Word: australian
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...Times have changed - mostly. Rudd abolished the globally condemned Pacific Solution when he came to power by a landslide in November 2007. But asylum seekers who arrive by boat - referred to in the Australian press as "boat people" - are still shuttled off to a remote island while their papers are processed. There are currently about 600 asylum seekers staying at the $350 million facility built for the purpose on the Australian-owned Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, most of whom have come from conflict or post-conflict zones like Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan. Current policy, however, mandates that...
...fact creating a brilliant marketing scheme for people smugglers," says Sharman Stone, the immigration spokeswoman the Liberal Party of Australia. Stone says the Rudd government's "relaxed" approach to refugees has been a strong draw for the hundreds of desperate people who ride on rickety vessels towards Australian shores. Many boats don't make it: In 2001, the SIEV X sank near the Indonesian island of Java, taking 353 lives with it. "The way the policy is at the moment there is very little that can be done to deter those with the cash and the contacts...
...David Manne, coordinator of the Australian-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, doesn't believe Australia's shifting policies have any bearing on how many people show up in a given year. "Desperate people don't sit there in a tyrannical regime and study the fine points of our legal reforms," says Manne. "What they do is look for any way they can to get to a place of safety - to save their lives." Most of the Afghani refugees who arrive in Australia, for instance, are Hazaras, a large ethnic group that has been persistently persecuted by the Taliban...
...death in another August raid, police announced on Sept. 17 that - this time - they were "sure" that the decapitated body found in the house where the seige occurred was that of the Malaysian fugitive believed to have masterminded everything from deadly Bali bombings and an attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta to the twin explosions on July 17 that struck two hotels in the Indonesian capital. DNA tests in coming days will confirm Noordin's identity, say police, although the corpse's fingerprints already match those believed to be his. (Read "Inside the Manhunt...
...July bombings shattered that peace, and laid bare some holes in Indonesia's anti-terror strategy. One of the men believed to have been killed alongside Noordin was Bagus Budi Pranoto, also known as Urwah. An explosives expert, he spent three years in jail in connection with the 2004 Australian embassy attack but was released in 2007 and is rumored to have quickly re-established contact with Noordin. Some terror experts wonder why people like Urwah, who was thought to have devised the July hotel explosives, were not monitored more carefully after serving their jail terms. (Read "Facing the Enemy...