When
Why
ON-LINE EVENT, STARTS 6:30PM WA TIME (9:30PM AEDST)
Australian policies imposed on people seeking asylum who arrive by boat are punitive. This includes mandatory and indefinite detention in Australia and/or offshore, for anyone who arrives by boat. For those recognised as a refugee in Australia, it also includes being granted a temporary protection visa with no possibility of applying for family members to join them here. How can we understand this policy landscape, with its devastating consequences for people seeking asylum? This presentation will explore some of the historical, political and social contexts within which this policy landscape exists, and some recent developments that may be useful for us to consider when thinking through how to shift it.
We have invited Associate Professor Caroline Fleay to present this inaugural session of the RRAN Lecture Series. Caroline is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University where she teaches human rights and engages in research and advocacy alongside people from asylum-seeking backgrounds. She is Co-Convenor of the WA Refugee and People Seeking Asylum Network, Convenor of the Permanency and Family Reunion Network, and a Board Member of the Refugee Council of Australia.
We acknowledge that we are broadcasting this session from Whadjuk Noongar Boodja, and pay our respects to elders past and present. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded and support the traditional custodians of the land in their ongoing struggles.