Jesuit Refugee Service

Send asylum seekers to the back of the queue: Fielding

11 March, 2010

Family First Senator Steve Fielding says the Federal Government should consider sending asylum seekers who arrive by boat to refugee camps in other countries because they are 'jumping the queue'. ABC news reports that the Government has been dealing with an influx of asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat, with the 21st vessel this year being intercepted yesterday.

Bangladesh 'ignoring plight' of starving Burma refugees

9 March, 2010

An American medical charity has warned that thousands of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh are facing starvation. The BBC reports that Physicians for Human Rights said government authorities are preventing the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, from receiving adequate care.

'Hundreds' of boat people sent back: PM

25 February 2010

Australia has sent back 'hundreds and hundreds' of asylum seekers during Labor's term in government, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Of those 141 had been unauthorised boat arrivals, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Read more...

Asylum seekers intercepted off Ashmore

24 February 2010

Australian authorities have intercepted another boat carrying asylum seekers off the Western Australia coast, reports ABC news. It is believed 47 people were on board the boat stopped by an Australian Customs ship near Ashmore Islands this morning. Read more...

Europe: sharp increase in forced removal of unsuccessful asylum seekers

10 February 2010

The number of unsuccessful asylum seekers and migrants forcibly removed by EU governments has tripled in the last three years, according to data released for the first time by the EU external borders agency, Frontex.