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!

There’s a sketchy article about it in an IndyMedia Melbourne article (found through slackbastard.

That’s all I could find out about this, and insultadarity links to the same information.

According to @ndy of slackbastard it’s a troll/hoax. I can’t find anything else to support the story that it was neo-Nazis who perpetrated this.

The reason I believed it was:
This isn’t the first time Sudanese refugees have been targeted. At about this time last year, a Sudanese family’s home was fire-bombed in Toowomba, Queensland, and Macquarie University Law professor Andrew Fraser was helping neo-Nazis by spouting racist hate-speech against Sudanese people.

Ugh.

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.

tionFrom the Sydney Morning Herald:

Ban HIV-positive migrants: PM

HIV-positive people should be denied entry to Australia as migrants or refugees, Prime Minister John Howard says.While saying he would like “more counsel” on the issue, Mr Howard said HIV positive people should not be allowed to migrate to Australia.

“My initial reaction is no (they should not be allowed in),” he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

“There may be some humanitarian considerations that could temper that in certain cases but prima facie - no.”

More coverage:

• BBC on how the restrictions compare to those around the world,
• and AIDS organisations say the figures for HIV-positive immigrants are misleading.

Given that HIV infection is spreading fastest in the third world, isn’t this just another way for the first world to keep out people of colour?

I’ve been lax with my blogging over the past few days because Real Life intervened. I wrote about 3000 words of thesis in 2 days and then family from India came to town.

I’ve been busy busy busy busy and no signs of life slowing down are emerging.

Wiradjuri campaigners at Lake Cowal have also been busy. Along with a Corroboree to celebrate Easter, campaigners are occupying the offices of Barrick Gold to protest the illegal and dangerous gold mine on Wiradjuri lands.

There are also refugees in Villawood immigration detention centre on a hunger strike to protest against a new wave of deportations.

About 60 prisoners at one of Australia’s notorious immigration detention centres launched a hunger strike on March 28 to protest against a new wave of refugee deportations

In the face of massive, life-threatening issues like deportation and cyanide poisoning of indigenous waters, I feel a bit intimidated in expressing the doubts and difficulties of trying to start up an anti-racism collective at my university.
But we have to start somewhere. Hopefully we can start tackling issues around the Block once we kick things off.

I have to organise a reading group to get it all started, but I’m not sure what’s a good starting point. If anyone has any suggestions for a reading (preferably a self-contained chapter from a book, or an article, bonus if it’s available as a PDF), I’d really appreciate it. I want to discuss anti-racist activism broadly, as well as delve into the political/psychic/ontological/material/historical/social dimensions of race.