Loose Lips and Asylum Slips - Professor Mary Crock

Hosted by: AIIA NSW

The event will start on: Tuesday, 17 August 2010 6:00 PM

And will end on: Tuesday, 17 August 2010 7:30 PM

At The Glover Cottages, Sydney

124 Kent Street , Sydney NSW

Posted by: nsw   

The Australian Institute of International Affairs presents:

Professor Mary Crock

Mary Crock has worked in the area of immigration and refugee law since 1985.  She is Professor of Public Law (formerly Associate Dean (Post Graduate Research)) at the University of Sydney. She has served in executive positions for the Law Council of Australia and the Refugee Council of Australia; and worked as adviser to the Australian Senate (Inquiry into Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program, 2000) and as consultant to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (on immigration detention). 

Loose Lips and Asylum Slips

The “Boats” issue, that is, how to control unauthorised boats carrying asylum seekers, is the only international issue that features in the current election campaign and it is therefore timely to look at some of the aspects of this complex subject. 

Whatever government is elected, efforts to ‘stop the boats’ will continue – not the least because the human costs of people smuggling are so high. Hundreds of people have died at sea trying to seek asylum in Australia: between December 1998 and December 2001, it is estimated that 891 boatpeople drowned. Under Labor, an estimated 150 died between January 2009 and June 2010. These deaths cannot be blamed solely on uncaring people smugglers. At least some were related directly to push back operations, and (less directly) to the removal of legal avenues for the sponsorship of the families of asylum seekers granted temporary protection visas (TPVs).
 
Australia is not alone in the dilemmas it faces.  If one thing is clear, it is that the problem cannot be addressed while the policy debate continues to be dominated by fear-mongering, sensationalism and a desire to score cheap political points. 

Date: Tuesday 17 August 2010

Time: Refreshments 6:00 pm; Presentation 6:30 pm - 7.30pm

Venue: The Glover Cottages, 124 Kent Street, Sydney

Cost: Members $15; Concession $10; Visitors $25