Clement in the SMH
Amidst the growing clamor around mandatory detention the decision to re-examine the cases of 50 East Timorese asylum seekers is welcome. The decision to deport these people is what we have come to expect from this punitive system – this reprieve confirms public scrutiny is the most effective way to expose the injustices done in our name.
The calls for Amanda Vanstone to resign and for there to be a Royal Commission into mandatory detention will only get louder.
Radio Australia reports:
“The leader of Australia's East Timorese community says he is hopeful the Federal Government's decision to re-examine the cases of 50 East Timorese asylum seekers will mean they are allowed to stay.
Australia's Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, previously denied the group ministerial intervention.
However, the minister said yesterday there was now new information on their cases.
The minister's final decision is expected in two to three weeks.
The President of the Timorese Australia Council, Carlos Perreira, says the 50 see Australia as their home.
"It was great news, because those people, most of them they've been waiting for ten, eight, nine years," he said.
"And a lot of them are working, and they are already integrated with Australian society."”
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