Word: asylum
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...spotted making its way toward the northwest coast of Australia. By dawn, the Australian navy had intercepted the boat. As members of the HMAS Albany stepped on board, they noticed a strong smell of gasoline. Moments later, the craft exploded, leaving all of its human passengers - 47 Afghani asylum-seekers and two Indonesian crew members -stranded in the water. Five Afghanis died, and dozens, including four navy personnel and the crew, were injured in the blast...
...Cavanagh's office untangles April's events, one thing is certain: The number of asylum seekers seeking to enter Australia by boat is on the rise. Nine months into 2009, there have already been 1239 recorded "irregular maritime arrivals" in Australia; in 2008, there were only 161 during the whole year. On September 11 and September 12, two boats carrying 148 asylum-seekers were discovered off the northwest coast of Australia. On September 16, another boat carrying 58 people was intercepted 265 miles (420 km) north of Broome in Western Australia. Just the day before, the Australian government announced that...
...misinformation about the nature of President Obama's health-care proposals, but the racism - both overt and opaque - the death threats, the imprecations (calling someone a Nazi is evidence of the evil of banality), the idiots bearing assault rifles at presidential events. As the lunatics took over the asylum, the President's poll ratings dropped, and the chances for a truly bipartisan health-care-reform effort vanished, if they existed in the first place. Consequently, we have had a back-to-school fusillade of advice for the President from my columnizing peers - and an effusion of premature crowing from conservatives...
...people are believed to have made the boat journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa, just 70 miles (113 km) from Tunisia. Earlier this year, Italy signed a controversial agreement with Libya allowing Italian authorities to automatically send would-be immigrants back to Libya without screening them for asylum claims - a move that arguably breaches the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention...
...distinction between a refugee fleeing persecution and an illegal immigrant. "The European debate is too inward-looking, and is focused on how not to take in refugees," he says. "A lot of people in Europe think we are swamped, but in 2007, we reached a 20-year low with asylum seekers. We have actually been building this Fortress Europe, especially after Sept. 11, and the walls have become higher and higher...