Investigation in the Sydney Morning Herald/Melbourne Age… co-written with Saba Vasefi (with more details, photos and letters): On the first day of the year in Nauru, Iranian refugee Bita* sent a damning letter to the Australian Border Force (ABF) accusing it of “barbarism”. She had been refused resettlement in the United States and demanded an end…
Showing all posts tagged asylum seekers
NPR covers the growing trend of offshoring refugees in remote locations
The 21st century sees many nations looking for ways to punish, isolate and deter refugees (while often contributing to the reasons these people are fleeing in the first place through wars and occupations). I recently published a major investigation in US magazine The Nation on how Australia is inspiring the EU and others over its…
Australian asylum policies inspiring the globe
My investigation in US magazine The Nation: Soon after President Trump assumed office in January 2017, he had a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The transcript of the conversation, leaked in August, revealed that the new US president admired his Australian counterpart because Turnbull was “worse than I am” on asylum seekers.…
Imprisoning refugees remains big business
In January, my book, Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe, was published globally in a paperback edition by Verso.… I wrote a piece for my publisher’s popular blog this week on the ever-growing industry of privatised immigration: The unaccountability of privatised immigration had rarely been so brazen. Australia is the only country in…
Turkish TV network TRT interview on Australian refugee policy
Yesterday I was interviewed by Turkish satellite TV channel TRT, in Jerusalem, about Australia’s asylum policies, the recent US/Australian refugee swap deal and how Australia is now inspiring the world on draconian refugee ideas:
Torturing asylum seekers in secrecy and proud of it
My column in the Guardian: The recently released… Nauru files… reveal an inventory of horrors unleashed by Australia on brown and black bodies away from public or media scrutiny. These people now have a voice, albeit in often… banal… descriptions of sexual abuse, rape, violence and psychological breakdown. After more than two decades of brutalising asylum seekers on the…