She who stumbles

The government has announced that it will close the Nauru immigration detention centre and end the ‘Pacific solution’. 74 of the 83 asylum seekers on Nauru will be granted refugee status and full protection. The excision zone will be moved back to 2001 borders, meaning that new boat arrivals within Australian waters will be given legal protection.

However, the Christmas Island detention facility (which is currently not operational) will still be detaining refugees.

I’ve also heard that the ALP will abolish temporary protection visas (TPVs) and make substantial changes to mandatory detention arrangements, but those developments have yet to be documented. More updates as government moves!

from the Guardian Unlimited:

Australia and the United States have signed an agreement to exchange a few hundred refugees held at island detention camps in an effort by both governments to discourage future asylum seekers, Australian officials said Wednesday.

from The Age, Melbourne:

Refugee advocates have expressed outrage at a plan to swap asylum seekers intercepted en route to Australia with those detained while trying to enter the United States, describing the scheme as a “dark and murky” political fix.

Under the new refugee exchange scheme announced by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, asylum seekers detained on Nauru would be taken to the US and Cuban refugees held at Guantanamo Bay would be resettled in Australia.

While commentators and politicians debate over whether this will “deter” or “attract” more refugees (as if refugees are rats in mazes), the bigger picture — of how this is about the Australian nation-state — is being lost. As many indigenous Australians have pointed out, debates within white Australia about who’s “allowed” into the country actually have the effect of undermining indigenous sovereignty. They’re about consolidating the rule of an elite by skewing the terms of engagement over these issues into ones of paternalistic responsibility, or realpolitik.

The actual political costs and benefits to be wrung from these peoples’ lives aren’t being measured by the numerous editorials and opinions floating around. It’s not just about the upcoming election; it’s about white Australia’s entitlement to steal peoples’ sovereignty, both within the Australian territory and in the Pacific. It’s about the nation-state constituting itself as a deputy sheriff in the Pacific, getting power by tacking itself onto the USA. It’s about state power making itself more important than people.

from the Sydney Morning Herald:

At least 12 people have been killed and more are missing after a tsunami smashed through the Solomon Islands in the wake of a major earthquake today.Amid fears the toll could rapidly rise, with reports of villages being completely destroyed, witnesses spoke of the devastation and of the “strangely frightening” behaviour of the sea as it was sucked from the shoreline, exposing reefs and fish.

With memories of the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami still fresh, the Pacific, from Australia to Hawaii, went on high alert for several hours before officials cancelled the region-wide tsunami alert.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii placed the quake’s centre 350 kilometres north-west of Honiara when it struck at 7.40am local time (6.40am AEST).

The death toll rose to 15 when I checked the news this morning:

RESCUERS fear a dramatic rise in the death toll after a tsunami flattened villages, submerged islands, tossed boats as if they were corks onto roads, and left thousands missing in remote parts of the Solomon Islands yesterday.A 12-year-old girl was among the 15 confirmed dead last night. The toll is expected to rise in the coming days as reports trickle in from remote islands cut off from communications and electricity.

“The wave was up to 10 metres high in some villages,” said a spokesman for the Solomon Islands Government, Alfred Maesulia. “Some villages have been entirely washed away.”

The tsunami, generated by a huge undersea earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, created shockwaves across the Pacific, closing beaches along the east coast of Australia and stopping ferry services in Sydney, even sending a 10-centimetre wave into Port Kembla.

Amid confusion and claims of overreaction in Australia, the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, said he had been frustrated at a lack of information. “This was frightening in a sense that we were warned there could’ve been a tsunami, we were trying to work out the magnitude of it but we were shooting blind, and I don’t believe this is good enough.”

The tsunami came at 7.40am local time, an hour after the quake. Waves hit the western part of the archipelago, about 350 kilometres north-west of the capital, Honiara. The island of Choiseul and islands in Western Province were among the worst affected.

…Methinks it’s time for a blog about how the reconstruction effort is going in the wake of the 2004 tsunami, to refresh memories and to better understand the Solomons situation.