scholarly journals The People’s Inquiry into Detention: Social work activism for asylum seeker rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-114
Author(s):  
Linda Briskman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Professional Advocacy ◽  
Policies And Practices

In 2008, findings from the People’s Inquiry into Detention were published as Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia. The People’s Inquiry, led by social work academics in Australia, exposed injustices within Australia’s privatised detention network for asylum seekers and interrogated policies and practices that ensued since mandatory immigration detention was introduced by legislation in 1992. With reference to the global context, the article presents a snapshot of policies and practices revealed by the People’s Inquiry that were considered antithetical to human rights and discusses this extensive undertaking within a broader context of asylum seeker social movements and professional advocacy endeavours that continue as harsh policies escalate. The article speaks to the resilience of the asylum seeker movement, often against the odds, a movement that includes responsive and tenacious professional groups.

From subsistence to resistance: Asylum-seekers and the other ‘Occupy’ in Hong Kong

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Vecchio ◽  
Julie Ham
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Refugee Camp ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Public Protest ◽  
Policies And Practices

In 2014, the Refugee Union – the only asylum-seeker-led organisation in Hong Kong – organised an eight-month-long protest against assistance policies and practices which they argued dehumanised and jeopardised their dignity and survival. Central to this public protest, termed ‘Refugee Occupy’, was the transformation of a traditional mechanism for asylum-seeker containment – the refugee camp – into a vehicle for asylum-seeker voice, participation and resistance. In this article, we discuss the asylum-seeker assistance policies and practices over the last decade that have resulted in a borderless refugee camp in Hong Kong. We explore the asylum-seekers’ use of the camp concept and its spatial and political transformation into an instrument for asylum-seeker resistance and political engagement. We conclude by situating the Refugee Union’s formation alongside other migrant-led social movements in Hong Kong and globally.

Technologies of control: Asylum seeker and volunteer experiences in Australian immigration detention facilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Peterie
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Volunteer Experiences ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Detention Facilities

This article documents the experiences of volunteer visitors to Australia’s onshore immigration detention facilities, and considers what they reveal about the operation of power within this detention network. While immigration detention systems (including Australia’s) have received considerable academic attention in recent years, few scholars have examined the experiences of volunteers. Further, while the existing scholarship points to the negative impacts of immigration detention on detainees, the question of how these outcomes are produced at the level of daily institutional life has gone largely unanswered. The testimonies presented here provide a valuable window onto daily life in Australia’s onshore immigration detention centres, highlighting the opaque and capricious mechanisms through which they produce emotional distress in both asylum seekers and their supporters. In documenting these mechanisms and their effects, this article shows how ‘deterrence’ is enacted through the small and seemingly innocuous details of institutional life.

Mauritian Courts and the Protection of the Rights of Asylum Seekers in the Absence of Dedicated Legislation

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 321-342
Author(s):  
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
The Status ◽  
International Human

Abstract Mauritius became a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention through succession but is yet to accede to the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. It has signed but not yet ratified the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and has not signed the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. Unlike many other countries in Africa, Mauritius has not yet enacted domestic legislation dealing with the issue of refugees. However, international human rights obligations and domestic legislation allow the rights of asylum seekers to be protected in Mauritius. This article argues that the principle of non-refoulement bars Mauritius from extraditing or deporting an asylum seeker to a country where he or she will be persecuted or where his or her rights will be violated, and that asylum seekers and citizens are equally protected by the Constitution with regard to absolute rights. However, limitations may be imposed on asylum seekers in their enjoyment of non-absolute rights. For such limitations to be lawful, they must aim to achieve the objectives stipulated in section 3 of the Constitution.

scholarly journals The Insider-Researcher Status: A Challenge for Social Work Practice Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Chammas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Practice Research

For insider-researchers engaged in qualitative inquiry, positionality and researcher neutrality are major concerns. Based on a study of human rights in social work practice among asylum seekers in a public institutional setting, this article highlights the insider-researcher status where the researcher was also a practitioner in the setting. Specifically, the author discusses the insider-researcher’s positionality towards knowledge of the population served, knowledge of the setting and knowledge of the research process by examining both the advantages and limitations of being an insider-researcher, as well as highlights ways to address and overcome these limitations.

scholarly journals Support to academic education in view of the consolidation of the universal health system in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Ribeiro Bizuti ◽  
M Eneida de Almeida ◽  
P Roberto Barbato ◽  
D Savi Geremia ◽  
A Inácio Andrioli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Policies And Practices

Abstract The Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS) is the first higher-level institution in Brazil to emerge from the processes of social and political participation of social movements and networks of civil associations. Its objective is to ensure access to higher education for the entire population of the region named Fronteira Sul, historically excluded, in order to contribute to the resolution of local and regional problems. Its public and popular character is structural, with a historical aspect of a struggle of more than forty years of various social movements for the federal university, in defense of society and its ideas: democracy, equality, respect for diversity, citizenship, right to free public education, sustainability and social justice. The center of political action at UFFS is in direction of universal human rights, equality and the reduction of social inequality, being one of the structuring axes, the strengthening of Policies and Practices for the Promotion of Public Health, since society has presented its demands guided by the concerns with health care in the region. CEBES is a national entity created in 1976, whose historical mission is the struggle for the democratization of society and the defense of social rights, in particular the universal right to health. As a supraparty plural space, it brings together activists, leaders, researchers, teachers, professionals and students, together with other entities in the fight for health. It was responsible for founding the Brazilian Sanitary Reform Movement, by producing and disseminating information, knowledge and critical analyzes aimed at strengthening subjects through the expansion of critical thinking and health awareness, essential elements for political practice and action. The Chapecó nucleus was created to contribute to academic education in the health field by respecting the founding principles of social justice that are in the Federal Constitution of 1988, universality, equity and integrality. Key messages Present the Chapecó nucleus created to contribute to academic education in the health field, while respecting the founding principles of social justice and democracy. To present UFFS as an important institution for universal human rights and its commitment to the reduction of social inequality in the strengthening of Public Health Promotion Policies and Practices.

scholarly journals Asylum Seekers Living in the Australian Community: A Casework and Reception Approach, Asylum Seeker Project, Hotham Mission, Melbourne

Refuge ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Mitchell ◽  
Sara Kirsner
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Mode Of Entry ◽  
The Status ◽  
Australian Community

In Australia, asylum seekers either are detained in immigration detention centres or, depending upon their mode of entry into Australia and the status of their application for protection, live in the community, often in a state of abject poverty. Hotham Mission’s Asylum Seeker Project (ASP), a Melbourne-based non-governmental organization (NGO), is unique in Australia in its comprehensive work in housing and supporting asylum seekers in the community, particularly those released from detention. The work of the Asylum Seeker Project illustrates that it is possible, through the application of a comprehensive reception casework system, to adequately support asylum seekers in the community with their welfare needs and to prepare asylum seekers for all immigration outcomes. The Project thus provides a compassionate model of reception support and a viable alternative to immigration detention.

scholarly journals "What if No One Had Spoken out Against this Policy?" The Rise of Asylum Seeker and Refugeee Advocacy in Australia

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Gosden
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

This paper examines the rise of an asylum seeker and refugee advocacy movement in Australia in recent years. It situates this phenomenon within Alberto Melucci's understanding of social movements as variable and diffuse forms of social action involved in challenging the logic of a system. Following this theoretical framework, it explores the empirical features of this particular collective action, as well as the struggle to redefine the nature of the relationship between citizens of a sovereign state and 'the other' in the personage of asylum seekers and refugees.

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