A Just Australia - Special Report


       The report is jointly issued by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad and A Just Australia, based on research commissioned from the Refugee Council of Australia. Read the report in 'What's the latest?' at www.ajustaustralia.com 

       The report makes five recommendations. Please read and support these recommendations by writing to your local Member of Parliament, or to Prime Minister Howard, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600. 

       The recommendations are: 

       1. Immediately offer permanent residency to the 4,100 recognised 'genuine' refugees from Iraq who are already living and working in Australia on Temporary Protection Visas. 
       2. Immediately increase the number of places in Australia's Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program for at least one year, to accommodate those currently on TPVs without reducing the existing "off-shore" resettlement places. 
       3. End the so-called 'Pacific Solution'. Immediately allow independent humanitarian and media access to those currently detained on Nauru. Bring the 106 Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru to Australia. Grant them visas on humanitarian grounds, along with the 33 Iraqis currently in detention in Australia. 
       4. Redirect the funds allocated to processing asylum seekers in the Pacific over the next four years, ($430 million), to assisting countries of first asylum (such as Iran, Syria and Jordan) and to refugee agencies such as United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). 
       5. Provide Iraqi refugees in Australia with support for family relocation back to Iraq without discrimination based on their means of arrival into Australia, without compulsion or coercion and after acknowledging their right to stay in Australia. 

       Children still in detention in Australia (10 April 2003): 

       Woomera 3 boys, 4 girls 
       Baxter 25 boys, 17 girls 
       Pt Hedland 15 boys, 6 girls 
       Villawood 16 boys, 15 girls plus 2 unaccompanied boys and 2 unaccompanied girls 
       Maribyrnong 1 girl 
       Other facilities 3 boys 1 girl and 7 unaccompanied boys. 
        
       Howard Glenn 
       National Director, A Just Australia 
       PO Box 559 
       Surry Hills NSW 2010 
       www.ajustaustralia.com