ABC News Australia [April, 2013] | Next on Four Corners, we go inside Australia’s offshore refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island. What you see will shock you. Protests, evidence of self-harm and testimony of suicide attempts. Last year, when two boats sank off the north coast of Australia killing over 90 men, women and […]
NYTimes: Declan Walsh [April 28, 2013] | KARACHI, Pakistan — Stranded in a dingy hotel in the heart of this port city, waiting for the smuggler’s call, Hussain felt at once trapped and poised for freedom. Behind lay his hometown, Quetta, the city in western Pakistan that has become a killing ground for Sunni sectarian death […]
NYTimes – April 28, 2103 | I did not have any intention to go abroad, but it was what I had to do. The circumstances were deteriorating day by day. In recent years, Pakistan has been plagued by sectarian violence and extremism. Especially our community has faced most terrorist attacks because of their distinct looks. […]
Source: Herald Sun, Australia A GROUP of 14 asylum seekers has been rescued by fishermen in Indonesia after their boat sank in the Sunda Strait on its way to Australia, but at least five others are believed to have drowned. Boat sunk in the Sunda Strait about 3am AEST Believed to be carrying 73 […]
Source: Brisbane Times Despite the risks of the long, slow boat trip to Australia – made starkly evident by the Christmas Island disaster this week when two asylum seekers drowned – hundreds of ethnic Hazaras in Pakistan are planning the same trip. Facing what they have described as a ”systematic genocide” in Pakistan, more and […]
Source: The Australian IN the world of refugees there are many deserving causes, but the Hazaras of Afghanistan and western Pakistan make up a large proportion of asylum-seekers boarding leaky boats to Australia. The Hazaras are among the most educated of Afghan tribes and are a marked people, their distinctive Mongolian facial features a target […]
Source: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Australian Govt. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) today announced the successful transfer of 20 irregular maritime arrivals to Nauru, where they will be processed. The group of mostly Pakistanis and Afghans, departed Christmas Island on March 26 on a charter aircraft, escorted by the Australian Federal Police […]
Source: Amnesty International, Australia Amnesty International has grave concerns with the Government’s recent move to start returning Hazara asylum seekers to Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating and we are extremely fearful for their safety should the Government send these asylum seekers back,” said Alex Pagliaro, Amnesty International’s Refugee Spokesperson. “The […]
Source: SBS Dateline, Australia In a television first on Dateline, an asylum seeker films his own desperate attempt to reachAustralia by boat. Afghan Hazara Batoor records a perilous journey as a boat packed with more than 90 people starts to take water off the Indonesian coast. Batoor records panicked calls for help from fellow Afghans on the […]
The boat was carrying between 250 to 380 passengers – 4 times the capacity – from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Over 200 feared drowned; 70 passengers from Quetta, 18 survived, close to 50 reported missing. HRCP demands urgent Govt action after Indonesia boat tragedy In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Commission said: “HRCP […]