Links

Many more useful links, both within Australia and overseas, will be found on the sites listed below, especially the interstate refugee action groups' sites.

Australia

Activist groups
RAC Canberra
"The Refugee Action Committee is a network of concerned citizens around Australia seeking the fair and humane treatment of refugees in Australia. The Action Committee is not associated with any political party and is composed of individuals from a broad range of backgrounds."
Refugee Action Collective - NSW
Part of a larger site devoted to refugee issues - very strong on graphics.
Refugee Rights Action Network(RRAN)-Perth
The Refugee Rights Action Network is a network committed to addressing and preventing violations of the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia Site includes daily news stories and many useful links.
No One is Illegal
"No One Is Illegal is a Melbourne based collective acting to question borders in all their forms. We want to find answers to questions like: why are there borders? Do we need nations? Is a global community possible? How can we remove the barriers between us?
"Our present focus is on the treatment of people who arrive in Australia without papers."
This site is still under construction, but see also: Woomera 2002 - plans for a Festival of Freedom - an Auto-Nomadic Caravan -next Easter.
Asylum seeker resource centre - Footscray
Provides material support and services free of charge to refugees. Donations and volunteers always welcome - phone (03)9689 5075
Other organisations and media:
PARIAH - People Against Racism in Aboriginal Homelands
PARIAH "was established in 1998 to combat the racism and the inevitable corruption it creates under the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory of Australia".
Shame 2000 - Refugees(The Unolympics)
"Shame 2000 was developed by Unolympics.com, a small group of professionals working in digital media, communications and politics. We believe that to counteract the sanitised hype of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the world needs an independent source of information on the some of the issues that Australians can�t feel so proud about � like our current polices on indigenous affairs, human rights, the environment and foreign policy.
"Our Philosophy? That 'the Howard Government�s mean spirited policies contradict the ideals of the Olympic movement.'"
Site has not been updated recently but still worth a visit.
we are all boatpeople
"The Boat People Tactical Media Group(BPTMG) formed recently during the TILT conference presented by dLux Media Arts. We are a group of concerned Australians who are appalled at our Government's treatment of refugees.
"We invite you to join us, as many have already, and encourage you to take our Tactical Media Kits and build your own resistance group. Get involved, spread the message that we are all Boat People after all. Send your voice out loud and strong to all Australians and to the world that not everyone agrees with the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers in this country."
Sydney Opera House becomes an activist billboard! Media activists offer hints, links, and kits.
Australian Services Union refugee website
Campaign site maintained by Australian Services Union Central and Southern Queensland Clerical and Administrative Branch.
Refugee Council of Australia
"The Refugee Council of Australia is a non-profit peak organisation. It provides information on and advocacy for refugees and humanitarian entrants in Australia on behalf of its 120 individual and organisational members. It is not a part of the Australian Government."
Particularly strong source of statistics. Hosts an international events calendar and publishes a newsletter.
Scattered People [Brisbane]
"As a visitor to this web site you may find these stories of refugee claimants and their response to seeking asylum in Australia confronting. The stories of refugee claimants are not necessarily happy ones because their journey has not ended despite their arrival in a safe country. They exist in a continuing state of flux until they receive a determination on their case. Many are not granted refugee status and their journey continues on as they are either forcibly returned to their home country or seek asylum elsewhere, while those who are granted asylum begin the long painful process of trying to forget their past and settle into a new country and culture."
Refugee Claimant Support Centre
"Established [in Brisbane]in 1995 with a grant from the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the Refugee Claimants Support Centre provides critical support to refugee claimants (or,asylum seekers) in the often extended period before their applications for protection are finally determined by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs."
Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission
Good source of briefing papers and reports.
The Fairwear site
"The Fair Wear campaign is a coalition of Churches, Community organizations and Unions.
"The Fair Wear Campaign addresses the gross exploitation of workers who make clothing at home in our Australian community. It is an effective way for consumers to respond to this injustice in our own country." The structure of RAC-Vic was initially modelled on the Fairwear campaign.
Illegal Immigrant Information Site
Set up by graduating journalism students at University of Quennsland: "This site is primarily a resource tool for journalists. It includes policy definitions, historical events, individual case studies, links to other useful sites and a feedback page for your comments."
Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network - Migration and Mental Health
Link to important research paper:Retraumatisation of Asylum Seekers by Derrick Silove, Philippa McIntosh & Rise Becker.
"The number of victims of social chaos and organised violence has increased exponentially in the last ten years, with many millions of people being displaced from their homes and countries. Australia has a well-established reputation of showing compassion to people fleeing persecution and social chaos, with this country settling more refugees proportional to its population in the last few decades than any country other than Israel (Murray, 1990). However, the last two years have seen important changes in Australia's policy towards asylum-seekers, the consequences of which have [led] to growing concerns amongst legal, mental health, welfare and human rights groups concerned with the plight of this vulnerable group."
Amnesty (AU)
Amnesty has repeatedly condemned the Australian government's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
The Socialist Alliance
"Socialist Alliance is a new alternative for working-class people and a way to unite the left against racism, economic rationalism and the destruction of the environment.
"Free the refugees, close the camps, end mandatory detention."
Green Left Weekly
"...launched in 1990 by the Democratic Socialist Party, the socialist youth group Resistance and other progressive activists to present the views excluded by the big business media, is now Australia's leading source of local, national and international news, analysis, and discussion and debate to strengthen the anti-capitalist movements."
Socialist Worker
Weekly paper of the International Socialist Organisation in Australia - has consistently taken a pro-refugee stance. Frequent excellent articles.
Melbourne's S11 site
Major forum for anti-war, anti-racism, pro-refugee groups ... links galore, archived material.
Melbourne Indymedia
Frequently has the first if not only reports of rallies and other events - links to other alternative sites with coverage not found in the mainstream media... Also hosts an Event Calendar.
Ethnic News Digest
"This news digest contains news items of particular interest to the ethnic communities of Australia. News bulletins are added in English every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. Translations will be available on the following day. "
"ABOUT THE NEMBC: The National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters' Council (NEMBC) is the peak organisation representing ethnic community broadcasters across Australia. The NEMBC is committed to the further development of the sector both in terms of quality of broadcasting and the quantity and spread of ethnic community broadcasting."
The Age - Immigration
Major archive as well as current stories and comment.
Tampa archive at Sydney Morning Herald
Records the progress of the whole sorry affair.
ABC online.
Probably the best mainstream source of up-to-date news.
SKA-TV
Access news - The independent news channel

Overseas sites

Activist groups
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (UK)
UK site valuable for resources, newsletters, links - maintains contact with RAC.
Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers (UK)
UK campaign news, links. Hosts a discussion forum
Barbed Wire Britain
"The Barbed Wire Britain Network to End Refugee and Migrant Detention... links active campaigns against detention at Campsfield (Oxford), Harmondworth (west London), Oakington (Cambridge), Yarl's Wood (Bedford), and Haslar (Portsmouth). The network aims to help build campaigns and organise demonstrations over the next few months at all the 18 main detention centres and prisons."
Campaign to Close Campsfield
"Campsfield is an abomination to human rights in that it presumes guilt from the outset. Today those loyal protesters who have been branded as cranks and soft-centred do-gooders have been proved right." From the Oxford Mail, 17/4/98
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
"ECRE is an umbrella organisation of 72 refugee-assisting agencies in 28 countries working towards fair and humane policies for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees."
UNITED for Intercultural Action
European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees. Has sent messages of support to RAC.
Internet Centre Anti-Racism Europe
"This is more than just a website. This is your portal to Anti Racism on Internet. It includes:.
Deportation Alliance
Site devoted to mobilising against the machinery of deportation - especially airlines engaged in the "trade".
No Border - No Nation
"PublixTheatreCaravan: Noborder, Nonation, Noprison!
"Freedom of movement will be the very big topic in this century. Crossing borders should not only be a slogan, and since art knows no borders, it is the perfect vehicle for the journey into public space. "
Asylum-seeker portal site in UK
This major resource is run from the Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. "The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) is part of the University of Oxford's International Development Centre at Queen Elizabeth House. Its objectives are to carry out multidisciplinary research and teaching on the causes and consequences of forced migration; to disseminate the results of that research to policy makers and practitioners, as well as within the academic community; and to understand the experience of forced migration from the point of view of the affected populations."
US Committee for Refugees
"Refugees are people who have lost everything: their homes, their belongings, their freedom, and their loved ones. Often, all that they have left are their inherent rights as human beings. Since 1958, the U.S. Committee for Refugees has identified those at greatest risk and given them a voice. Our work helps refugees get the protection and assistance they need to survive."
This site has reports on refugees in different parts of the world, including Australia, as well as multimedia resources and reports of its own fact-finding missions, and is a major source of carefully researched and well presented statistics.
Other organisations and media:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
"UNHCR was established on December 14, 1950 by the U.N. General assembly and began its work on January 1, the following year. The agency helps the world's uprooted peoples by providing them with basic necessities such as shelter, food, water and medicine in emergencies and seeking long term solutions, including voluntary return to their homes or beginning afresh in new countries. In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 5,000 people in more than 120 countries continues to help an estimated 22 million people." Probably the single most important reference point, constantly updated and difficult for governments to ignore.
Human Rights Watch
"How countries treat those who have been forced to flee persecution and human rights abuse elsewhere is a litmus test of their commitment to defending human rights and upholding humanitarian values. Yet, fifty years after its inception, the states that first established a formal refugee protection system are abandoning this principle, and the future of the international refugee regime is under serious threat."
"Human Rights Watch is the largest human rights organization based in the United States. Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world. Human Rights Watch then publishes those findings in dozens of books and reports every year, generating extensive coverage in local and international media. This publicity helps to embarrass abusive governments in the eyes of their citizens and the world. Human Rights Watch then meets with government officials to urge changes in policy and practice -- at the United Nations, the European Union, in Washington and in capitals around the world. In extreme circumstances, Human Rights Watch presses for the withdrawal of military and economic support from governments that egregiously violate the rights of their people. In moments of crisis, Human Rights Watch provides up-to-the-minute information about conflicts while they are underway. Refugee accounts, which were collected, synthesized and cross-corroborated by our researchers, helped shape the response of the international community to recent wars in Kosovo and Chechnya."
World Socialist Web Site
"The World Socialist Web Site is the Internet center of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). It provides analysis of major world events, comments on political, cultural, historical and philosophical issues, and valuable documents and studies from the heritage of the socialist movement."
Up-to-date commentaries on Australian immigration issues.
International Federation of Iranian Refugees
"The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) is committed to organizing the protests of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers in support of political and social campaigns which:
Asylum Law - international resource centre
"...a free website run by an international consortium of agencies that help asylum seekers in Australia, Canada, the United States, and several countries in Europe. Over 95% of the content on this site is open to the public, including asylum seekers from any country and the lawyers or advocates who represent them."
A vast database of resources and information for asylum seekers and those representing them. Registered users have access to details of attorneys who have represented refugees around the world, expert witnesses etc etc.
Immigration Index
"Immigration Index focuses on all matters relating to immigration and has hundreds of resources relating to: asylum and refugees, conflict, country data, deportation, detention, discrimination, funding, gender, government, human rights, human trafficking, legal, media, migration and studies, with new catagories, links and breaking news items being added on a regular basis."
Newvision, an online news site
"The first of its kind in the UK, New Vision, an online publication by refugees for refugees, is aimed at creating voice for the voiceless in the growingly pluralistic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Britain.
It is a response to the need of bridging the gap between the refugee community and the British society in order to initiate a healthy process of social reconciliation and harmonious integration. It is also aimed at tackling xenophobia and racism, widely whipped up by some sections of the British media and populist politicians who are eager to make gain at the cost of such vulnerable group of people as asylum seekers."
NNIRR
"The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is a national organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists. It serves as a forum to share information and analysis, to educate communities and the general public, and to develop and coordinate plans of action on important immigrant and refugee issues. We work to promote a just immigration and refugee policy in the United States and to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status. The National Network bases its efforts in the principles of equality and justice, and seeks the enfranchisement of all immigrant and refugee communities in the United States through organizing and advocating for their full labor, environmental, civil and human rights. We further recognize the unparalleled change in global, political and economic structures which has exacerbated regional, national and international patterns of migration, and emphasize the need to build international support and cooperation to strengthen the rights, welfare and safety of migrants and refugees."
BBC- the Road to Refuge
"Fifty years after the adoption of the UN Convention on Refugees, the decade we live in has seen more of the world's people than ever before seeking refuge from war, persecution or disaster. This special report tells the stories behind the statistics, using first-person testimonies and in-depth interviews to trace the journey from home into exile. It asks why refugees are still fleeing, where they go, and examines how we treat them."
A very thorough and moving report.
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