THE AUSTRALIAN

Monday April 19, 2010

PM reopens Howard's toughest compound

KEVIN Rudd has reopened one of the most controversial Howard-era detention centres, the Curtin facility in Western Australia, in an attempt to send a clear signal to prospective asylum-seekers that Australia is toughening up its refugee policies.

A total of 130 asylum-seekers will also be flown off Christmas Island after Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced a mass spill to the Australian mainland.

Of these, 60 single male detainees will be flown to the Darwin detention centre, and a group of up to 70 unaccompanied minors moved to Port Augusta in South Australia. More

Suspension of Asylum Application in Australia a chance to review the refugees’ integration

By Ramazan Nassery Wednesday April 14, 2010

It is obvious that the upcoming election in Australia is the primary reason for the suspension of asylum seekers applications. But what is not obvious for many people is the INTEGRATION of 5000 refugees who came by small boats to Australia since the border was opened two years ago. Australia struggles with how to fully attract them to the labour market and integrate them into mainstream society. It seems Australian immigration department does not have enough capacity to assist them to adapt to the new system in a short period of time, especially the new refugees who are complete strangers entering a country where they have very little or no similarities at all to the life style of the host country. Most of them cannot read and write in their own language nor can they understand English, Christianity, infidelity and dozens of other social mores that they should embrace having arrived in Australia. There are lots of social, cultural and religious barriers that both refugees and the host country should deal with. Refugees from Afghanistan cannot integrate to the mainstream society as quickly as they should. It means they will be isolated for the first few years which is not in the best interest of either refugees or Australia. To avoid social and cultural conflicts between newly arrived refugees and main stream society Australia needs to ensure a phase of at least a few months to assist the 5000 new arrivals first then begin the next phase of accepting boat people in the country.

The ideal integration process of refugees especially from Afghanistan in this country is that Australian Immigration have trained professionals in the social, cultural, ethical and ethnical issues of Afghanistan. The best option would be to train social workers and settlement counsellors from members of Hazaras, Tajiks, Usbecs and Pashtoons who understand their ethnic complexity and how to translate the refugees’ homeland behaviour to Australian acceptable behaviour and vice versa. Unfortunately there are not enough professionals from these Afghan communities to address the newly arrived refugees’ needs. Australian Immigration did not send a team of social professionals to Afghanistan to learn the life style of different ethnic groups, their habits, social norms, ethics, etc. Once these professionals have enough information they can then come back to Australia to help refugees from different ethnic groups of Afghanistan settle in the country. As far as I know most of the settlement organizations in Australia delivering the settlement and adaptation program for Afghan Refugees do not have trained professionals to efficiently and specifically assess their needs.

So what happen that refugees with their traditional and religious ethics and extreme language barriers cannot easily communicate to share their problems with settlement counsellors who cannot understand the complexity of the social life. Their problems will not be identified or addressed. Imagine if 1000 of these newly arrived refugees have some sort of serious issues where they cannot find any way to address it. Do you think what will happen to them and what will happen to the community where they live; mental health problems, sex abuse, gang culture, violence, poverty and criminal records which will hinder them from lots of other opportunities in the long run.

The Liberal party alleges that recently, there is evidence of crimes committed by Asian Immigrants which will risk the security of the local communities. Therefore it is not for the best interest of Australia to let refugees enter to the country. That is why Liberal party blames Kevin Rudd of his soft policy toward refugees.

Rarely, we observe unusual behaviours almost in every community. Suppose, we believe the Laberal party’s allegation, it is not because Asians are bad in nature to be more interested in doing wrong things in the community; it is because the government resources have not been accessible for them from the day they arrived in the country. They were not facilitated to complete the integration process properly. They have not been well informed of their rights and responsibilities in their new country. As a result they behave in Australia the same way they used to in their home country. There are lots of things which are acceptable behaviour in Asia but are not acceptable or are even considered serious crimes in Australia. Five or ten years later the police officers need to take care of crime scene and console the community. This is the time when government officials rush to fund different programs for community development, do research to find why the crime rate is higher in certain communities than the others. By then it will be too late and costly for Australia to do so.

Despite dozens of challenges that refugees have to integrate into the mainstream society most of them have unrealistic expectations too before they arrive in Australia. To earn money they do not think to work hard and be on time at their work schedules. They believe Australian government will always have surplus budget from its previous fiscal year to donate for refugees.

Therefore I stated that Australia needs a break to see what will happen to the 5000 thousand refugees who arrived there in the last two years because it is not an easy process for them nor for Australia. I hope that Australian Immigration can follow up with the integration process of these newly arrived refugees to address their needs on time. If there are any considerable barriers this will give a chance for Immigration to reform its policy and facilitate an easy way of integration for the next phase refugees who may come in the future

Globe and Mail

Australia closes door to Afghan, Sri Lankan refugees

Government says circumstances in those countries have improved enough that their people no longer need to seek protection elsewhere

Tanalee Smith, Adelaide, Australia

The Associated Press Published on Friday, Apr. 09, 2010 4:44AM EDT Last updated on Friday, Apr. 09, 2010 4:57AM EDT

Australia announced Friday that it will no longer accept refugee claims from Sri Lankans and Afghans, saying the situations in those countries have improved enough that their people may no longer need to seek protection elsewhere.

The suspension of refugee claims comes as the government struggles to cope with an influx of illegal boatloads of asylum seekers who have filled an offshore detention centre and fuelled a political debate over immigration policies. Most of the boat people who reach Australian waters are from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

“People aren't being denied their right to seek asylum but it's been suspended,” Immigration Minister Chris Evans told reporters in Canberra.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the decision was sparked by the end of the two-decade civil war in Sri Lanka and the improved situation of minorities in Afghanistan. He said other countries have already stopped processing asylum claims from Sri Lanka, but Australia may be the first to suspend Afghan applications.

“The Australian government believes that asylum seekers should only be granted the right to live in Australia if they are genuinely in need of protection,” said a joint statement issued by the ministers for immigration, foreign affairs and home affairs.

Asylum seekers are a hot-button political issue in Australia, particularly since the current government relaxed immigration policies, reducing the time would-be refugees spend in detention before their applications are processed and dropping a requirement that they must renew their visas every five years.

The opposition claims that those changes led to the tenfold increase in illegal boat people in 2009 over the previous year. They say the illegal arrivals drain money and resources and would more than welcome if they applied through the established UN refugee process.

The Christmas Island detention centre – built for 800 people – now holds about 1,500 in tents and overflow buildings. In recent weeks, dozens of rejected asylum claimants have been transferred to the mainland to await deportation because of the lack of space at Christmas Island as at least 1,800 more people have arrived by boat this year.

Mr. Evans said asylum seekers already in Australian detention would have their claims processed. Any arrivals after Friday's announcement would be taken to the Christmas Island detention centre until the suspension was lifted or until they could be safely returned home.

Hassan Varasi, a leader of the Afghan community in the southern city of Adelaide, said the government's decision was misinformed.

“It's not the right thing to do,” said Mr. Varasi, who came to Australia by boat in 1991. “In Afghanistan, the situation on the ground is very volatile and that is why the U.S. government decided to send more troops there. It's very contradictory what the Australian government is doing, assuming the situation has changed for the better.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission said it was concerned about the government's decision.

“We are extremely concerned that this suspension could result in the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, including families and children already in distress,” Commission president Cathy Branson said in a statement. “We have real concerns that this policy shift could lead to arbitrary detention and take Australia down a path that is at odds with our international human rights obligations.”

The United Nations refugee agency said it would review Australia's decision, which it said was made independent of the agency's own assessments of the situations in those countries.

“We are currently examining Australia's announcement, particularly with regard to issues around the detention of vulnerable persons and the provision of social support for those asylum seekers subject to this suspension,” said Richard Towle, UNHCR regional representative for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

On Thursday, the Australian navy rescued 70 people from a sinking boat in Australian waters in the Indian Ocean. The passengers, who said they wanted to come to Australia, would be the last allowed to file refugee claims with Australia under the new standards.

That boat was the 38th to arrive in Australian waters this year, bringing a total of more than 1,800 asylum seekers.

The government also announced stricter punishments against people smugglers and created a new offence of providing material support for people smuggling.

Wind chill warning

December 12, 2009

Wind chill warning is in effect for residents of Fort McMurray Alberta at least for two more days. The lowest weather temperature tonight is -50C below zero. It makes almost impossible to commute with bus around Fort McMurray area. Unless someone has really urgent issues to come out people try to stay at home for their health and safety.

Challenges in time management of Afghan-Canadians

By Ramazan Nassery November 20, 2009

One of the biggest challenges of Afghans who immigrated to Canada is getting used to Canadian routine time management. Here we consider doing almost everything in minutes if we deal with computerized work environment, second and millisecond matters. If we are working in any company or organization there are more than enough reasons that we should be on time.

First, our work begins at exact 7 or 8 o’clock, secondly the employers pay from start of that hour. They do not want that one employee 10 minutes and the other 15 minute later drowsily appears at work place. We also cannot ignore this fixed schedule otherwise we will lose our job and who knows how long we will be looking for another job.

Since everything is managed by fixed timetable and deadlines, whoever newly arrive in this country try their best to comply with their work schedule but again we notice that they miss lots of other opportunities in the rest of their routine activities.

For instance some Afghan families had been invited by their Canadian colleagues to a wedding party from 7 pm to 9 pm. especially the ladies were also invited, they need half of a day to make their fashions. They try their blue scarf with red skirts they do not match and then they try red scarf with green skirt and pink lipsticks they do not seem to be attractive too after trying a number of them when they arrived at the wedding party it was 8:45 pm. Those who were at the wedding party served the guests surprisingly asked them. Hi how can I help you? (because they were so late it looked they lost their way and need some help). They replied: Yes please, we have been invited to wedding party at this address. Ha Ha, they laughed, the wedding party is already over, you see, we are putting back the chairs and other appliances to go home.

The angry and hungry families returned home. Since there is still the signs of patriarchy in Afghan family environment the husbands were blaming ladies because of their lateness though the husbands themselves are also not punctual enough. One of them was complaining if I am invited to some party, I go to Macca in Saudi Arabia by walking (example from 100 years ago that people traveling on camel and walking to go to Macca)for pilgrimage and return back home I am not sure if my wife is still ready for going to the party.

Let us say these wedding and party invitations are not very important in case we miss them the rabbits feet will not touch the burning coal (traditional proverb means nothing will seriously happen to our life). But we should not do like one of our countrymen who sponsored her brothers by the help of group of five people. Canadian Embassy from Islamabad Pakistan sent them letter that her brother and his family should appear for interview after 60 days. By the time they were getting ready to inform her brother she received the second letter from Embassy.

Dear Mrs. so and so, thank you for your willingness to sponsor your brother to Canada, please be advised that because he did not show in interview date, your sponsorship application has been closed. If you are still interested to sponsor him with his family please lodge a new sponsorship application.

Now those people helped her in sponsoring her brother are no longer qualified to do so. To find another qualified group of five people is like looking for needle in huge hays if it is not impossible it is not easily possible too. Suppose she found five people who are willing to help for new sponsorship it will take at least three to four years to be processed. If this family had three kids at the of 18, 20 and 21 when they lodged their first sponsorship application by the time this new sponsorship will be sent all three kids will be more than 22 years old; they will be considered adult and independent who will no longer be able to come under this new sponsorship application. If possible each one of them should be sponsored separately. As a result this family who could be sponsored under one application around three years time period needs four independent sponsorship applications which may take more than ten years that all of them be reunited in Canada.

Now the poor lady prays more than half an hour after her daily prayer and beseeches to God for a solution does not help her at all. And also it cannot reverse the decision of case officer who closed the first sponsorship application file at Canadian Embassy in Islamabad.

Same is the situation for those who come to Canada with two years work permit. Even if they miss one day from the date to send their application for work permits extension, it will not be approved. They should spend thousands of dollars to travel outside Canada, wait for sometimes to get their new work permit. If they have not missed one day they could do by paying only few dollars to pay for Express Post to mail their application to case processing centre.

These are a few examples of time sensitive issues. I hope readers got enough information about Canadian time management. Please use the opportunity you get and do not assume the time as you used to do in Afghanistan particularly if you deal in Canada or any western countries.

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