Following Them Home: the fate of the returned asylum seekers
As with the title reviewed above, this book provides particular insights into the refugee experience. But its focus is on those not even allowed to settle – the deportees and failed asylum seekers whose claims are rejected, in this case by the Australian Government. Many who tell their stories have been returned ‘home’ or, in some cases, offloaded to any other country that will take them.
Writer David Corlett contends that the Government is not meeting its duty of care to the asylum seekers it deports and he documents their harsh treatment in Australia, its territories and beyond. Some have spent years waiting for a response to their claim, shunted from one desert detention centre on the mainland to another. Others fall foul of the Pacific Solution – a policy preventing asylum seekers’ access to the Australian judicial system.
The lives of the deportees are precarious. Some have been returned to dangerous places, such as Afghanistan, only to find their families have fled. Others have landed in Tehran to be locked in squalid jail cells for having Christian reading material in their suitcases. The case of the Bakhtiyari family in particular illustrates the enduring effects of an uncertain present and future, and also the tug-of-war between politicians and activists.
- Product information
- by David Corlett
- Publisher
- Black Inc
- Product number
- ISBN 0975076965
- Star rating
- Product link
- www.blackincbooks.com
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
Except where otherwise noted, images on this site are copyright of the photographer/illustrator or representative agency.Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
