1. U-turn.
- Subjects
- *
REFUGEES , *AFGHANS , *REFUGEE camps , *ISLANDS , *IMMIGRANTS , *HUMAN rights , *CHILDREN'S rights , *PRIME ministers , *DETENTION of persons , *POPULATION policy , *GOVERNMENT policy ,AUSTRALIAN politics & government, 1945- - Abstract
Three years ago, Prime Minister John Howard ordered armed troops to ward off the Tampa, a Norwegian cargo vessel that had rescued Afghan asylum-seekers from the sea off western Australia. He declared that none would set foot in Australia and consigned them to high-security camps on the islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The Tampa affair, followed by the terrorist attacks on America in September 2001, helped Howard win his third election a few months later. A report in May by Australia's human-rights and equal-opportunities commission concluded that Australia's treatment of child detainees had breached its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The government recently released all bar one boat child from mainland detention camps, though 19 remain on Nauru. The strongest reason for the policy change has probably been the discovery that asylum-seekers can be good for the economy. Many of those with temporary visas have found jobs as fruit pickers and slaughterhouse workers, helping to keep several towns alive.
- Published
- 2004