 detainees. After ongoing public pressure in response to several well publicised riots from 2000, accusations of human rights abuses, and capacity issues, the centre closed in April 2003.
The Pacific Solution is the name given to the Government of Australia policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially implemented from 2001 to 2007, it had bipartisan support from the Coalition and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies: thousands of islands were excised from Australia's migration zone or Australian territory, the Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to intercept vessels carrying asylum seekers and the asylum seekers were removed to detention centres in Nauru and on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, while their refugee status was determined. A number of pieces of legislation enabled this policy. The policy was developed by the Howard Government in response to the Tampa affair in August 2001 and the Children Overboard affair, and was implemented by then Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on 28 September before the 2001 federal election of 24 November.
Australian immigration detention facilities comprise a number of different facilities throughout Australia. They are currently used to detain people who are under Australia's policy of mandatory immigration detention. Asylum seekers detected in boats in Australian waters have been detained in facilities on the offshore islands of Nauru and Manus Island, previously under the now defunct Pacific Solution and under Operation Sovereign Borders.
Villawood Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) is an Australian immigration detention facility located in the suburb of Villawood in Sydney, Australia.
The Nauru Regional Processing Centre was an offshore Australian immigration detention facility in use from 2001 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2019, located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru and run by the Government of Nauru. The use of immigration detention facilities is part of a policy of mandatory detention in Australia.
The following lists events that happened during 2001 in Australia.
Baxter Immigration Reception and Processing Centre or commonly just Baxter Detention Centre, was an Australian immigration detention facility near the town of Port Augusta in South Australia. It was the focus of much of the controversy concerning the mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Australia.
Escape from Woomera is an unfinished point-and-click adventure video game, intended to criticise the treatment of mandatorily detained asylum seekers in Australia as well as the Australian government's attempt to impose a media blackout on the detention centres. In the game, the player assumes the role of Mustafa, an Iranian asylum seeker being held at Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. Mustafa's request for asylum has been denied, and, fearing that he will be killed by the Iranian government upon his repatriation to Iran, he decides to attempt to escape Woomera. Mustafa must explore Woomera and speak with other individuals at the centre to devise and execute an escape plan.
Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) was a private Australian company that existed from 1991 to 2003 and was owned by American company Wackenhut.
Azlan McLennan is a visual artist and socialist activist based in Melbourne, Australia. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. His art is known for its political content and has been the subject of considerable debate and media attention in Australia.
Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre is a detention centre for foreign nationals prior to their deportation from the United Kingdom, one of 10 such centres currently in the UK. It is located near Milton Ernest in Bedfordshire, England, and is operated by Serco, which describes the place as "a fully contained residential centre housing adult women and adult family groups awaiting immigration clearance." Its population is, and has been, overwhelmingly female.
George Newhouse is an Australian human rights lawyer and a former local councillor. He is the principal solicitor of the National Justice Project, a human rights and social justice legal service, and currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at Macquarie University.
The Australian government has a policy and practice of detaining in immigration detention facilities non-citizens not holding a valid visa, suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorised arrival, and those subject to deportation and removal in immigration detention until a decision is made by the immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of origin/passport. Persons in immigration detention may at any time opt to voluntarily leave Australia for their country of origin, or they may be deported or given a bridging or temporary visa.
Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre or commonly just Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, is an Australian immigration detention facility located on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The centre closed in 2018.
Curtin Immigration Detention Centre is an Australian immigration detention facility in the Kimberley in Western Australia at 17°36'14.58"S 123°49'14.28"E. Curtin was described by former Immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, as the country's "most primitive" processing centre. It was shut down by the Howard Government following a riot in 2002 but was re-opened in 2010 by its successor - the Rudd-Gillard Government. Being run by Serco Asia Pacific who also run Villawood and other detention centres in Australia. The controversial move has been seen by commentators as a reversal by the Australian Labor Party of its policy towards detention.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) is an asylum seeker support organisation in Australia. The ASRC, based in Footscray, provides aid, justice and empowerment programs to over 1000 asylum seekers living in the community seeking refugee protection.
Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, with government policy and public opinion changing over the years.
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The Centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea.
Kokilapathmapriya Nadesalingam (Priya) and Nadesalingam Murugappan (Nades) are two Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum in Australia. The couple married in Australia and have two Australian-born children. Until their detention by Australian Border Force in March 2018, the family was resident in the central Queensland town of Biloela, and consequently referred to as the Biloela family by some media. The cause of the couple and their children has been supported by some residents of Biloela as well as asylum-seeker advocates.