Contexts in which the word refugees was used in the Senate during the 1970s

• How is it that we are prepared to spendless than 2c a head for relief of nearly one million refugees when we are prepared to spend half a million dollars a head to kill Vietnamese? [More…]

• India still faces the crippling burden of coping with some 7 million refugees from East Pakistan. [More…]

• The Minister for Foreign Affairs and all other members of this Parliament, I think, would be aware with great anguish of the increasing intensity of disease and hardship inflicted upon these refugees. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs: Is the Government ready to answer publicly the pleas from Community Aid Abroad - an organisation under the patronage of Sir Garfield Barwick - for additional aid for the Pakistani refugees? [More…]

• Would not this be doing simultaneous favours to both the Pakistani refugees and the taxpayers of Australia in view of the costly retention of the stockpile by the Australian Wool Commission? [More…]

• That the YWCA of Australia urges the Commonwealth Government on behalf of all the people of Australia immediately to increase its aid to the relief programmes for the East Pakistan refugees and urges the Government to seek in the United Nations a world-wide initiative for a permanent political solution to the Pakistan problem’. [More…]

• and (b) All accounts have not yet been received In respect of the first $l.5m which the Commonwealth Government provided for emergency relief for refugees in India, but of the total of $1.24m which had been paid by 30 October 1971 freight accounted for $225,000, or 18.1. per cent, while other administration charges accounted for $7,200. [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether he can assure the Senate that the Australian Government’s policy in regard to political refugees from Chile is matching that of Canada in its ambit and humanitarian concepts. [More…]

• Further, does the Minister have any knowledge of any applications from such political refugees being rejected by the Australian representatives in Santiago? [More…]

• Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, done at New York on 3 1 January 1 967. [More…]

• Protocol relating to Refugees Seamen, done at The Hague on 12 June 1973 and accepted by Australia on 10 December 1973. [More…]

• Your petitioners therefore pray that your Honourable House will take the necessary steps to make it widely known in Chile that the Australian Government will assist and facilitate the rapid transit of all refugees to Australia. [More…]

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is opening an appeal. [More…]

• I do not know what the situation is with United Nations refugees. [More…]

• In that case, can the Minister explain why this money is not allocated specifically by description to, say, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees instead of National Liberation Movements in Africa? [More…]

• I preface my question, addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, by recalling to the Minister that one of the reasons advanced by the Government for extending recognition to the military regime in Chile was to enable the Australian Government, through our embassy in Santiago, to have some effect on the treatment of political prisoners, refugees and so on within Chile. [More…]

• Is it a fact that the Government decided to scale down its refugee aid in South Vietnam as a result of a protest from Hanoi about Australia’s role in rescuing refugees? [More…]

• -What has happened regarding the whole question of refugees is that we have made an approach through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and is in relation to the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• I ask: Is the Minister aware that the voluntary agency known as World Christian Action has indicated to the Government that it is prepared to render the maximum co-operation and assistance to the Government in resettlement of the Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• Will he respond to its offers of assistance by conferring with it and widening the criteria for the admission of Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• Had Mr Darby assembled, for the purpose of assisting with the care of the refugees, several tons of pharmaceutical goods, dried milk and other foodstuffs, together with teams of doctors and nurses? [More…]

• Was the plan to establish an Australian presence to serve humanitarian objectives for the large number of Vietnamese refugees in Guam and, as such, was the proposed mission one of which all Australians would approve? [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, refers to the Commonwealth Government’s extremely narrow and restricted guidelines for the admission of refugees from South Vietnam. [More…]

• Gifts have also been given for assistance to victims of man-made disasters in Cyprus and Laos, and for the resettlement and rehabilitation of refugees between Pakistan and Bangladesh. [More…]

• RAAF aircraft have been providing transport for refugees and supplies in IndoChina. [More…]

• 1 ) Is the Minister aware that the Australian Society for Inter-Country Aid- Children, known as ASIAC, has a medical team of thirteen personnel presently working among refugees in Guam. [More…]

• 1 ) If the question relates to refugees accorded refugee status by UNHCR. [More…]

• The precise cost incurred by the Australian Government in respect of the movement of these refugees is not available at this stage, but would amount to approximately $200,000. [More…]

• Those refugees accepted were given no guarantee of assured employment. [More…]

• Unemployment figures in respect of refugees who arrived in 1974 and are now in the community are not available, but among those residing in hostels throughout Australia on 4.8.75 there were 27 breadwinners of Chilean nationality both refugees and non-refugees not in employment. [More…]

• How many Spanish South American refugees were sponsored as immigrants by the Australian Government in 1974. [More…]

• 320 Chilean refugees came to Australia from neighbouring South American countries; [More…]

• 55 non-Chilean refugees came from Chile. [More…]

• All refugees mentioned in (i) and (ii) above would have applied for entry to Australia and the necessary formalities would have been completed. [More…]

• 1 ) How many Chilean refugees have entered Australia in the past 12 months. [More…]

• Were refugees who come to this country from Chile required to sign a declaration that they would not engage in any political activity in Australia. [More…]

• Has the Minister examined the concept originally expounded by a former Minister for Immigration, Mr Clyde Cameron, M.P., which visualised the co-ordination of the operation of voluntary relief organisations in their component role in Australia ‘s future intake of all categories of refugees. [More…]

• Within this commitment provision exists for the entry of refugees and the concept originally expounded by a former Minister for Immigration, the Honourable C. R. Cameron, M.P., has been closely examined. [More…]

• In the recent intake of refugees from Thailand the resources of voluntary agencies and related organisations were used and proved to be of great assistance. [More…]

• Immigration: Refugees from Angola (Question No. [More…]

• Those Portuguese citizens or citizens of other countries formerly resident in Angola who have returned to their own countries could not be regarded as refugees in accordance with thc usually accepted definition. [More…]

• Has the Australian Government received any (a) enquiries and (b) applications for Australian residence from refugees of the civil war in Angola; if so, how many of each have been received. [More…]

• The honourable senator then moved on to some aspects of the way in which we should treat certain people who may wish to come to Australia as refugees. [More…]

• I am sensitive on the subject of refugees. [More…]

• I cannot forget that in 1938 there was a conference at a town called Evian and that Australia was one of the few nations in the world willing to give entry permits to the refugees of those days. [More…]

• Maybe it was to only 10,000 refugees but most countries would not take anyone. [More…]

• We established then the kind of honourable tradition in matters of refugees of which I am very proud. [More…]

• These have been to admit refugees, to recognise people’s needs and not to turn people away because we do not happen to approve of some of the national policies which may have applied, but to make them welcome if they wish to come here. [More…]

• Will he make representations to the Prime Minister to ignore the advice of the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Woolcott, and take into this country those Timorese refugees who seek to enter? [More…]

• The matter with regard to Chilean migrants or political refugees is one of some importance. [More…]

• In view of reports that Timorese refugees are being charged high rentals, and that the Rent Controller is investigating the matter, will the Minister obtain a copy of the Controller’s report and make it available to the Senate. [More…]

• Following a report in the Northern Territory News of 2 1 November that some Timorese refugees were paying exhorbitant rentals for two houses- one at Fannie Bay and the other at Rapid Creek- the Northern Territory Rent Controller investigated the matter. [More…]

• 1 ) Is the Prime Minister aware of reports that East Timor refugees who left the Portuguese territory late last year and are now residing in Portugal are now prepared to speak publicly on their experience during the Indonesian invasion; if so, is the Government prepared to obtain evidence from them relating to the deaths of six Australian journalists and reported atrocities by Indonesian forces in East Timor. [More…]

• 1 ) What is the present status of Vietnamese refugees who recently arrived illegally in Australia. [More…]

• What is the Government’s attitude towards the offers made by State Governments and community organisations to provide accommodation and sustenance for these refugees. [More…]

• Is there a likelihood of a continued substantial influx of refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• There have been important exceptions; for example a few migrant sub-groups ( such as unattached males, arriving as refugees, and living in inner city locations) do have a very high incidence of mental illness. [More…]

• 1 ) How many boats have arrived in the Darwin harbour carrying Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• I am sure that the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and the Government share the concern that has been expressed with regard to refugees from Lebanon. [More…]

• Has the Government entered into any plan to accept increasing numbers of alleged Rhodesian refugees who are of European descent; if so, how many Rhodesians are likely to be granted permanent residence in the financial year 1978-79, and how many were given permanent residence in this country during the previous two financial years. [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) I am acutely aware of the dangers and suffering encountered by refugees who have fled Vietnam in boats. [More…]

• Australia’s very substantial refugee program is intended to provide opportunities for a new life to as many as possible of those in refugee camps, commensurate with Australia’s absorptive capacity, family reunion considerations, the needs of the individual refugees and the resettlement opportunities available for them in other countries. [More…]

• 1 ) Did a report on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s AM program, 23 November 1978, state that some 200 Vietnamese refugees were drowned when their boat foundered in South East Asian waters. [More…]

• Did the report also indicate that it is believed that about 100,000 Vietnamese refugees have been lost at sea, either by drowning, or massacre by pirates. [More…]

• Does the Government accept the view that the unfortunate people who have paid to escape from Vietnam may nonetheless be regarded as refugees. [More…]

• The United States program referred to by Senator Mulvihill is designed to resettle in the United States500 Latin-American political refugees and detainees. [More…]

• and (4) The special contribution of $A250 000 was made by the Government to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) towards the cost of establishing a proposed refugee processing centre in Indonesia. [More…]

• 1 ) Did the Minister, in a joint statement with the Minister for Foreign Affairs on IS May 1979, state that a sum of $230 000 would be directed towards the establishment of an island centre for refugees. [More…]

• In response to the first section of her question I can say that I am aware of media reports that a new exodus of ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam is about to begin. [More…]

• I remind Senator Martin that at the international meeting on Indo-Chinese refugees which was held in Geneva in July of this year Vietnam undertook to reduce the disorderly outflow of refugees for what was quoted to be a reasonable period of time. [More…]

• Since then the Australian Government has continued to monitor the outflow of refugees from Vietnam and has helped to focus international attention on Vietnam in an effort to ensure that Vietnam adheres to its undertaking. [More…]

• The Government is not aware of the imminence of any new exodus of refugees or of any hard evidence to suggest this. [More…]

• Thus President Nixon in his address on 3rd November mentioned the million-and-a-half Catholic refugees who fled to South Vietnam when the Communists took over the North.’ [More…]

• According to Vietnam Past and Present, published in Saigon in 1956 under the patronage of the South Vietnam Department of Education and the National Commission for UNESCO and written by Mr Thai Van Kiem a Vietnamese diplomat and scholar, the total number of refugees was 887,895 of whom 85% or 754,710 were Catholics. [More…]

• There are in excess of 40,000 refugees in Laos. [More…]

• The smaller provision in 1970-71 reflects a decrease in the number of Yugoslavs moved from Austria by the ICEM as refugees. [More…]

• Whatever inhibitions I may have had about going on with this matter were abandoned when I read a very informative article in the “Sydney Morning Herald* several days ago on refugees. [More…]

• The programme now proposed, namely, 120,500, varies from that on which the original estimates approved by the Parliament were based as follows: (i) marginal increases in the special passage assistance programme, refugees and Maltese; Hi) a reduction in the programme from Britain and smaller reductions in those from the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey. [More…]

• For example, the 1957 Agreement required the issue of a travel document in accordance with Article 28 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and we had entered a reservation against that article. [More…]

• I ask: Has the Government any plans to give aid to the hundreds of thousands of East Pakistani refugees crossing the border into India to escape the fighting in their own country? [More…]

• In addition tothe above, a number of refugees departed Austria who had not lived in Austria for 12 months or more and so are excluded from the above figures. [More…]

• Less than 200 years ago the white man came, I say now in all sincerity that my people were shot, poisoned, hanged and broken in spirit until they became refugees in their own land. [More…]

• Will the Leader of the Government in the Senate advise whether the Australian Government is prepared to increase its aid to refugees in India? [More…]

• Does the Minister recall my question of 18th August concerning additional Australian assistance to East Pakistani refugees in East Bengal and his undertaking to transmit my request to the appropriate Minister for consideration? [More…]

• ls the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs aware of the public interest in Australia’s assistance to refugees from Pakistan? [More…]

• What is the value, to date, of Australian aid to refugees in India? [More…]

• aid for refugees in India? [More…]

• The Government has twice increased the level of its aid for the refugees and is concentrating on delivering to India the aid that has been approved. [More…]

• It is understood that these people were, until last week., involved in collecting money on the steps of the General Post Office in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, for the relief of the Pakistan refugees. [More…]

• The Government has also provided $l.Sm in food, shelter and medical supplies to help alleviate the plight of the East Pakistani refugees at present in camps in India. [More…]

• At the time that this aid to the refugees was announced the Government stated that it would not necessarily be the limit of our assistance to the region. [More…]

• The number of refugees in India is reported to be approaching 9 million. [More…]

• We have been informed that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will shortly issue a renewed appeal for more international help. [More…]

• Of this additional aid, $500,000 worth of rice will be given to India for emergency relief for the refugees. [More…]

• As a result, the Pakistan Army moved into East Pakistan and we have seen the tremendous number of refugees who have fled from the area into India. [More…]

• In the past 6 months the Indian Government had spent about $440m in caring for the refugees - a diversion of resources the country could hardly afford. [More…]

• It will cost the Indian Government at least twice that amount before any agreement can be reached with the Government of West Pakistan to repatriate even some of the refugees. [More…]

• I would like to make a fairly brief reference to a problem that has confronted us in this place today - that concerning the 3 lads who have initiated a fast and a sit-in seeking additional funds for the refugees in India. [More…]

• A circular has been issued by Steve Rooney, Geoff Evans and Paul Poernomo, asking for this Government to make a substantial increase in donations to assist the Pakistani refugees in India. [More…]

• In reply, to a question I placed on the notice paper, the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr N. H. Bowen) stated that the aid pledged by the Australian Government to assist the refugees was SI. [More…]

• I am referring now, of course, to the refugees who have crossed the border into India. [More…]

• The Government has twice increased the level of its aid for the refugees and is concentrating on delivering to India the aid that has been approved; it has the situation in the Indian sub-continent under close observation; [More…]

• We would like to express to your our sincere concern over the terrible plight of East Pakistani refugees in India. [More…]

• Therefore we are participating in this hunger fast to draw attention to the plight of the refugees and we respectfully urge you to remember, your humanity and to do all in your powers to press for more aid. [More…]

• There are now close to 10 million refugees in India and we believe that nothing less than $I0m should be given by the Government of Australia. [More…]

• I understand that the refugee meal will consist of a cup of rice, spices, salt and lentils, which is the official handout to Pakistani refugees in India. [More…]

• If the Australian Government gave $10m and there are 10 million refugees, it is likely that this would provide one meal of the ingredients 1 have quoted for each refugee for not more than 4 days. [More…]

• If my colleague Senator Georges and myself desired to place ourselves on the stairs of Parliament House for the purpose of soliciting donations to relieve the shocking conditions being experienced by refugees in India, would you see fit to grant us permission to adopt this attitude? [More…]

• Is he aware that the Prime Minister personally complimented the 3 young men who commenced a fast outside Parliament House in their efforts to raise money for refugees in India? [More…]

• Is the Government prepared to make a further increase in the donation previously granted to the refugees? [More…]

• Honourable members are aware of the problem of refugees from East Pakistan, which has now assumed such enormous proportions. [More…]

• On 8th June following an announcement of additional aid by the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr Bury), referring to this grant, said in these emerging and rapidly changing conditions, it was important to keep the priority needs of the refugees constantly under review. [More…]

• The position now is that there are some 9 million refugees in need in India and a great deal of suffering and distress also in East Pakistan. [More…]

• The Government in pursuance of its constant review and assessment of the situation and having in mind what it believes to be an international obligation of this country in this unfortunate situation has now decided to make a grant of additional aid amounting to $2.5m of which $500,000 will be a direct cash grant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• It is equally important to ensure that these funds are employed in bringing relief effectively to refugees, who are most in need. [More…]

• The question of providing relief for the refugees has been recoignized as an international one. [More…]

• The Government’s record in providing aid for the refugees has been a good one. [More…]

• Is it not also a fact that assistance will continue to be needed until such time as a political solution allows the refugees to return to East Pakistan? [More…]

• Will the Minister indicate what amount the Australian Government proposes to give to assist India to cope with this catastrophe and whether such aid will be both prompt and commensurate with the recent response by the Government to aid the refugees from Pakistan? [More…]

• Does the Government recognise that India is carrying a very heavy burden in looking after many millions of refugees who were rendered homeless following the East Pakistan disturbance and who are now riving in refugee camps in India? [More…]

• Can the Minister representing the Postmaster-General advise the Senate whether the week-end incident at the Sydney General Post Office when a foreman of a contract cleaning firm hosed a group of people who were fasting in support of relief for Pakistani refugees was in accordance with official policy of the Postmaster-General’s Department or whether it was just the act of a petulant industrial misfit? [More…]

• What amount of aid does the Australian Government propose to give in response to this appeal, and will the Government give sympathetic consideration to the appeal as it did the case of the appeal for aid for refugees from Pakistan. [More…]

• Is it also a fact that assistance for refugees in India will continue to be needed until such time as a political solution allows the refugees to return to East Pakistan. [More…]

• How long does the Government expect the Australian people to continue donating goods and money for the relief of refugees while it takes no initiative itself to resolve the problem. [More…]

• It is impossible to predict how long there will be a requirement to assist the refugees in India. [More…]

• Does the Federal Government recognise the suitability of this product, being light in weight and of high protein and nutritional value, for shipment to assist in relieving the starvation of Pakistani refugees in India? [More…]

• Didthe Prime Minister personally compliment (the 3 young men who commenced a fast outside Parliament House in an effort to raise moneyfor refugees in India, and is one of the fasters Paul Poernomo, continuing the fast. [More…]

• (2)Isthe Government prepared to increase its aid to the unfortunate refugees or. [More…]

• Will the second grant of $1.5m, made available by the Australian Government for relief of refugees in India, be given by way of cash grant. [More…]

• The honourable Senator is referred to the Ministerial Statement which the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs made on 5th October 1971 regarding East Pakistani Refugees (see pages 1863-1964 of Hansard for the House for the House of Representatives) for details as to the form in which the balance of this aid will be provided. [More…]

• Allocations under the Food Aid Convention are not fixed in advance and can, of course, be devoted to emergency relief for refugees or other national disasters, should the need arise. [More…]

• Does the Federal Government recognise the suitability of this product, being light in weight and of high protein and nutritional value, for shipment to assist in relieving the starvation of Pakistani refugees in India? [More…]

• It is printed in a variety of languages and is posted all over the world to political refugees who have left the Soviet Union or countries under its domination. [More…]

• It has given considerable concern to refugees from Soviet countries who over the years have received copies of this journal for which they have not asked. [More…]

• They are in no doubt that this indicates the existence in Australia of a Sovietsponsored espionage organisation which keeps tab on the movements and addresses of political refugees from the Soviet Union. [More…]

• One of the principal activities or objects of this journal appears to be the intimidation of such refugees. [More…]

• The journal is notable for the fact that it ridicules and smears in particular those refugees who are most prominent for their opposition to communism, and especially those refugees who are associated with the Russian Orthodox Church in this country. [More…]

• 19 of March 1972 this paper which, as I said, is mailed from the Soviet Union or one of its subject countries to Russian refugees throughout the world, devoted considerable space to an attack on Bishop Constantine of Brisbane. [More…]

• It is obviously the inspiration of an espionage organisation existing here for the purpose of keeping tabs on the refugees. [More…]

• Apart from $3m in aid (including $550,000 in cash) given to the Bast Pakistani refugees in India, Australia has pledged $6m to the relief and reconstruction of Bangladesh. [More…]

• Additional appropriations amounting to $27.6m required for departmental other services include $0.8m for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation; $2.4m for Commonwealth scholarships to cover a greater number cf awards and an increase in university fees; $1.2m for education services in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory mainly for increases in teachers’ salaries; $0.6m is sought for payment to the Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account for the acquisition of land off reserves - further funds pursuant to the policy statement by the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) of 26th January last will be provided in the Budgets for 1972-73 and subsequent years; Sl.Sm aid for Pakistan refugees before the establishment of the independent State of Bangladesh; $1.5m rehabilitation and relief aid for Bangladesh; $1.6m for migrant education to cover increased salaries and on expanded programme of activity; $0.7m for various services in the Northern Territory; $1.7m for broadcasting and television services, mainly to meet salary increases; $0.9m for repatriation pharmaceutical services; $8m for ship construction; and $1.8m to meet a rise in the number of grants under the Aged Persons Homes Act. [More…]

• Australia’s industrial history probably began with the people who were refugees from the type of oppression that developed against those who dared to organise for as industrial voice and to formulate unions. [More…]

• Has the Minister representing the Minister for External Territories seen a report in this morning’s Australian’ newspaper of a statement attributed to the Indonesion Army commander in West Irian that the Australian Government will assist in the celebration of Indonesia’s Proclamation Day by deporting to West Irian 8 West Irianese refugees at present in Papua New Guinea? [More…]

• Can he assure the Senate that no such deportation of refugees is planned by the Australian Government? [More…]

• Is the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration aware of the statement made by Mr Tonkin, the Labor Premier of Western Australia, that his Government would encourage the Commonwealth Government specially to admit a number of Asian refugees from Uganda and that his Government would co-operate in settling them in Western Australia? [More…]

• Has Mr Tonkin indicated in his letter to the Commonwealth Government whether it is the intention of his Government to divert funds already allocated to the State for the relief of unemployment to the settlement of any such refugees? [More…]

• Israel has retaliated against innocent people - the Palestine refugees - and it ought not to be allowed to go without criticism. [More…]

• -I wish to ask a supplementary question of the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs.I appreciate the answer just given by the Minister but I did not ask a question relating to Australia receiving refugees from Uganda. [More…]

• My question was whether the Australian Government would either move for or support any proposal that Uganda be removed from the Commonwealth of Nations if it continues its present policies and activities, irrespective of what the United Nations may do and irrespective of what may happen to the unfortunate refugees from that country. [More…]

• That is the New Australian Council of the DLP- said it represented many former political refugees who fled their countries to escape the scourge of communism. [More…]

• And what were Senator O’Byrne’s remarks while Senator McManus was speaking and pointing out that many of these people have come here as refugees from Communist countries and that we must recognise that in almost every one of these Communist countries there is a liberation front? [More…]

• Last night I questioned Government policy in relation to political refugees. [More…]

• Senator Hannan referred to people in Melbourne whom he said were refugees from the UDBA. [More…]

• Last night I got an admission that the Government has no record of any political refugees coming here from Spain or Portugal. [More…]

• The honourable senator would know as well as I do that the British Home Office has numerous records of such refugees. [More…]

• Her action in releasing this statement within the last few days was highlighted by a statement released by Senator Edward Kennedy on 9th October this year when he said, as a result of testimony given by Major-General John Pauly, Vice-Director for Operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a hearing by the United States Senate Sub-Committee on Refugees: [More…]

• Undoubtedly, those persons who are refugees in this country from communist rule in their own countries are entitled to band together in this country to maintain the ideals that they value. [More…]

• If we read the European Press we will acknowledge that in some hijacking cases situations are created in which those who commit the crimes might be classified as political refugees in the countries in which they land. [More…]

• Did any political refugees seek to enter Australia after Mr Ben Bella, the former President of Algeria, was deposed and, if the answer is in the affirmative, what was the attitude of the Australian Government. [More…]

• A very considerable number of them came to this country as refugees. [More…]

• Even after Marshal Tito set up his Government, large numbers continued to flee from Croatia as refugees. [More…]

• The present Soviet extradition requests are aimed at terrorising the refugees. [More…]

• We in Australia have to satisfy our own people and our own migrants that nothing will be done which will render them liable for trial under a government in whose democratic principles they do not believe and whose ken they chose to leave and become refugees in this country. [More…]

• The statistics for seamen who have deserted ships because of these Captain Bligh conditions that apply on Greek and to a lesser extent on Spanish ships show that previous Governments in the last 20 years were only too happy to give sanctuary to refugees from totalitarianism of the Left but not to refugees of totalitarianism of the Right. [More…]

• A particular concern in the case of national groups such as the Croats is that refugees from police - state administrations with an incomplete grasp of the English language are unlikely to know or stand on their civil rights in Australia. [More…]

• Tn mid-1955 Diem stepped up his campaign to suppress all real or imagined political opposition, with the result that the movement of refugees went into reverse and more people (including recent ‘refugees’ from the North) sought to go North than to go South. [More…]

• In view of the reopening of communications with Chile and the presence of Australia’s Ambassador to Chile in Canberra, can the Minister now state, firstly, whether approaches have been made to our offices in Chile, either on a diplomatic or immigration basis, from Chilean political refugees for sanctuary in Australia and, secondly, whether Australia has at a United Nations level sought to activate the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which always appears to roll rapidly in the face of left wing totalitarianism but never in the case of right wing totalitarianism? [More…]

• Our permanent Commissioner in Geneva keeps in constant touch with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. [More…]

• The mandate of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees really extends to those people who are crossing borders. [More…]

• In view of the information contained in the Australian foreign affairs newsheet that 500 Chileans have sought political sanctuary in foreign embassies in that country, can the Minister expedite an answer as to whether any of these political refugees have approached the Australian Embassy? [More…]

• When I respectfully asked my leaders how we could save political refugees in Chile, it was indicated to me that it was better to let our diplomats handle the job in Santiago than to rock the boat. [More…]

• I refer to the recent overthrow of the Allende Marxist Government in Chile, the assumption of power by a military junta, the confusion as to the events prior to and surrounding the military coup and the pressure from some quarters in Australia that Australia should offer to accept Chilean refugees, including political refugees, either permanently or in the short term. [More…]

• Ever since the 1967 resolution there have been unsuccessful attempts to bring it into effect; that is, to get the Israelis to withdraw and to get the Arab countries to recognise that there is a state of Israel, and in the course of that at long last to try to do something about the Palestinian refugees, a problem which I point out is mentioned by the word ‘refugees’ in the original resolution 242. [More…]

• A connected point will be the resolution of the problem of the Palestinian refugees whose continuing plight has long been a subject of deep and practical concern to Australia. [More…]

• The situation is likewise a tragic situation for the Arabs who find that many hundreds of thousands of their people are refugees from the country of their birth, and that many hundreds of thousands of their people are now living in the most appalling conditions in refugee camps away from the homes in which they were born and away from the cities, towns and villages in which they grew up. [More…]

• Israel was, in historical times, the home of the Jewish people who were dispersed throughout the world and who were very oftenir fact, more often than not- cruelly and abomir ably treated by the inhabitants and the govern.ments of those countries to which they went as refugees. [More…]

• For example, what is to happen to the Palestinian Arabs who, irrespective of whether their fears were justified- I know that it is argued by spokesmen for Israel that their fears were unjustified- left the country and became refugees? [More…]

• I would not deny that the Arab countries do have a moral responsibility to look after kinsmen of theirs who come into their nations as refugees. [More…]

• But I do say that there is a real problem, a very burning problem, with many hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arab refugees from Israel. [More…]

• In fact the Palestinian Arab refugees from Israel are now, in the Middle East, what the Jews of Russia and Poland were in the 19th century- dispossessed people living almost without sustenance, without hope and in desperation, knowing that their former country is now occupied by somebody else. [More…]

• I do not believe it is any wonder- I do not say this is any sense of approbation- that as a consequence of this some amongst them have turned to extreme forms of violence, because that is what does happen when people are in the sort of situation in which the Jews of eastern Europe were in the 1 9th century and in which the Palestinian Arab refugees in the Middle East are today. [More…]

• Insofar as it is possible to do this, satisfactory arrangements then need to be made for the rehabilitation, compensation or re-settlement of the Arab refugees from Israel. [More…]

• The 1 .3 million Palestinian refugees are still homeless and have never been able to return to their homeland, yet we are trying to allocate blame and specifically to pick out who started the war. [More…]

• Has the Minister any information on the situation in these countries at present particularly in regard to refugees? [More…]

• Following an appeal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for permanent resettlement opportunities for refugees from Chile, the Australian Government has responded that it was ready to accept applications without quota restrictions from those refugees who are genuinely interested in settling in Australia. [More…]

• This opportunity to apply for migration to Australia is open both to those refugees who fall within the United Nations High Commissioner’s mandate in Chile and to others who are sometimes referred to as refugees but who do not meet the definition of that mandate- for example, non-Chileans who wish to or have been asked to leave Chile, and Chileans who do not wish to remain under the present regime. [More…]

• Following the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs last week on Australia’s attitude to political refugees from Chile, can he say whether anything further has happened in regard to the several special applications which were the subject of further inquiries? [More…]

• At that stage there were some refugees who wanted to come here. [More…]

• Does the Minister for Foreign Affairs agree that the resettlement of refugees is one of the most urgent tasks facing the South Vietnamese Government? [More…]

• I refer to the recent overthrow of the Allende Marxist Government in Chile, the assumption of power by a military junta, the confusion as to the events prior to and surrounding the military coup and the pressure from some quarters in Australia that Australia should offer to accept Chilean refugees, including political refugees, either permanently or in the short term. [More…]

• In the face of reports emanating from West Germany and elsewhere about the number of political refugees from Chile who have been given sanctuary, can the Minister now give the Senate any information on the performance of Australia in that field? [More…]

• This spy apparatus has, firstly, pressured refugees from the Soviet by threatening reprisals on their relatives; secondly, sought to intimidate Russian Orthodox clergymen to support the Soviet regime, notably at Geelong, Victoria and thirdly, arranged for the Communist organ ‘Homeland’ to be sent to migrants from the Soviet or East Germany. [More…]

• It is claimed that one of his tasks was to arrange kidnapping of refugees and their transfer to the Soviet. [More…]

• The Australian Labor Party has said very clearly in its federal policy- and this has been said very clearly also by members of the Government and by the Government itself- that there can be no settlement of the present crisis in the Middle East without, first, some justice being done to the Palestinian refugees. [More…]

• I am bound to puzzle at a Labor Government and a Foreign Minister who have said absolutely nothing about this, as they have said absolutely nothing about their policy for helping the Palestinian refugees. [More…]

• Listen to the doctors, many of whom are refugees from a similar set of circumstances in other parts of the world and have come here to escape them. [More…]

• Are many of these persons now refugees from Chile and either not prepared to live in Chile or not accepted by that Government because of their terrorist proclivities. [More…]

• In view of the Government’s admission that 228 refugees from Chile are to be admitted to Australia and, in the light of the Government’s sympathies and its restrictions on the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, what positive assurance is the Prime Minister able to give that terrorists and guerillas will not be admitted to Australia. [More…]

• The Government is also aware that certain of these people have sought to leave Chile after the coup, either having been granted refugee status under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or because of a personal preference not to remain. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether it is a fact that nearly 7,000 Chilean political refugees were granted asylum by about 20 embassies in Santiago after the overthrow of President Allende. [More…]

• In view of the fact that the Chilean regime accepted a legal obligation only to grant safe conduct out of Chile to refugees who had fled to Latin American embassies, will the Australian Government take steps to secure an international agreement to a universal convention on diplomatic asylum so that refugees fleeing from political persecution can enjoy the same protection? [More…]

• Territorial asylum- that is where a country grants asylum to political refugees in its own territorywas the subject of a United Nations declaration which was adopted in 1967. [More…]

• The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees has submitted to the General Assembly a draft convention on territorial asylum. [More…]

• It will help the state granting asylum since it will acknowledge its right within international law to grant protection to political refugees and to receive a guarantee of safe conduct out of the territories for the asylees. [More…]

• We have had a lengthy discussion on this subject tonight If the Opposition did nothing else it gave the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Willesee) the opportunity to lay down the guidelines which he applies to political refugees. [More…]

• We were looking at possible migrant intake figures and the Minister s words to me were: ‘Well, we must always budget for 2,000 political refugees’. [More…]

• The power and water supply projects to which you refer will be a direct asset to the South Vietnamese people, including many thousands of refugees displaced by a tragic war. [More…]

• It is of more than passing relevance, incidentally, that the flow of refugees to which you alluded earlier in your paper is normally into areas controlled by the GVN and away from areas of PRG-control. [More…]

• There are many people from those 3 countries who are now living as refugees and who are fine democrats. [More…]

• When I was practising law there I had as clients a Latvian family who had come to this country as refugees. [More…]

• The struggle to rectify this has placed on the African nationalist movements a heavy burden in caring for thousands of people in the liberated areas of the minority dominated territories and for those who have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries such as Tanzania and Zambia. [More…]

• I draw the Minister’s attention to the impression prevalent among the Cypriot community that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees appears to be very slow to assess the total refugee complement in Cyprus. [More…]

• One immediate and pressing humanitarian problem is that of the many thousands of refugees displaced by the violent events of the past 2 months. [More…]

• I should also inform Senator Mulvihill that my office has written to the ‘New Country’ newspaper seeking a retraction of the item in question which I cannot help but think was based on information supplied by people who would seek to bring discredit on the very responsible and very concerned role which Australia is playing in Cyprus as a member of the Security Council, through our peacekeeping force in Cyprus and through our humanitarian assistance to refugees in Cyprus. [More…]

• Why is it that according to figures as at 1 January 1972, released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there were a mere 300 refugees from South Africa out of a total of 988,000 refugees in Africa? [More…]

• These projects are designed to meet fundamental problems of re-settlement of refugees including malnutrition, lack of housing, and training- possibly to be provided in Australia. [More…]

• Examples of such possible projects are support for health clinics in southern Tanzania and in Zambia, assistance to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - [More…]

• Examples of such possible projects are support for health clinics in southern Tanzania and in Zambia, assistance to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Council of Namibia for subsistence crop farming near Lusaka to accommodate refugees, assistance to United Nations agencies in the training of boys in agricultural and technical skills, and relief to refugees from southern Africa living in temporary settlements in Zambia. [More…]

• When we receive the report from our Foreign Affairs man who is to visit Zambia to investigate the needs of refugees I will be able to inform the Senate of the precise allocation of this aid. [More…]

• I accept the Minister’s statement that the Agency will be used to provide humanitarian aid to refugees, but I merely wish at this stage to raise one query which is in my mind. [More…]

• Of course, it is very difficult to distinguish between genuine refugees and terrorists. [More…]

• If it is to be used purely for humanitarian purposes to assist refugees, then we have great sympathy with it. [More…]

• The question was raised of humanitarian aid to refugees. [More…]

• Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs comment on the impression prevalent among the Cypriot community that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees appears to be very slow to assess the total refugee complement in Cyprus; and [More…]

• On 20 August, the Secretary General of the United Nations appointed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to co-ordinate U.N. humanitarian assistance in Cyprus. [More…]

• Most of the refugees who come under the banner of the PLO live in Jordan. [More…]

• In fact, most of the refugees- the largest precentage of them- are still in Palestine in the sense that Palestine existed following 1918. [More…]

• I think those officers and the Minister will agree that since the hearings by Estimates Committee F there have been developments in a number of areas, and I refer particularly to the tremendous amount of administrative work that has flowed into the Department following the offer of the Australian Government to play its role in absorbing a number of Cypriot refugees. [More…]

• There is reference in today’s ‘Australian’ to the approaching winter in Cyprus and to the need to accelerate the processing of the potential refugees. [More…]

• I couple that remark with the question as to when we will get information concerning the total number of Chilean refugees who will be permitted to come to Australia. [More…]

• The Minister’s advisers will know that when we rightly accept responsibilities within the area of political refugees, the figures concerning that area distort our actual annual migrant intake. [More…]

• To sum up, I wonder whether we can get an early interim indication of the number of Cypriot refugees who will be permitted to come to Australia and, secondly, whether we have finally decided on the total number of people who come within the category of Chilean refugees. [More…]

• Many of these people will be refugees and others who are suffering political discrimination. [More…]

• After his tour of the west and visits to some selected centres, including border camps of refugees from his Northern Territory policies which he himself has described as a national disaster, he claims neglect and underspending. [More…]

• In fact last Saturday I attended a meeting of Darwin refugees in Brisbane which was attended by representatives of various departments who gave the people who were present a clear indication of what the Government intended and sought the advice of those people. [More…]

• At that meeting I gained the impression that similar meetings were being held in the other cities to which refugees had been sent. [More…]

• Australia has given aid for humanitarian relief operations on Cyprus, and Qantas Airways Ltd has carried, free of charge, on a space available basis, several tons of supplies for refugees in Cyprus collected by groups in Australia. [More…]

• Was the grant made at the request of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees? [More…]

• The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees launched an appeal and we contributed firstly $ 1 m and then a second $lm of which a fair amount will be taken up in freight. [More…]

• Incidentally, after the first Sim was given the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees rang our office in Geneva to thank us for it. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Repatriation and Compensation given any consideration to the plight of South Vietnamese refugees, particularly the orphans who are being flown to Australia? [More…]

• -The question of permitting refugees from Vietnam or Cambodia to enter Australia temporarily on humanitarian grounds is being examined by the Government in the light of all the factors of the situations. [More…]

• Please accept my warm appreciation and deep admiration for your help to evacuate the many desperate refugees from Da Nang. [More…]

• On 2 April I announced a further contribution of $lm to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ‘ relief work among refugees in all parts of Indo-China, on both sides of the lines of military control. [More…]

• Yesterday the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Willesee) announced a further grant of Sim to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• He claimed last week that there was not a need to fly out refugees. [More…]

• Do Mr Uren’s colleagues, the men who pressed the Government to relax its migration requirements to take communists and pro-communist refugees from Chile to Australia, share that view? [More…]

• Yesterday, honourable senators were saying such things as that we were not early enough in the field, that aid was not good enough, that we would not bring out the refugees, and all the rest of it. [More…]

• A U.S. Senate committee reported that between 1964 and 1972 6 355 000 refugees could be counted in South Vietnam, and nobody knew from where they came. [More…]

• The Opposition is making pious statements about refugees and is crying crocodile tears about caring for people in the name of freedom. [More…]

• Of course the refugees run away from bombs, guns and soldiers. [More…]

• Refugees in all countries and all wars do that. [More…]

• Has it made any statements regarding the fate of millions of refugees? [More…]

• There will be many more refugees now. [More…]

• An increasing number of refugees will be driven from their homes by the communist hordes of the north. [More…]

• Honourable senators opposite say that in some way we have acted discreditably with regard to the orphans who have been brought out of South Vietnam when in fact the American Commander-in-Chief in the South Pacific has congratulated the actions which the Australian Government took in attempting to bring orphans from Vietnam to Australia and to give aid to people who were refugees from the fighting. [More…]

• I am in some doubt as to whether these people are refugees from the North Vietnamese. [More…]

• They are refugees from the fighting. [More…]

• In 1975 there are 2 million refugees out of their homes and running from the North Vietnamese armies. [More…]

• I refer the Minister for Foreign Affairs to his earlier answer that Australia would be a laughing stock of the world if it were to protest constantly about things like the North Vietnamese shelling of refugees and the execution of opponents. [More…]

• Has his Department drawn up recommendations on what categories of South Vietnamese could be admitted to Australia as refugees? [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister for Foreign Affairs which relates to Vietnamese refugees or other persons desiring to come to Australia from South Vietnam. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, refers to the Commonwealth Government’s extremely narrow and restricted guidelines for the admission of refugees from South Vietnam. [More…]

• You may also confirm with the DRV and PRG that the Australian Government is contributing through international organisations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (with whom the PRG has been in contact) to humanitarian assistance throughout South Vietnam, and that the Australian Government stands ready to contribute generously to the longer term task of post-war reconstruction. [More…]

• We will await a full explanation, but for the time being the miserable evidence suggests that our Government has betrayed refugees and dealt in a two-faced way with foreign Governments- and with the Parliament and people of Australia. [More…]

• I wish to talk to the Committee for a little while in relation to the difficult situation of refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• The Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Willesee) will recall that I asked him a question yesterday relating to the situation and the role of Australian organisations that are involved in the care for, and particularly the resettlement of, Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• The Minister will recall that he replied that an approach was being made to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and that the Government was awaiting advice on the matter. [More…]

• But we live in a century of refugees. [More…]

• All my adult life, some part of the world has been plagued with the difficult problems imposed by refugees. [More…]

• We have lived through programs of the World Refugee Year, and all manner of organisations at international and local level have been and still are working for and on behalf of refugees. [More…]

• Therefore, this Government has plenty of expertise, information, precedent and experience to set out a basis for guidelines with regard to refugees. [More…]

• I question whether it is necessary for the Government to make approaches to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• I admit that perhaps in the international arrangement of things this might be the proper course to take, but it is also my view that if we have to go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, he should have said something about the situation before now. [More…]

• He has been assuring President Ford in relation to Vietnamese refugees that we would take what he called our fair share. [More…]

• True, there may be officers of his Department and other departments who are in the Pacific engaged in what is normally called ‘processing’ people who might be seeking admission to Australia or who might want to come to Australia, or refugees who might be taken to Australia. [More…]

• I think the Government could take greater cognisance of the presence of fleets of ships and vessels and boats, laden with refugees, in various places to our near north. [More…]

• That organisation has personnel and expertise of long experience in handling, receiving and resettling refugees. [More…]

• If what the honourable senator said is correct, it is only a Supply Bill, but we have just spent 15 minutes listening to an honourable senator saying what should be done about Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• It is not the same type of appropriation Bill as the Budget, under which can be raised such questions as why immigration spending is not higher or why health spending is not higher and under which the matter of refugees and so on can be raised. [More…]

• Has the Minister for Foreign Affairs had discussions with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Labor and Immigration on the subject of Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• If so, has any decision been made on the number of refugees to be admitted to Australia? [More…]

• We are following our earlier initiatives with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• We have cabled him telling him that we believe that those refugees who are in Hong Kong and Singapore are under his care and have asked him what he would like us to do about this matter. [More…]

• Yet Mr Sullivan is one of those people who only in these last few weeks were criticising the Government in respect of the refugee problem in South Vietnam and were suggesting that we should open the doors to bring in refugees from South-East Asia. [More…]

• In this report attention is drawn to the problems faced by medical doctors brought to Australia between 1947 and 1954 as refugees from war-torn Europe to become labourers, cane cutters, filing clerks and suicide cases. [More…]

• They are quite entitled to hold those views and I affirm their right to state them, but in so doing I must ask the Senate to look at the effect of that sort of propaganda in a society such as ours where both political parties condemn this sort of thing; in a society such as ours situated in an Asian region, in a society in which the Leader of the Opposition is suggesting that several thousand refugees from Vietnam should be permitted to come into this country when the Government is regularly admitting migrants from South-East Asian countries according to certain guidelines. [More…]

• It was said that we should not take into this country any refugees from Vietnam because they are coloured. [More…]

• I refer to the withdrawal of the Australian Embassy from South Vietnam prior to the occupation of Saigon by the Provisional Revolutionary Government and at a time when Australia’s commitments to some hundreds or more of refugees had not been fulfilled. [More…]

• Mr Kevin Davis, whom the Melbourne Age’ of 29 April last described as a research officer for a privately funded human rights group named the Human Life Research Foundation and who, during the week, has received some publicity as the secretary of an organisation which calls itself the Committee of Concern for Refugees from Indo-China, has issued a number of statements which were highly critical of the Australian Government. [More…]

• They allege that the Government has transported fewer refugees from South Vietnam than it was obliged to have done. [More…]

• So far as I am aware, and after considerable inquiry, neither Mr Davis nor, for that matter, his colleagues in the Committee of Concern for Refugees from Indo-China, the Reverend Nile or Mr Hines of the New South Wales Branch of the Returned Services League, showed no such humanitarian concern for refugees from the civil war in Bangladesh in 1 97 1 or from the civil war in Nigeria at about the same time. [More…]

• In the article reference is made to a number of boats carrying Vietnamese refugees proceeding from Singapore to Australia. [More…]

• What plans has the Government to facilitate the arrival and acceptance of the refugees in Australia? [More…]

• Is the Minister for Foreign Affairs aware that the Australian Society for Inter-Country Aid to Children, known as ASIAC, has a medical team of 13 personnel presently working among refugees on Guam? [More…]

• Will the Minister indicate the current situation in relation to the admission to Australia of South Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• Foreign Affairs to reports in today’s Press concerning a mission leaving for Hong Kong to determine the number of Vietnamese refugees eligible to enter Australia. [More…]

• Is this mission visiting Hong Kong at the request or suggestion of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees? [More…]

• -A team left, I think, yesterday morning for Hong Kong to do a survey of the refugees there. [More…]

• Vietnamese Refugees: Offer of Assistance by World Christian Action [More…]

• My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and is in relation to the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• I ask: Is the Minister aware that the voluntary agency known as World Christian Action has indicated to the Government that it is prepared to render the maximum co-operation and assistance to the Government in resettlement of the Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• Will he respond to its offer of assistance by conferring with it and widening the criteria for the admission of Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• What has happened regarding the whole question of refugees is that we have made an approach through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Had Mr Darby assembled, for the purpose of assisting with the care of the refugees, several tons of pharmaceutical goods, dried milk and other foodstuffs, together with teams of doctors and nurses? [More…]

• Was the plan to establish an Australian presence to serve humanitarian objectives for the large number of Vietnamese refugees in Guam and, as such, was the proposed mission one of which all Australians would approve? [More…]

• Mr Michael Darby informed my Department early in May that he had collected 1000 kgs of drugs plus 4 tonnes of other unspecified supplies for Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• He also stated that he had assembled a number of doctors and nurses who were available to work with Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• The plight and circumstances of refugees and other persons forced to leave South Vietnam following the occupation of that area by North Vietnamese forces, together with the existing and future circumstances of all South Vietnamese students now in Australia and their close relatives. [More…]

• That happened in relation to the Ermolenko affair, the South Vietnamese orphans and the South Vietnamese refugees, and the pattern seems to be repeating itself today. [More…]

• I refer the Minister for Foreign Affairs to reports in today’s Press concerning a mission leaving for Hong Kong to determine the number of Vietnamese refugees eligible to enter Australia. [More…]

• Is this mission visiting Hong Kong at the request or suggestion of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees? [More…]

• I confirmed that a team had gone to Hong Kong to do a survey of refugees and undertook to see what further information could be obtained with regard to any ships that might be heading for Australia carrying refugees. [More…]

• I wish to advise the honourable senator that from the information available to the Government it does appear that any ships carrying Vietnamese refugees have headed for Australia. [More…]

• The Australian Government took prompt action in approaching the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to urge that there should be co-ordinated international action under the direction of the High Commissioner for the placement of refugees from Vietnam in as many countries as possible. [More…]

• The Government subsequently received an official approach from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees asking it to take some of the refugees and the Government replied that it was willing to do so. [More…]

• Immigration officers were also sent to Hong Kong where they processed and arranged for the movement to Australia by charter flight of 20 1 Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• The Government is in touch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about the general situation of Vietnamese refugees and is examining what further action it might take. [More…]

• As the Prime Minister has announced, the criteria for refugees are obviously wider than normal migrant criteria. [More…]

• -On 10 June 1975 (Hansard page 2389) Senator Sim, Western Australia, asked the Minister for Labor and Immigration How far have the guidelines laid down by the Prime Minister prevented South Vietnamese refugees from entering Australia on humanitarian grounds? [More…]

• Does the Minister accept the fact that South Vietnamese refugees pose a great human problem and that Australia has a role to play in alleviating this problem?’ [More…]

• The guidelines which I laid down for the admission of refugees from South Vietnam take into account those categories of people who have had the closest links with Australia, i.e. [More…]

• Immigration officers have been sent to such places as Guam and Hong Kong and the Government has provided aircraft to bring approved cases to Australia, the most recent instance being the airlift of 201 refugees from Hong Kong. [More…]

• As I explained in my answer on 5 June 1975 (House of Representatives Hansard page 3403), the criteria for the admission of” refugees from Vietnam to Australia are wider than the criteria which applied to migrants from Vietnam before the change of Government in that country and than those applying to evacuees from Vietnam who are now within American jurisdiction. [More…]

• The Government has consistently maintained that an international effort under the direction of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who has the experience and respect required to carry out a humane and effective program, offers the best solution to the difficult problem of repatriating or resettling refugees from South Vietnam. [More…]

• Since then we have been in continual contact with the UNHCR about the resettlement of refugees. [More…]

• The Australian Government has been both humane and generous in responding to the plight of refugees from Vietnam and has, I believe, made a significant contribution to alleviating the hardships they have experienced. [More…]

• Does the Australian Government recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the representative ofthe disparate groups of refugees in the Middle East. [More…]

• My question, which I direct to the Minister for Agriculture, concerns the arrival of refugees from Timor at Darwin and the possible introduction of foot and mouth disease or other animal diseases. [More…]

• What efforts are being made to ensure that such diseases do not enter Australia by way of Timor refugees? [More…]

• This versatile ship could also be used for civilian emergency tasks such as rescue work and the evacuation of refugees. [More…]

• The facts of the situation relating to the Timor refugees completely belie that criticism. [More…]

• Is it not a fact that a distinction has been drawn by the Government in the case of certain refugees from South Vietnam who have been requested by the Government to give a written pledge or undertaking not to take pan in political activity in Australia? [More…]

• I think that what motivated the Government in asking these gentlemen for these pledges- I understand that this is not entirely an unprecedented act but one which has some precedent in the lives of previous governments- was not any desire to discriminate, but after the long, dreadful war which has caused us to have refugees from Vietnam at all, a war which was enthusiastically supported by our opponents, a war on which they constantly poured fuel, a war which they assisted to prolong, we are anxious that those whom we receive from that unfortunate country should not form a tiny enclave in this country to plot against the Government which has been set up in Vietnam. [More…]

• I refer to the statement made by the Minister yesterday to the effect that refugees from East Timor will be allowed to stay in Australia. [More…]

• Since the Government is using double standards with regard to refugees from different countries- for example, Chile in contrast to South Vietnam- will the Minister at the earliest possible date issue a series of uniform principles to cover all those people, including refugees, from all countries who seek permanent residence in Australia? [More…]

• We have concentrated, in respect of the Timorese refugees, on putting first things first; that is, on making transport available to get them out of the country, on making transport available to bring them to southern centres so that they will not impose an additional burden upon the beleaguered city of Darwin, on providing them with clothing and food, on providing them with some tuition in basic English and, in many cases, on providing them with jobs. [More…]

• My question, addressed to the Minister for Labor and Immigration, relates to the entry into this country of refugees from East Timor, an area where several diseases, including in particular malaria and amoebic dysentery and amoebiasis are endemic. [More…]

• Will the Government give an assurance that it will screen refugees for any transmissible infectious diseases such as malaria and amoebiasis, both of which can occur in Australia, especially since these refugees may have been at greater than usual risk during the period of turmoil that preceded their escape to Australia? [More…]

• These figures have been confirmed by the International Committee of the Red Cross which also reports that a high proportion of the refugees are women and children. [More…]

• Is not this, in terms of a percentage of the total population, one of the greatest mass movements of refugees in modern history? [More…]

• -I ask the Minister for Labor and Immigration whether there is any truth in the report that Australia has refused to allow refugees from Vietnam who are highly qualified professionally to enter Australia from a Hong Kong holding centre. [More…]

• Between 23 and 27 August four communications from the Portuguese Government were submitted for circulation as United Nations documents: On 23 August the Portuguese Foreign Minister alerted the Secretary-General to the gravity of the situation and referred to the Portuguese appeal to Australia and Indonesia for ‘support and assistance in the humanitarian tasks’; on 25 August the Foreign Minister referred especially to a message from the Governor of Portuguese Timor asking for ‘immediate intervention of international forces’ to assist with evacuation operations; on 25 August the Portuguese Charge d ‘Affaires in New York advised the Secretary-General that the Portuguese Government had appealed to the governments of Indonesia and Australia to adopt ‘measures permitting the resumption of humanitarian operations to evacuate refugees’; and on 27 August the Charge d ‘Affaires advised the Secretary-General that the Portuguese authorities had been obliged to withdraw military doctors from Dili because Fretilin had ‘refused to consider the hospital a neutral zone ‘. [More…]

• I put to the Minister for Labor and Immigration that a pattern seems to be emerging from questions emanating from the Opposition about Chilean refugees which imply that undue favouritism is shown to what might be called the ultra-left. [More…]

• These figures have been confirmed by the International Committee of the Red Cross which also reports that a high proportion of the refugees are women and children. [More…]

• I remind honourable senators that Australia has previously assisted South Vietnam, along with other Indo-China states, by the provision of cash and commodity aid through multilateral agencies such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. [More…]

• -We have now had confirmation that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has made arrangements with the PRG authorities for a number of foreigners who were caught in South Vietnam during the fighting in March to be flown from Hanoi to Bangkok via Vientiane at the end of this week. [More…]

• Since then I have had communication with the United Nations Commissioner on Refugees who is likewise concerned. [More…]

• Will he state categorically that such persons, as refugees, will be regarded as refugees under Australia’s commitment under the International Treaty on Refugees? [More…]

• Indonesia can, of course, point to the presence of over 40 000 refugees in her territory- some 7 per cent of Portuguese Timor’s entire population. [More…]

• I ask the Minister for Labor and Immigration whether there is any truth in the report that Australia has refused to allow refugees from Vietnam who are highly qualified professionally to enter Australia from a Hong Kong holding centre. [More…]

• Is the Minister unwilling to give normal refugee status to people seeking the substance of the protection of the terms of the international treaty on refugees? [More…]

• There was also agreement on the need to solve the problem posed by the presence of refugees in Indonesian Timor and by the holding of 23 Portuguese soldiers by UDT. [More…]

• I would like to add my support to the remarks made by Senator Wood on the report and point out to the Senate that the delegation was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit the north-east province of Thailand where we were able to get into proper perspective the many problems of provincial civil administration of refugees in that area. [More…]

• Australia has also contributed $4.7m this year to the multilateral agencies operating in Indo-China, namely the Indo-China Bureau of International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). [More…]

• I do not intend unduly to intrude on this adjournment debate but I am mindful of the interest of a number of honourable senators in the ability of Australia effectively to house the growing number of refugees as a result of the turbulence in the world today. [More…]

• In fairness to the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) at the conclusion of my speech I will present 4 documents comprising a request from the Portuguese community in Sydney dealing with certain refugees from Timor, my submission to the Minister and her reply- the Minister will understand that I am not pre-empting what she may say after my remarks- and finally a letter from a former illustrious Minister for Immigration in the person of the honourable Clyde Cameron which refers to a survey that was being made. [More…]

• Peacock) to suggest to the Government in Lisbon as Australia, unconcerned with the ideological issues, took in Timorese refugees, that Government should expedite the forwarding of cheques for these people of advanced age. [More…]

• It is a fact of life that Australian governments will come and go- I hope frequently- but every year we will be inheriting problems of refugees who will be of different age groups. [More…]

• This Government may say that it can take 400, 1000 or 2000 refugees but when they arrive here we have secondary problems. [More…]

• I think people such as Senator Davidson would agree with me that some of the papers which have been produced already about Vietnamese refugees in the middle west States of America have borne out the problems with which we are confronted. [More…]

• I appreciate the point that we might advocate accepting more people from Chile and this Government might suggest another country from which we might accept a considerable number of refugees. [More…]

• I have asked my Department to investigate and report on Australia’s capacity to accept those refugees and neorefugees who need post-arrival support and other special facilities. [More…]

• The Cameron document also said that we must assess the assistance that can be given in this country by the fellow-countrymen of refugees. [More…]

• The Government is faced with a fairly high influx of such refugees. [More…]

• It will be seen that this communication relates to certain refugees from TIMOR and a cessation of their special relief benefits. [More…]

• as refugees. [More…]

• Furthermore, Mr Alberto has observed that a number of refugees of his age group, presently in Australia, are in continued receipt of benefit. [More…]

• Having noted that these refugees are residents at the migrant hostels, Mr Alberto has stated his wish to be so housed himself, thus lessening the burden on his daughter and son-in-law. [More…]

• Your views, that we should pay some special relief benefit to refugees from Timor and subsequently claim on Portugal for reimbursement, have been noted. [More…]

• You have my assurance that the Government recognises the plight of refugees throughout the world and that Australia will, within the limits of its capabilities, assist wherever possible. [More…]

• This assistance is not limited to financial contributions to bodies such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees; sympathetic consideration is given to cases of genuine hardship and, wherever possible, appropriate facilities for admission to Australia are expedited. [More…]

• The intransigence of the problem, however, precludes easy’ solutions; refugees normally include, in addition to those who would face no problems in resettlement, many who need substantial and continuing assistance. [More…]

• This is not an isolated example; other ‘hard core’ refugees are handicapped physically or in other ways and we have been unable to accept them because Australia has, in the past, lacked the domestic and social machinery which some other countries have had to cope with such cases. [More…]

• Australia’s capacity to accept handicapped refugees depends very heavily on our utilising, to the fullest extent possible, the resources of voluntary agencies and similar organisations which have demonstrated an active interest in the problem. [More…]

• I want to determine precisely how Australia can move towards a more prominent role in resettling handicapped and other refugees. [More…]

• I have asked my Department to investigate and report on Australia’s capacity to accept those refugees and neorefugees who need post-arrival support and other special facilities. [More…]

• I ask: Has the Minister noted reports today that a group of Vietnamese refugees who have been confined in Malaysia for the last 3 months are about to arrive in Australia? [More…]

• In answer to the question, I am able to state that the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs announced that Australia would offer sanctuary to more IndoChinese refugees. [More…]

• He announced that preference would be given to refugees closely related to people already living in Australia and that priority would be given to re-uniting spouses and children with their families in Australia. [More…]

• There were reports in the Press recently of 27 Vietnamese refugees camped on the east coast of Malaysia. [More…]

• I take this opportunity to say that the Department of Social Security will be responsible for paying special benefits to refugees who do come here until employment can be arranged for them. [More…]

• We will be responsible also for providing general supportive and welfare services to the refugees once they have arrived in Australia.The migrant services section of my Department will liaise with the Department of Immigration and EthnicAffairs indeed with all other departments such as the Department of Education, the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, the Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development- to enable any difficulties to be overcome with regard to the refugees on their arrival in this country. [More…]

• I want now to refer to another point dealing with political refugees. [More…]

• Last night I pointed out to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Senator Guilfoyle) the fears and views of Mr Clyde Cameron, the honourable member for Hindmarsh, who has referred to the increasing problem of political refugees. [More…]

• What I am worried about is that the new Government, although it is taking in refugees from Vietnam and Timor, is not worrying about those people who have been suffering in dungeons in Santiago. [More…]

• I want to refer again to the political refugees from Chile. [More…]

• The decision has to be made whether we take the trade union activist who may live in fear of his life before other refugees. [More…]

• If I was in the place of Senator Guilfoyle I would fix the number of refugees to come from countries such as Chile, otherwise we will have a preponderance of refugees from certain countries. [More…]

• For example, there is a report to come from the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in relation to Vietnamese refugees which has not been completed. [More…]

• Senator Sir Magnus Cormack referred to the report on Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• In response to its inquiries in Jakarta, the Government was informed that the figures of 50 000-60 000 mentioned by Mr da Cruz related to victims of the fighting since it first began in August 1975, and that the figures included the 40 000 refugees who fled to Indonesian Timor in August and September, as well as others displaced from their homes as a result of the fighting. [More…]

• These people, many of whom are refugees, are unaware whether their families are well, whether they have been ordered not to write, whether they are being reeducated or whether they are in concentration camps. [More…]

• Honourable senators may recall that when the refugees left Timor quite a number of them came to the Northern Territory. [More…]

• -Is the Minister for Social Security aware that there is some uncertainty and delay concerning the adoption processes for Vietnamese refugees and that the problem is occurring, at least in part, in South Australia? [More…]

• It should be stated that at present I am the guardian of any of the Vietnamese refugees who come to Australia and who are awaiting adoption. [More…]

• In response to its inquiries in Jarkarta, the Government was informed that the figures of 50 000-60 000 mentioned by Mr da Cruz related to victims of the fighting since it first began in August 1975, and that the figures included the 40 000 refugees who fled to Indonesian Timor in August and September . [More…]

• I now ask: From whom in Jarkarta did the Government obtain its information that the 50 000 to 60 000 casualties included 40 000 refugees? [More…]

• The Department of Foreign Affairs accepts the reports of the United Nations Refugee Commission on political refugees. [More…]

• Australia, together with a number of other countries, is pledged to accept a number of refugees who want to make a fresh start. [More…]

• I remember that last year, when I was asking a question of Senator Willesee in this place, Senator Carrick made some disparaging remarks about the 40 000 refugees who were alleged to be inside the border of Indonesia. [More…]

• In response to its inquiries in Jakarta, the Government - that is the Australian Government- was informed that the .figures of 50 000-60 000 mentioned by Mr da Cruz related to victims of the fighting since it first began in August 197S, and that the figures included the 40 000 refugees who fled to Indonesian Timor in August and September, as well as others displaced from their homes as a result of the fighting. [More…]

• It has dealt with subjects such as Japan, the Australian Army, Australia and the United Nations involvement in Australian territories, Vietnamese refugees and, shortly, it will deal with the subject of the Indian Ocean. [More…]

• Are tertiary allowances under the tertiary education assistance scheme available to Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees now living in Australia as settlers? [More…]

• If so, can the Minister indicate the conditions under which these allowances are paid to such refugees? [More…]

• Is the Minister able to say whether some refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia have been unable to obtain such allowances because they cannot be means tested as it is impossible to trace or assess their parents’ means in their country of origin? [More…]

• Have appeals been heard concerning people in such circumstances and can the Minister say whether some special consideration might be given to them in view of their situation as refugees? [More…]

• Allowances under the tertiary education assistance scheme are in general available to Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees and there are academic and means tests applied. [More…]

• It has made contributions of aid to the Timor circumstance, both to the refugees in Indonesian Timor and to Timorese refugees in Australia; so it should, and so it has done, and so it will do. [More…]

• 1 ) The number of imported cases of malaria detected in Australia from 1970-1975 were as follows: 1970-199; 1971-220; 1972-170; 1973-194; 1974-201; 1975-241 (this figure includes Timorese refugees). [More…]

• I have received representations from Timorese refugees now residing in Darwin who wish to make arrangements for relatives and friends to leave Timor and take refuge in Darwin. [More…]

• I refer to reports, which I understand are accurate, that of the 61 Vietnamese refugees who came from Thailand to Australia in March this year, only three were related to Vietnamese people already living in Australia. [More…]

• Does this indicate that family reunion was not a major consideration in deciding which Vietnamese refugees were permitted to come to Australia on that occasion? [More…]

• I also ask whether the Government is planning at this stage to bring to Australia further Vietnamese refugees, for example from Thailand? [More…]

• It is a fact that earlier this year- I believe in January- the Minister for Immigration announced that we would offer sanctuary to some 800 Indo-Chinese refugees and that preference would be given to refugees closely related to people already living in this country. [More…]

• There are a number of refugees resident in Australia who have contacted the Department recently seeking assistance to bring close relatives to this country. [More…]

• Are tertiary allowances under the tertiary education assistance scheme available to Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees now living in Australia as settlers? [More…]

• If so, can the Minister indicate the conditions under which these allowances are paid to such refugees? [More…]

• Is the Minister able to say whether some refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia have been unable to obtain such allowances because they cannot be means tested as it is impossible to trace or assess their parents’ means in their country of origin? [More…]

• Have appeals been heard concerning people in such circumstances and can the Minister say whether some special consideration might be given to them in view of their situation as refugees? [More…]

• Before any deportation orders are signed in respect of Chilean migrants, will the Acting Minister ensure, firstly, that interpreter services are made available to the people concerned and, secondly, that steps are taken to ensure that they have every opportunity to explain whether they class themselves as political refugees from Chile? [More…]

• I feel sure that I could give an undertaking on behalf of the Acting Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs with regard to matters relating to political refugees. [More…]

• In answering the earlier question I did refer to those who would fall within a special category and who claimed that they were political refugees. [More…]

• refugees, or where other exceptional factors are present. [More…]

• Is it a fact that of 61 Vietnamese refugees who came from Thailand to Australia in March this year, only three were related to Vietnamese people already living in Australia. [More…]

• Does this indicate that family reunion was not a major consideration in deciding which Vietnamese refugees were permitted to come to Australia. [More…]

• Is the Government planning to bring to Australia further Vietnamese refugees, for example from Thailand; if so, will special emphasis be given to family reunion. [More…]

• The group of 568 Indo-China refugees from Thailand who arrived in Australia included 28 Cambodians and 1 10 Laotians who have close family relationships with Australian residents. [More…]

• Although the immigration selection team had lists of all Vietnamese close relatives in Thailand who had been sponsored for entry by Australian residents and more assiduous efforts to locate all of them, it was able to make contact with only the three Vietnamese refugees who were approved. [More…]

• 1 can assure the honourable senator, however, that the position is being kept under continuing examination in consultation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• I emphasise that any Indo-Chinese refugees in Thailand or elsewhere who qualify for entry under the normal migration criteria are approved for entry to [More…]

• This means that any refugees who are the spouses, dependent children or parents of Austraiian residents would be approved as migrants provided they met the normal health and character requirements for migrants. [More…]

• I was in Senator Willesee ‘s office half a dozen times when these people told Senator Willesee that there were 50 000 refugees from East Timor in Indonesia. [More…]

• Yet our Department was telling us that there was such a great quantity of refugees arising out of the seizure of power following the failure of the coup when the Fretlin movement took office in September last year. [More…]

• 1 ) Is it a fact that many of the 300 Timorese refugees at present living in Darwin wish to make application for emergency housing and are prevented from so doing because they do not hold permanent resident status. [More…]

• Can the Minister indicate to the Senate the role being performed in Cyprus by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the billeting of Lebanese refugees, in view of the heavy responsibilities that face Australia and Canada in taking a percentage of those refugees? [More…]

• -I am informed by my colleague, Mr Peacock, that the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has already proposed to the Cyprus Government that a number of Lebanese citizens be accommodated, if necessary, in former Greek Cypriot refugee camps where facilities may be available. [More…]

• I point out that although his Office has made this proposal, it is necessary to note that the High Commissioner for Refugees has not yet accorded refugee status to persons affected by the situation in Lebanon. [More…]

• In view of the compassion shown by Australian governments generally to political refugees from Vietnam will the Government give urgent consideration to applying the same humane principles to these political refugees from Chile? [More…]

• -Will the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs confirm that refugees from Vietnam recently have arrived in ports around the Gulf of Siam and are not allowed to land at those ports? [More…]

• Is there any information on whether these refugees are without supplies of food or medical attention? [More…]

• Can the Minister advise whether Australia has extended, or intends to extend, to some of these refugees the asylum it offered 22 others from Vietnam who recently were allowed to come here after fleeing from that country by ship? [More…]

• I understand that a considerable number of refugees from Vietnam are in vessels in waters off the South-East Asian coast. [More…]

• I understand also that many of these refugees have limited supplies of food and that medical attention may not be available if they need it. [More…]

• The scale of this problem requires an international effort to enable all the refugees on these vessels to be resettled. [More…]

• In view of these disturbing reports and the fact that many Timorese are being killed unnecessarily, will the Government renew its endeavours with the Indonesian Government with a view to bringing about a cessation of hostilities and so allowing communication between Timor and Australia in order to permit the transfer of refugees and /or much needed aid? [More…]

• Is any special effort being made to assist the thousands of Cambodians who are refugees in camps in Thailand? [More…]

• Will the Government adopt a more generous policy towards the entry into Australia of more refugees from this area of South East Asia? [More…]

• I refer to the problem being experienced by Timorese corning to Australia, in many cases to be reunited with their families in the eastern States of Australia, and also in Darwin, Northern Territory, where several hundred refugees are living. [More…]

• Can the Government give an assurance that it is very aware of the plight and hardship in which Timorese refugees are living in Australia and that it is the Government’s intention to find ways and means of assisting communication between Timor and Australia to help the people of Timor, to assist in providing urgently needed supplies and to use its influence to bring Timor back from a’ state of siege? [More…]

• Being mindful of the number of refugees from various countries who have come to Australia for safety and who would like to remain, and taking into consideration also many migrants who have permanent resident status and many Australian citizens who are unemployed and unable to gain employment and who are consistently being called dole bludgers by supporters of the Government, I ask: What action will be taken against Miss Santangelo, who was refused migration to Australia on the basis that she does not have a skilled trade? [More…]

• I hope that without waiting until next year we will get interim reports from the Government on the more or less 5 000 refugees a year we take and how we will rationalise this intake as between Lebanese and people from a host of other countries, some of which already have turmoil and others which could be on the verge of it. [More…]

• I think we should prepare a master list based on information provided by people in Australia who sponsor refugees who are waiting in Syria or Egypt, or even those who might have gone into other parts of Europe away from Greece or Cyprus. [More…]

• I have received criticism to the effect that the big difficulty is that when refugees arrive at the refugee offices they might be there for a week or longer before they are actually interviewed. [More…]

• If Australia and Canada are rightly part of what has been called the New World meeting the full impact of the refugees we should have a bigger say in the determination of the United Nations Refugee Commission ‘s policy. [More…]

• By way of preface, I refer to the decision of the New Zealand Government, at the request of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to accept a further group of Chileans who have been subject to political duress under the Allende Government- a term which the Minister has used and a term which the Department uses for people in that category. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: Have we been asked by the High Commissioner for Refugees to assist with this further lift? [More…]

• I am informed that earlier this year the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs discussed the matter raised by the honourable senator with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. [More…]

• In answer to the special appeal of the United Nations of 22 June the Australian Government has agreed to continue to accept for settlement those refugees who meet our normal migration criteria. [More…]

• Our embassy in Buenos Aires has been instructed to give priority, as far as this is possible, to applications from Chilean refugees who appear to meet these migration criteria. [More…]

• In addition, the embassy has been instructed to refer for consideration applications from refugees who are not normally within the class eligible for entry but who are adjudged to warrant special consideration. [More…]

• Figures relating to the movement of Chilean refugees to Australia in the years 1 973-74 to 1 975-76 are as follows: [More…]

• I thought that the Government was not only saying what its policy is but was also attempting to do something about helping the Timorese refugees in Australia and those who are in need in Timor. [More…]

• Sometimes these white Rhodesians are depicted as refugees. [More…]

• But even if these people were genuine refugees there can be no justification for granting priority to them over other genuine and established refugees from countries like Thailand, Timor, the Lebanon or, for that matter, Chile. [More…]

• Mr Bond demands not only that these people be given special priority as refugees but also that the normal processing time through the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, which is stated to be 8 to 12 weeks, be speeded up to 2 1 days. [More…]

• As the representative in this chamber of the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr MacKellar), Senator Guilfoyle would know that there is a lot of interest in that area concerning Chilean refugees. [More…]

• I ask the Minister representing the Minister for the Northern Territory: Is it a fact that a South Vietnamese vessel arrived in Darwin harbour today without arrangement or permission and carrying some 50 persons rumoured to be refugees? [More…]

• It was carrying some 50 to 60 refugees. [More…]

• I understand the refugees are to be placed in quarantine. [More…]

• The Senate can be assured that emergency services in Darwin have been alerted and they are looking after the needs of those refugees. [More…]

• Is the Minister in a position to indicate the Government’s attitude to these refugees and what is their future in Australia? [More…]

• Are the refugees family groups or single persons? [More…]

• I have some information with regard to the arrival in Darwin yesterday of a 35-foot fishing boat which came from Vietnam with 50 refugees on board. [More…]

• That boat left Vietnam on 17 October and went to Singapore where, it was reported, the refugees were refused permission to land. [More…]

• The refugees are at present at the quarantine station in Darwin pending the decision of the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs as to their status. [More…]

• The refugees are currently undergoing full medical examination, but preliminary examination reveals that they are all in good health with the exception of 6 children who are suffering from scabies. [More…]

• I have no more information at this stage as to how we are able to assist these refugees or what will be their status. [More…]

• Senator Kilgariff asked me a question with regard to refugees arriving in Darwin. [More…]

• The information is that the refugees are presently being interviewed in Darwin by officers of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. [More…]

• Consideration presently is being given to moving the refugees out of Darwin, which has a housing problem, to a State or States. [More…]

• Once the refugees are no longer subject to quarantine provisions, arrangements will be made to house them elsewhere. [More…]

• In addition, officers of the migrant services section of the Department of Social Security in the State or States to which these refugees will be transferred will be made available to the refugees to provide whatever services are required. [More…]

• It should be stressed that until the investigations by the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs have been completed no precise information as to the future placement of these refugees can be given. [More…]

• Firstly, I do not know how that squares with the United Nations Convention on the status of refugees in respect of persons who, for example, could have a very well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race or political opinion. [More…]

• I refer to a question asked by Senator Georges on 11 November 1976 concerning East Timor refugees. [More…]

• Is the Minister in a position to state whether the Government will assist East Timorese refugees now living in Portugal to come to Australia? [More…]

• Will the Government undertake to provide some of the $250,000 which was promised to the discredited Indonesian Red Cross to be diverted to assist East Timor refugees in Portugal? [More…]

• I have paid tribute before to the schools set up for the Timorese refugees. [More…]

• When I use the term ‘migrants’, in some cases I should use the term ‘political refugees’ or, more correctly people under political duress’. [More…]

• The difficulty in this instance arises with the term ‘political refugees’. [More…]

• I refer to a question on notice that my colleague in the other place, the honourable member for Melbourne, Mr Innes, asked recently about displaced persons and refugees. [More…]

• In the answer to 2 (b) the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs said that the United Nations defined certain Chileans as political refugees. [More…]

• Before I do, I say quite frankly to the Minister for Social Security that people from one or two other countries have been accepted by this Government as political refugees. [More…]

• It is critical of departments for the lack of understanding and appreciation of the problem of refugees as distinct from migrants. [More…]

• Finally, the Committee draws attention to the need for positive Ministerial involvement in the matter of the settlement of the Vietnamese, Timorese, Indochinese and other refugees. [More…]

• We regret the failure of Ministers- in the face of available evidence- to react decisively and with sensitivity to the refugees’ needs. [More…]

• Until this is done, some refugees may be little better off in Australia than they would have been had they remained in their own countries. [More…]

• Unless we have a policy which is well thought out and which enables us to respond quickly and effectively to refugee crises I am afraid that the problems and the muddle which have been the major factor with Vietnamese, Timorese and other refugees will recur. [More…]

• It believes that refugees, who in some senses may have the same problems as many migrants, come here in most dramatic circumstances, confused and separated from their families with little or no possessions. [More…]

• This happened with Vietnamese, Indo-Chinese and maybe Timorese refugees and, unfortunately, in the world in which we live today it is likely to occur again. [More…]

• We think that Australia has a part to play in the overall approach to refugees, the international approach through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. [More…]

• We believe that this council should be within the staffing and control of the Prime Minister’s Department, that there should be overall planning and coordination of government activity and the establishment of an interdepartmental committee on refugees. [More…]

• One of the lessons we have learned is the complete lack of co-ordination between the government departments involved with refugees. [More…]

• My colleague Senator Sibraa saw the United States settlement of Vietnamese refugees and, from his report, the United States has been far more successful than we have, despite the huge numbers it took. [More…]

• Whilst the Australian populace put its heart out to the refugees from Vietnam some 18 months ago, in my opinion there was a feeling abroad that once they were brought here they were safe and all would be well. [More…]

• The facts which emerged from our investigation show that all is not well and that a great deal more work needs to be done by governments and departments if we are to bring refugees into this country again in similar circumstances and if they are going to settle down and live a fulfilling and rewarding life in this country. [More…]

• I believe that a number of refugees who have been settled in this country from Vietnam, as the report indicates, would have been better off if they had stayed in their own country. [More…]

• The question requires a specific answer with regard to Government policy on asylum for political refugees. [More…]

• It concerns the excellent report of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on the plight and circumstances of Vietnamese and other refugees. [More…]

• I ask: In view of the important work already carried out by Dr Jean Martin in her longitudinal study of Vietnamese refugees in Australia- a study curtailed by the present Government- and Dr Martin’s attempts to obtain funds for a follow-up study next year, will the Minister discuss with the Prime Minister the question of a government grant to allow this important study to be carried out? [More…]

• That is why Timorese refugees from Indonesian aggression have been refused special consideration for migration to Australia. [More…]

• How many applications were received for residency status from East Timor refugees. [More…]

• Have any applications for visas to Australia been received from East Timor refugees now in Portugal. [More…]

• The Committee investigated the problems of Vietnamese and other refugees. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that yesterday the Thailand Government announced that it would stop accepting refugees from Indo-China by the end of this year, that is, by 3 1 December 1 976? [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that the number of refugees from Vietnam is still running extremely high, even though it is 18 months since the cessation of hostilities in that country? [More…]

• Will the Minister obtain from her colleague in the other place a commitment that Australia will take a substantial number of refugees? [More…]

• I am not aware of the statement by the Thai Government that it will stop accepting refugees by the end of this year. [More…]

• But I believe the Senate is aware of many statements which have been made by the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs in past months about our assistance and our willingness to assist those refugees whom we are able to help in Australia. [More…]

• Will the Government apply the same criteria to those applications, as it applied to applications from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and East Timor refugees. [More…]

• These people would not be regarded as refugees and it would be inappropriate to consider their claims for migrant entry to Australia as being different from those of many others desiring to settle here. [More…]

• -On 11 November 1976 (Hansard, page 1851) Senator Georges asked me, as Minister representing the Prime Minister, a question without notice about Timorese refugees seeking to enter Australia. [More…]

• During my visit to Indonesia, President Suharto and I agreed that Australian and Indonesian officials should meet to resolve the problems of the refugees who had come to Australia from East Timor without their families. [More…]

• -On 8 December 1976 (Hansard, page 2782) Senator Primmer asked me, as Minister representing the Prime Minister, a question without notice concerning the possibility of the longitudinal study of Vietnamese refugees in Australia commenced by Dr J. Martin, being resumed. [More…]

• Any request for assistance with a longitudinal study of Vietnamese refugees in Australia would be included in the Government’s general consideration. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and I refer to processes at reception centres for refugees from various places in South East Asia, particularly Thailand. [More…]

• Can the Minister and the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs give assurances in relation to health checks and tests in Australia on these refugees? [More…]

• Is the Minister aware of concern being expressed at reports that some refugees are moving into the community before tests have been completed, which is seen as a possible threat to the health of the community and, more particularly, to the future of the humanitarian refugee program? [More…]

• I seek from the Minister information relating to the health care of refugees. [More…]

• If I were to answer the question in a general way I would not be giving as much information as I could about the more recent arrival of refugees from South East Asia. [More…]

• My Department, which has responsibility for post-arrival services for refugees in Australia, has convened meetings of refugee settlement co-ordination committees in each of the States receiving refugees to ensure that there is close co-operation between Commonwealth and State departments and voluntary agencies in providing assistance upon arrival and subsequently co-ordinating orientation and settlement activities. [More…]

• Representatives of the State and Commonwealth Departments of Health are on the committees to which I have referred and they have co-operated closely and undertaken a detailed program of medical examinations and tests on the refugees upon their arrival in Australia. [More…]

• With regard to South Australia, in which I would assume the honourable senator is particularly interested, I am able to say that in Adelaide a comprehensive screening program was commenced by the South Australian Department of Public Health upon the refugees’ arrival at Pennington hostel. [More…]

• All the refugees have been immunised against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. [More…]

• State health authorities in South Australia, and I assume in other States, have provided and are continuing to provide a nurse to attend refugees at the hostels and at Commonwealth hostels. [More…]

• Nurses have been engaged for 2 weeks following the arrivals of refugees to care for the 26 migrant children who arrived without close relatives until more permanent arrangements can be made. [More…]

• Since their arrival in Adelaide 2 group sessions in hygiene have been undertaken with the refugees. [More…]

• Assurances can be given that every step has been and will continue to be undertaken to ensure that there is no risk to public health from the refugees group and that appropriate treatment is being prescribed for individuals where necessary before their entry into the community. [More…]

• I preface it by stating that I have received a number of representations from East Timorese refugees now residing in Australia who are extremely concerned at the delays in processing visa applications from East Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• Is the Government treating them as migrants or refugees for the purpose of visa applications? [More…]

• Will East Timorese refugees in Portugal who have no relatives in Australia be permitted to reside in Australia? [More…]

• We have now the report of Mr Dunn, which was prepared by him after talking to East Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• The intake of migrants has also to a large degree even considering the bipartisan approach to political refugees. [More…]

• They now find themselves as political refugees in Portugal, which is their sovereign country. [More…]

• I refer to the Government’s policy on political refugees and political asylum and ask whether a universal policy or a policy variant is applied to these matters, depending upon our relations with the country of origin of the applicant. [More…]

• I propose to deal with the subjects of refugees and foreign affairs and also the vital issue of the inability of many married people within Australia to obtain homes. [More…]

• The collection of basic source material from East Timorese refugees by Mr Dunn and Mr Gordon Bryant has, I believe, exposed the very brutal and bad treatment meted out to the East Timorese civilian population by the occupying Indonesian forces. [More…]

• b) the plight of refugees from East Timor; [More…]

• Rather, the reports of atrocities have come from Indonesian Christian Aid sources and refugees who are now living in squalor in Portugal. [More…]

• Domestic refugees [More…]

• The domestic refugees are farmers from the border region in Timor Indonesia. [More…]

• The East Timor refugees received dish money Rp 100.- per person per day. [More…]

• But the help for the domestic refugees is far from satisfactory with many leakages. [More…]

• It was the work of Mr Gordon Bryant, MHR, and Mr Jim Dunn, in interviewing East Timorese refugees in Lisbon last January, that brought clearly to the attention of Australia and other peoples around the world a graphic picture of brutality. [More…]

• Firstly, Mr Dunn said in his report that the refugees agreed that reports that the Indonesians had murdered as many as 100 000 East Timorese were credible due to the widespread killing in the mountain areas of East Timor and the fact that extensive bombing had been mounted against the East Timorese. [More…]

• Finally, and most disturbingly, the report recounts a refugee’s witness of the killing of all the Chinese men in a Dili apartment which had housed 20 refugees. [More…]

• From evidence gathered by Mr Dunn from refugees in Portugal it appears that Indonesian armed forces were responsible for the deaths of the 6 Australian journalists in Balibo on 16 October 1975 and in Dili on 7 December 1975. [More…]

• There is considerable evidence which demands conscientious investigation and I am confident that the Timorese refugees, given the chance, would be prepared to appear before an inquiry. [More…]

• But what our colonial misdeeds of a bygone age have to do with the monstrous bloodletting alleged to have occurred in Timor (and on which Mr Dunn has painstakingly built up a substantial dossier from the accounts of refugees) is another matter. [More…]

• I direct a question to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and refer to a report prepared by Mr Dunn bf the Legislative Research Service of the Parliament concerning Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• About 95 per cent of the Timorese wish to come to Australia where more than a third of them are said to have relatives, most of whom came to Australia as refugees from Timor in August 1975. [More…]

• Can the Minister indicate what action has been taken by Australian immigration authorities to contact Timorese refugees in Portugal who may wish to come to Australia? [More…]

• In particular, will an immigration office be established in Lisbon to handle applications from Timorese refugees? [More…]

• Fewer than 600 East Timorese refugees in Portugal have applied for migrant entry to Australia. [More…]

• The figure given by Mr Dunn concerning the proportion of refugees who are said to have relatives in Australia overstates the total as known to the Department of Immigration and [More…]

• There are the tragedies of the refugees and the genocide which has taken place and which is still taking place in Cambodia. [More…]

• Again, on the issue of human rights, we ought to make some mention of the need for Australia to develop a coherent and realistic policy to the question of refugees. [More…]

• Dr Jean Martin of the Australian National University was conducting a unique study- unique by world standards- into the problems of Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• This study applied not only to Vietnamese refugees in Australia but also to refugees right throughout the world. [More…]

• It concerns refugees who have been coming into Australia. [More…]

• Thailand has political problems, lt has insurgency in the south and in the north and more than 75 000 refugees from the Indo-China conflict. [More…]

• Another area where assistance is important is that of refugees. [More…]

• We should be doing everything we can to assist Indo-Chinese refugees in particular. [More…]

• In February I visited Thailand, where more than 75 000 refugees are now living in camps in various parts of the country. [More…]

• The refugees cannot go back to their homelands, and I am sure that it is obvious to anyone visiting the camps, and presumably to others who have not had that opportunity, that these people are in a desperate plight living in refugee camps. [More…]

• Last November the Committee recommended that guidelines and administrative arrangements to assist refugees should be established. [More…]

• resettlement should be viewed as a continuum which commenced with the displacement and flight of refugees and ceases - [More…]

• Paragraph 7.18 proposes a standing interdepartmental committee on refugees. [More…]

• I add that I think the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr MacKellar) has shown an enlightened approach to the plight of IndoChinese refugees. [More…]

• I think we have to continue to extend our efforts for these people as well as for other refugees from such areas as East Timor and the Lebanon. [More…]

• There should be a homeland for refugees who have suffered in the strife of the Middle East for the past 30 years. [More…]

• I notice that Senator Knight, my colleague Senator Sibraa, and one or two other honourable senators made the question of Australian responsibility to political refugees quite a feature of their speeches. [More…]

• I do not say for one moment that, because I was not a supporter of the Government that was a party to taking the original decision to send an expeditionary force to that region, this fact should dominate our entire thinking in relation to our intake of political refugees. [More…]

• You wrote to me on 3 February about the position of Latin American refugees and asked in particular about Mr Rafael Copelo, a Uruguayan who is at present in Australia. [More…]

• While I would not pretend to make generalised judgements on the claims of people in widely differing refugee situations, I should point out that the Government seeks to assess refugee claims in terms of internationally accepted criteria, and to take guidance wherever possible from the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Australia has accepted more than 1000 Chilean refugees to date. [More…]

• I would not accept that, in proportion to their numbers, refugees from Chile have received less favourable treatment than those from South East Asia. [More…]

• I know that the junta in that country tried to foist a child mutilator and a few other odd people on us as political refugees, but they were detected. [More…]

• They are genuine political refugees. [More…]

• We could have a quota, as part of our 70 000 intake, of 10 000 political refugees. [More…]

• Let us spread our selection of refugees right across the board. [More…]

• The point I am making is that we should have evenhandedness in regard to political refugees. [More…]

• What I am saying is that the method by which we select refugees is not consistent. [More…]

• I refer the Minister to a question asked yesterday in the Senate by Senator Knight which related to East Timorese refugees. [More…]

• The figure given by Mr Dunn concerning the proportion of refugees who are said to have relatives in Australia overstates the total as known to the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. [More…]

• Can the Minister explain how the information was presented to her because information supplied to the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs in December by the East Timorese Refugees Committee stated that there were 794 persons with relatives in Australia, which is approximately 50 per cent of the total number of refugees? [More…]

• Does the Minister believe that the inaccuracy in her statement could have been created by the fact that until recently the East Timorese refugees in Portugal had the benefit of only a monthly visit by an Australian official from Madrid? [More…]

• I direct my question to the Minister for Social Security and take up the questions raised by Senator Knight yesterday and by Senator O ‘Byrne today about Timorese refugees. [More…]

• Fewer than 600 East Timorese refugees in Portugal have applied for migrant entry to Australia. [More…]

• Have any applications for visas to Australia been received from East Timor refugees now in Portugal. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware of reports that East Timorese refugees who left the Portuguese territory late last year and are residing in Portugal are now prepared to speak publicly on their experiences during the Indonesian invasion? [More…]

• I formally ask the Minister for Social Security a question which I asked by interjection yesterday with regard to the criteria which pertain to applications made by East Timorese refugees from Portugal or any other place to enter Australia. [More…]

• -The matter I wish to raise this evening- I shall not delay the Senate for very long- concerns the problem of East Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• My concern is heightened by the activities of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence which, not very long ago, had a very close look at the question of refugees and in particular refugees from South Vietnam. [More…]

• It lays down what the Committee believes should be the guidelinees for a country such as Australia to adopt if we are sincere in our claim that we will do something about refugees. [More…]

• From reports there appear to be in excess of 1500 East Timorese refugees in Portugal all of whom, as far as I can assess, are living in rather extreme conditions of poverty and deprivation in some 5 refugee camps. [More…]

• All Timorese refugees wish to come to Australia. [More…]

• The Minister for Social Security, Senator Guilfoyle, said today that many of the refugees had been refused visas on medical and occupational grounds. [More…]

• If we are talking about refugees as distinct from migrants, I think we have to have another look at the question of medical and occuptional grounds. [More…]

• Refugees who have been forced to flee from their countries in recent years are not the sort of people who have all the best educational and medical facilities available to them. [More…]

• One of the reasons why refugees leave their country is turmoil or wars where factions in the country seek to change the economic system. [More…]

• I believe that any Government which demands of refugees medical and occupational grounds is not acting in a humanitarian way. [More…]

• Again this is talking about a migrant situation rather than about refugees. [More…]

• In reality the Government is pursuing a calculated heartless approach to refugees. [More…]

• It refuses to recognise the refugees. [More…]

• It treats refugees as normal migrants and, again proving the Government’s attitude, it chooses the most highly qualified- the leaders- and leaves the rest, a type of brain drain situation, rather than taking refugees en masse as any other country with a refugee policy would do. [More…]

• In the case of East Timorese refugees the Government has chosen to delay and to frustrate the processing of applications. [More…]

• Until quite recently the 1500 or so refugees in Portugal were serviced by one officer who went from Lisbon to Madrid once a month. [More…]

• This indicates a great lack of concern by the Government for those refugees. [More…]

• This is rather strange because the evidence seems to indicate that the great bulk of refugees from East Timor in Portugal are or were supporters of the moderate right wing UDT. [More…]

• To compound this situation further I understaid that the East Timorese refugees have been circularised with one of the most thoughtless departnental forms I can recall. [More…]

• With all the reports of atrocities it is no wonder that many of the refugees are extremely upset and very perturbed. [More…]

• Surely that would be a much more humanitarian attitude to adopt to refugees. [More…]

• This list could then be circulated to refugees here and checked with them to ascertain who their relatives are. [More…]

• I believe that all East Timorese refugees should be able to come to Australia without having the normal migrant criteria applied. [More…]

• -Minister for Social Security) (11.16)- I want to respond to Senator Primmer’s remarks with regard to refugees from Timor. [More…]

• It was suggested that we should be acting on the report of the Senate Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on refugees from South Vietnam. [More…]

• There has been a substantial increase in the numbers of refugees or people with refugee type status arriving in Australia in recent years as a result of crises around the world. [More…]

• As pan of the responsibility of the Department of Social Security for the settlement of migrants, special programs have been developed to facilitate the resettlement of refugees. [More…]

• It should be stressed at the outset that unlike migrants who are selected to meet particular criteria including the demand for their special skills, refugees, as a result of the crisis they have recently experienced need special assistance with their settlement. [More…]

• The Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence which recently inquired into and reported on the plight and circumstances of the Vietnamese refugees and whose report was tabled in Parliament on 1 December 1976, made extensive recommendations on the need for closer co-operation and co-ordination of the various government and voluntary organisations active in the field of refugee welfare. [More…]

• Where there have been planned intakes of refugees as in recent months from Indo-China, detailed pre-arrival preparations are made on the basis of the age, sex, status, cultural background and English speaking ability of impending arrivals. [More…]

• The objective of the Committees is to co-ordinate the local efforts of Commonwealth and State Government Departments and instrumentalities and voluntary agencies in developing and delivering programs and services to assist in the orientation and settlement of refugees; to overcome postarrival settlement problems they may experience, and to ensure that available resources are effectively and efficiently utilised. [More…]

• The contribution of State Governments and voluntary and other agencies has been vital in ensuring that the objectives of these Committees have been attained and I am sure that this support will continue in the future to maintain an effective service for refugees and similar groups. [More…]

• Their primary task is to develop programs, counsel and inform the refugees on aspects of the way of life in Australia as well as co-ordinating these specialised services provided to the refugees after arrival. [More…]

• Upon arrival in Australia, customs and other reception formalities are co-ordinated by the Depanment of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs who also arrange movement of the refugees to migrant hostels or similar accommodation. [More…]

• Interpreters providing this and subsequent services for refugees are usually community interpreters whose services are utilised by the Telephone Interpreter Service. [More…]

• Following the movement of refugees to migrant hostel or other accommodation, a detailed program of medical examinations and tests is undertaken by State Health authorities. [More…]

• The refugees are also immunised against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. [More…]

• Special benefit at the same rate as unemployment benefit is paid to adult refugees and benefit is continued until a refugee becomes employed. [More…]

• The refugees are entitled to the basic Medibank entitlement however, in cases where serious medical problems are found on arrival, these are presently met by State authorities. [More…]

• In accordance with the Senate Committee’s recommendation and in co-operation with Commonwealth Hostels Ltd., officers from my Department have been located as Settlement Officers in migrant hostels where there are significant numbers of refugees in residence. [More…]

• The Settlement Officers have had long experience and close involvement with the settlement problems faced by migrants and refugees and in providing advice and assistance to overcome these difficulties. [More…]

• The primary task of the Settlement officer is to supervise, co-ordinate and implement orientation programs for refugees, to assist the Welfare Officer from Commonwealth Hostels Ltd, as required where particular settlement difficulties are being experienced by individual refugees and to assist with queries and problems with Social Security Benefits. [More…]

• The Settlement Officers maintain close contact with the Refugee Resettlement Co-ordination Committees whose sub-committees and members are closely involved in activities such as those listed above to enable the smooth resettlement of the refugees into the Australian community. [More…]

• The resettlement activities commence after the refugees arrive in the hostels and include: [More…]

• Personal Services are provided by government and voluntary agencies and community volunteers to meet the personal needs of refugees in a manner which facilitates their integration into the community. [More…]

• hosting refugees with Australian families; familiarization programmes, e.g. [More…]

• Voluntary agencies have assisted in providing direct service and in facilitating integration of the refugees. [More…]

• The Settlement Officer is also able to arrange for follow-up by welfare staff from my Department where the refugees move from hostels to private accommodation. [More…]

• This may be achieved through a Follow-up Sub-Committee of the Refugee Resettlement Co-ordination Committee which arranges for a welfare officer or social worker from the Department of Social Security to regularly visit the refugees shortly after they move from the hostel. [More…]

• Good Neighbour Councils, the Commonwealth Department of Education and Voluntary Agencies such as Austcare have also been invited to prepare information papers to assist volunteers and others involved with refugees. [More…]

• The Committee has considered aspects of the resettlement of refugees where particular problems have arisen with respect to large single parent family groups, isolated aged and those refugees suffering physical or other handicaps. [More…]

• The Committee is enabling my Department to standardise practices regarding the payment of benefits to refugees. [More…]

• Such new concepts could appeal particularly to refugees with ethnic backgrounds involving a high group cohesiveness. [More…]

• It is expected that some of the Timorese refugees currently in hostels may be assisted to settle in the community in this way while my Department is currently considering ways self-help programs might be developed among the Lebanese who have recently arrived. [More…]

• It outlines the standing committee that has been set up in my Department of Social Security, the services that are available on arrival, the post-arrival services of medical examinations and benefits through the Department, settlement officers and those sorts of things that I think are our way of dealing in the most humane and constructive way that we can with the settlement of these people who come to Australia as refugees. [More…]

• At the beginning the document states that there has been a substantial increase in refugees in 1975 and 1976 and the numbers of Lebanese, Vietnamese, Timorese, Cypriots, Chileans, Laotians, Cambodians, Russian Jews and White Russians are given in it. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: Is it true that the Government does not consider the East Timorese to be refugees but to be evacuees? [More…]

• Can the Minister explain the meaning of the term ‘evacuees’ and differentiate between it and the word ‘refugees’? [More…]

• As to Timorese refugees, the Australian Government has provided assistance to refugees from Timor and has been sympathetic in according them right of permanent residence in Australia. [More…]

• To this end, the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) reached agreement with President Soeharto in Jakarta in October last year that Australian and Indonesian officials should meet to resolve the problems of the East Timorese refugees who came to Australia without their families. [More…]

• In addition, the Government is considering applications for entry from Timorese refugees now in Portugal. [More…]

• But, it is a strong possibility that if a Senate committee were to launch an inquiry into the Timor issue, progress on reuniting refugees might have to be suspended until the inquiry was completed. [More…]

• This statement was later clarified and it transpired that this figure included the 40 000 refugees in West Timor and others whose lives had been disrupted. [More…]

• It may well be detrimental to the East Timorese from the point of view of their capacity to move as refugees to this or to other countries. [More…]

• The Senate cannot even set up a committee to inquire into matters like Australian assistance to the East Timorese people, Australian policy concerning refugees, the reuniting of families from East Timor and the disappearance of Australian journalists in East Timor. [More…]

• It relates to an interview with refugees about alleged atrocities in Timor. [More…]

• In Mr Dunn’s report on page 4 there are suggestions that the refugees seem to have seen no aid being directed through the Indonesian Red Cross nor any evidence of aid ever reaching the refugees. [More…]

• He was concerned about the form of Australian aid to the residents of East Timor and the plight of refugees from East Timor. [More…]

• b ) the plight of refugees from East Timor. [More…]

• The situation of refugees from East Timor- both in Australia and Portugal is getting quite desperate. [More…]

• Australian policy concerning refugees and the reuniting of families from East Timor; and [More…]

• -Is the Minister representing the Prime Minister aware of an announcement by Congressman Fraser that the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on International Relations proposes to interview East Timorese refugees who now reside in Portugal? [More…]

• Has the Minister noted that on the Channel 2 national news on 24 March East Timorese refugees were interviewed about atrocities in East Timor? [More…]

• In view of the preparedness of the East Timorese refugees to appear before properly constituted inquiries, will the Minister outline what steps the Government proposes to take to gather information or to hold an inquiry involving the refugees? [More…]

• The concern of the Senate in relation to the definition of political refugees has been a recurring feature in the last 6 weeks. [More…]

• You wrote to me on 3 February about the position of Latin American refugees and asked in particular about Mr Rafael Copelo, a Uruguayan who is at present in Australia. [More…]

• While I would not pretend to make generalised judgments on the claims of people in widely differing refugee situations, I should point out that the Government seeks to assess refugee claims in terms of internationally accepted criteria, and to take guidance wherever possible from the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Australia has accepted more than -1000 Chilean refugees to date. [More…]

• I would not accept that, in proportion to their numbers, refugees from Chile have received less favourable treatment than those from South East Asia. [More…]

• I have dealt with political refugees but I know that many Latin American women who have acquired Australian citizenship and gone back home and married there have been subjected to considerable delays. [More…]

• Last night and on previous occasions senators on both sides of this chamber have accepted the need for us to accept refugees from overseas on a humanitarian basis. [More…]

• I have raised certain questions on the position of Timorese refugees and the stance that the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs has been taking on their entry into this country. [More…]

• There seems to be some determination on the part of the Immigration Department to classify these people in terms of refugees and in terms of migrants. [More…]

• I am saying that we cannot place the East Timorese in the same category as refugees from South Vietnam. [More…]

• I am concerned that a legalistic or definitional type of approach may be adopted to the people who are to be admitted, whether they be Timorese refugees, evacuees or whatever expression is used. [More…]

• I accept the proposition that we have special responsibilities in regard to the Timorese refugees and evacuees in Australia and Portugal. [More…]

• b ) Australian policy concerning refugees and the reuniting of families from East Timor; and [More…]

• The Australian Government was asked to work towards a cessation of the fighting, to support a genuine act of self-determination in which all political groupings could participate, to seek the withdrawal of all Indonesian troops, to press for the admission of international humanitarian aid into East Timor and to provide facilities to enable refugees to be brought to Australia and accommodated here. [More…]

• The Commission also urged the Government to give top priority to East Timorese refugees in Portugal and argued that Australia had a special responsibility in this case. [More…]

• We are arguing over the technicality of whether people from East Timor ought to be called evacuees or refugees. [More…]

• The most interesting thing about that particular letter, of course, is that it was written by an Indonesian and it corroborated the stories that came out of East Timor from refugees and from people who were able to send out radio messages. [More…]

• I should like to make a particular reference to Mr Dunn and his activities in regard to East Timor, as well as to his report entitled ‘Talks with Timorese Refugees in Portugal’. [More…]

• 1 think the title of the report is of particular significance, because it is precisely a report on talks with Timorese refugees. [More…]

• I also would like to refer to the question of refugees. [More…]

• Mr Dunn’s report states that of approximately 1500 Timorese refugees who are now in Portugal, as many as 95 per cent wish to come to Australia and about one-third are said by Mr Dunn to have relatives who came to Australia as refugees in 1975. [More…]

• These people have got to be treated as refugees. [More…]

• I think we have to treat these people as refugees. [More…]

• The recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence with respect to refugees ought to be implemented urgently. [More…]

• There should be an interdepartmental committee that can co-ordinate action and there should be a clearly stated policy on refugees. [More…]

• These people in Portugal ought to be treated as refugees and we ought to treat the matter with urgency and with compassion. [More…]

• Australia’s capacity to provide aid to East Timor, to assist refugees from East Timor and to reunite families from East Timor unfortunately are not matters entirely under our control. [More…]

• We ought to be working to finalise plans for assistance to refugees and the re-uniting of families from East Timor. [More…]

• I cannot support the proposal for a select committee or a reference to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence at this stage because I do not believe either would achieve certain things which I think are desirable- a proper act of self-determination, Australian aid to East Timor, assistance to refugees and the re-uniting of families. [More…]

• -We are debating the motion moved by Senator Gietzelt which seeks to establish a Senate select committee to investigate the problems associated with the conflicts in East Timor and the subsequent difficulties that have arisen with the provision of aid to East Timor and the care of refugees from that area. [More…]

• The third argument seemed to be that such an inquiry may inhibit the availability of aid to East Timor or the ability of refugees to leave East Timor. [More…]

• There are Timorese refugees in Australia. [More…]

• We are charged with the responsibility of caring for some of these refugees. [More…]

• In the third argument against such an inquiry which has been used in this debate it is said that such an inquiry may inhibit aid to East Timor and our ability to evacuate refugees from East Timor. [More…]

• One of the aims of the proposed committee is to look into the problem of the refugees, the difficulties which are arising in getting aid to [More…]

• He expressed a hope that the Indonesians would allow the Internationa] Red Cross and other organisations to enter East Timor to assist in the rebuilding of the country and the evacuation of refugees. [More…]

• Since the civil war and the invasion by Indonesia into Timor, I have met many of the refugees in Australia. [More…]

• I met the old people who had come out as refugees; I met the young people and the middle aged people. [More…]

• We have a duty and a responsibility to the Australian people, the East Timorese and the refugees to seek the truth in these matters. [More…]

• Certainly in Lisbon the East Timorese refugees have answered this suggestion most clearly. [More…]

• the plight of refugees from East Timor; [More…]

• When the refugees arrived I was in the fortunate position of being able to set up a school for them. [More…]

• Since that time, like many others, I have been involved with the refugees who have come to Darwin. [More…]

• Allow East Timorese refugees here and in Portugal to exchange messages with relatives and friends in Fretilin controlled areas, and [More…]

• The last concern which I had was that the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs has adopted the rather unusual practice of saying to people who are nominating refugees to come out, firstly, ‘Are you a Fretilin supporter? [More…]

• Before voting on this motion I would ask honourable senators in this place to try to put themselves in the position of the refugees in Darwin at this time. [More…]

• There can be no question that the inquiry would determine what it would mainly endeavour to determine, that is, the position of the East Timorese, especially the refugees now in Portugal and the many who are now in Australia. [More…]

• It would be able to make some recommendation to the Government as to what sort of support should flow from Australia to East Timor and to the refugees of East Timor. [More…]

• There may be a better understanding or a better response on the part of the Indonesians to very many propositions that will be put to them by refugees and relatives of refugees if there is a current inquiry in Australia on the matter of East Timor. [More…]

• What is the number of applications for visas by Timorese refugees now residing in Portugal. [More…]

• Has the Government made any decisions relating to visa applications from Timorese refugees. [More…]

• 1463 it was stated ‘applications for visas to Australia received from East Timor refugees in Portugal’ covered 1511 persons at 25 November 1976. [More…]

• This is evident from official documents on Timorese refugees in Portugal compiled by the Commissariat for Evacuees of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees which state that the number of Timorese who arrived in Portugal on evacuation flights totalled 1392 persons. [More…]

• 1 ) What sum has been paid directly or indirectly by the Australian Government to the Indonesian Red Cross for the benefit of refugees and other persons in East Timor, or any other purposes? [More…]

• Has the Government any proof that any of this sum or any materials purchased with it, have been applied to the needs of refugees or to the needs of the indigenous people of East Timor; if so, what moneys and or materials; if not, will the Australian Government make urgent inquiries through its representative in Jakarta, or other responsible sources, to ascertain the uses made of such moneys? [More…]

• 1 ) Is the Minister aware of an announcement by Congressman Fraser that the United States Congressional Committee on International Organisations proposes to interview East Timorese refugees who now reside in Portugal? [More…]

• Has the Minister noted that on the Channel 2 national news on 24 March 1977 East Timorese refugees were interviewed regarding atrocities in East Timor? [More…]

• In view of this preparedness by East Timorese refugees to appear before properly constituted inquiries, will the Minister outline what steps the Government proposes to take to gather information or hold an inquiry involving the refugees? [More…]

• The Government does not propose to hold a specific inquiry involving the refugees. [More…]

• When will permanent residence be granted to the Santos family so that it will be able to receive the same rights as other East Timorese refugees now residing in Australia? [More…]

• There are other important issues which also impinge upon our development assistance activities such as the problems of refugees throughout the world and new questions of assistance to Africa which pose some particularly challenging questions for us. [More…]

• Most importantly, I believe that we should be making a greater contribution to solving the problem of refugees. [More…]

• I would like to quote to the Senate an article dealing with refugees that appeared in the Mercury on 25 April 1977. [More…]

• The article is headed: ‘Cent A Day for Asian Refugees’. [More…]

• The newly-appointed national director of Austcare, Mr Bob Doughtery wants every Australian to contribute a cent a day to help refugees in camps throughout Asia. [More…]

• He also thinks Australia could comfortably boost its intake of refugees to about 10 000 a year. [More…]

• He said the Australian Government was already highly regarded in Asia for its relief work with refugees. [More…]

• In a camp in Thailand more than 800 Vietnamese refugees lived in a gully 20 metres wide by 200 metres. [More…]

• In a camp for Cambodian refugees the people lived in corrugated iron buildings, similar to those at the Sydney Showground. [More…]

• Incidentally, while talking about Cambodian refugees, it is interesting to note that the Marxist half hour, which has become the Marxist hour, on the Australian Broadcasting Commission- a program which was called Lateline but is now called Broadband- Mark Aarons last night made no reference to the sufferings of the Cambodian refugees. [More…]

• He said Australia could reasonably increase its yearly intake of refugees to 10 000. [More…]

• I believe that it is essential for the Government to make a substantial commitment to the resettlement of refugees as has been the call by many sectors of the community. [More…]

• I look forward to this Green Paper and hope that the Minister will commit the Government to making a rather more substantial contribution to the settlement of refugees and the alleviation of their great sufferings. [More…]

• There, refugees were treated worse than in Germany. [More…]

• While I am on the subject, there have been numerous Press releases from the Minister on the attitude of the Government to political refugees. [More…]

• I know that with refugees from every country from which Australia has taken refugees-whether it be Chile, Lebanon, Cyprus, Timor or South Vietnam-the great dilemma is what is the cut-off point. [More…]

• Many of our citizens were once refugees or displaced persons. [More…]

• When we welcomed them, it was hoped that refugees and disabled persons were a temporary post-war phenomenon. [More…]

• There still are many people in many parts of the world who can be called refugees. [More…]

• Despite the best efforts of people of goodwill and of the international community, we must expect that there will continue to be refugees. [More…]

• To this end: it has ratified the Convention on the Status of Refugees, it is a member of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR and contributes to the resettlement funds of the UNHCR it recognises the need through its immigration policy to fulfil the legal obligations required by the Convention and to develop special humanitarian programmes for the resettlement of the displaced and/or the persecuted. [More…]

• We do injustice to previous Governments if we do not give tribute to Australia’s contribution in resettlement of refugees in the past. [More…]

• If we are to seek to act in the interests of refugees themselves and the Australian community, it is necessary to face up to many practical difficulties. [More…]

• Many refugees are not simply migrants beset by a few additional problems. [More…]

• Those who have in the recent past exhorted the Government to accept greater numbers of refugees must take into account the need to coordinate and develop such Government and community resources as will assist not only in the acceptance, but also in the responsible settlement, of refugees. [More…]

• A fact often forgotten is that many refugees do not want to come to Australia or, at least, they prefer to go to another country where, for instance, they have close relatives or their language is spoken. [More…]

• Moreover, our own capacity to accept refugees is not unlimited. [More…]

• Australia’s present and future capacity to resettle refugees successfully depends on many factors including: the prevailing economic situation, the level of unemployment, the locations within Australia to which refugees wish to go, the background of refugees to be acceptedtheir capacity for early integration or otherwise, the availability of special post arrival serviceslanguage instruction, education, training, accommodation, health and welfare, the numbers of refugees for which voluntary agencies can care. [More…]

• The Government’s approach to refugees is based on the following four principles: [More…]

• Australia fully recognises its humanitarian commitment and responsibility to admit refugees for resettlement; [More…]

• The decision to accept refugees must always remain with the Government of Australia; [More…]

• Special assistance will often need to be provided for the movement of refugees in designated situations or for their resettlement in Australia; and [More…]

• It may not be in the interests of some refugees to settle in Australia. [More…]

• It is the Government’s view that the acceptance and settlement of refugees should be a continuum beginning with a quick and decisive response to international crises and concluding, after what may be a long and difficult path for the refugee, with successful integration into the Australian community. [More…]

• We have to recognise, however, that there can be refugees with the sort of background, education and skills enabling them to fit readily into the Australian scene. [More…]

• It may be a disservice to them to continue to single them out for special treatment as ‘refugees’ after they have arrived in Australia. [More…]

• There are others who may not wish to be labelled as ‘refugees’ over a period. [More…]

• In situations where refugees are under immediate and dire personal threat, acceptance of people who will face settlement difficulties in Australia is justified. [More…]

• More generally, we have to keep in mind that it may not be in the interests of refugees not under immediate personal threat to accept them for entry to Australia if they will face major long-term settlement problems here. [More…]

• Within the range of people who are forced by events to become refugees there will be many variations of circumstances and conditions. [More…]

• some refugees will be capable of meeting normal migrant criteria concerning family reunion or occupational skills. [More…]

• Where appropriate, such refugees should be selected and resettled in the normal manner under current migrant policies. [More…]

• 3 ) other refugees will not fall within the normally acceptable degrees of family relationship or have skills within currently acceptable criteria. [More…]

• the interests of those refugees who, it is assessed, would have extreme difficulty in adjusting to the Australian environment may not be best served by migration to Australia but be better served by action by the UNHCR or other agencies to resettle them in a more compatible environment. [More…]

• 5 ) there will also be refugees, some of working age, who will be unable to qualify for selection under these refugee guidelines because of physical, mental or social handicaps. [More…]

• Provided that appropriate institutional care is available, Australia will be prepared in principle to accept refugees in this category. [More…]

• through its ratification of the Convention on the Status of Refugees, Australia has accepted certain obligations in relation to people covered by the Convention. [More…]

• by the expiry of temporary permits) claim to be refugees entitled to the protection of the Convention and in consequence request permission to remain permanently in Australia. [More…]

• Where it is decided that the Australian response to a refugee situation should be in the form of contributions to the UNHCR or other agencies to resettle or temporarily maintain refugees outside Australia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs will continue to determine the modalities and amount of assistance. [More…]

• A Standing Interdepartmental Committee on Refugees comprising senior officers of the Departments of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Chairman), Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Employment and Industrial Relations, Social Security, Finance, Health and Education with other Departments and the Public Service Board to be coopted as necessary, will be established. [More…]

• This Committee will: advise the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs on the capacity for accepting refugees, consult annually, and otherwise as necessary, with voluntary agencies regarding the numbers they would accept for resettlement, recommend co-ordination for arrival and immediate resettlement, regularly review the intake of refugees against the capacity of resources in this country to ensure successful resettlement. [More…]

• Early consideration will be given to those refugees who are the subject of adequate sponsorship by appropriate voluntary bodies. [More…]

• In this respect there is a continuing flow of refugees in small groups or as individuals brought to attention by the UNHCR and /or by voluntary agencies in Australia. [More…]

• Provided satisfactory sponsorship is available, a small number of such refugees could be accepted on a case by case basis by the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. [More…]

• Some agencies expect they may be able to maintain refugees approved for entry to Australia for 12 months after arrival here. [More…]

• There will be a regular intake of IndoChinese refugees from Thailand and nearby areas at a level consistent with our capacity as a community to resettle them. [More…]

• Australia has played, and is continuing to play, a responsible part in the resettlement of distressed persons and refugees from the Lebanon and Indo-China. [More…]

• In the first instance, it does not refer to our capacity to take political refugees and whether they will affect our overall annual intake of migrants in a given year. [More…]

• It is equally true that concern has been expressed by the ethnic communities as to the number of people designated as political refugees and as to whether the number of people allowed into Australia in a year for family reunions will be affected. [More…]

• We may have a South East Asian fixation on what are termed ‘political refugees’. [More…]

• When they insist on coming here with other members of their family they reduce the opportunity for people who have no avenue to come to Australia except as strictly political refugees. [More…]

• First, I should like to know at an early date how we relate the ratio of political refugees to our overall total of migrants on an annual basis. [More…]

• I notice that the Minister refers in the statement to the situation of people who desert a ship and to a committee to assess whether they are technically political refugees. [More…]

• The principle sources of these reports were refugees who had fled that country. [More…]

• Has the Minister seen in that report reference to Australian agreement on an Indonesian team being sent to Australia to meet with Timorese refugees and to assess whether they wish to return to East Timor to be reunited with their families? [More…]

• Thirdly, international crises are creating pressures on us to clarify our attitude on accepting refugees and on our total humanitarian immigration program. [More…]

• Senator Mulvihill twice mentioned the point that Australia and Canada are the two countries which are taking a very high percentage of refugees while other countries are completely ignoring the people who find themselves outside their own country. [More…]

• I refer now to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Another interesting fact is that included among those thirty-one members of the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees is none of those so-called humanitarian countries, led by the most humanitarian country in the world- the fatherland of the socialist forces in the world, the Soviet Union. [More…]

• I would like to point out also that in 1975 the High Commission for Refugees had resettled, among others, 1925 Chilean refugees. [More…]

• Secondly, maybe the refugees know exactly what kind of life exists in socialist paradises and they prefer to be ‘exploited’ by the socalled Western capitalists. [More…]

• The last possibility is that maybe those refugees- I am referring to the Chileans- chose to go to the Western countries because the people who support their ideologies in the Western countries lack revolutionary zeal and enthusiasm and have to be given a bit of new blood in order that they can continue to upset the Western democracies. [More…]

• Secondly, it presents the option of restricted intake of refugees and family reunions categories. [More…]

• Refugees I suppose were most known to those of us here after World War II although of course refugees have existed throughout history. [More…]

• In our time when there were some 9 million refugees in Europe alone at the end of World War II we became aware of this situation and of the great need. [More…]

• Australia was identified then as a country that was prepared to accept an intake of refugees. [More…]

• After the Hungarian crisis in 1956 we took in some 14 000 refugees, and 10 years later as a result of the uprisings in Czechoslovakia 5500 refugees came to this country. [More…]

• We have continued to accept refugees from various sources in the years since then. [More…]

• In the period from 1970 to 1975 some 35 000 refugees have come to us from Austria. [More…]

• During a great deal of this period when we have been accepting refugees into Australia our immigration program has been flowing at a very high level, so much so that in addition to those people to whom I have just referred we have spent a great deal of time and money seeking more migrants from what we have known as the migrant source countries. [More…]

• Our experience with refugees has been largely as a country a long way from the centre of the trouble which caused the refugee situation, but now we find ourselves as it were in the centre of a refugee situation. [More…]

• New circumstances involving refugees from Indo China and South East Asia have evolved. [More…]

• The United Nations definition of refugees reads: [More…]

• Indeed the Green Paper on immigration policies and Australia’s population points out also that historically victims of many different circumstances have been called refugees. [More…]

• Displaced persons, stateless persons, persons seeking political asylum, defectors, members of oppressed minorities and victims of national disasters all have been described at some time as refugees. [More…]

• The Green Paper refers to the fact that future refugee policy to be taken into account must not only apply to persons in refugee situations who might be admitted for permanent resettlement, but also must look at the possibility of Australia, by force of circumstance if not by choice, being a country of first asylum for refugees from nearby regions. [More…]

• Nevertheless it must be pointed out that refugees who come under first asylum provisions require special assistance and services while they are in Australia. [More…]

• Included in the factors- I notice the Minister has mentioned this- are the number of refugees for which voluntary agencies or non-government organisations can care. [More…]

• The Government has committed itself on 4 priniciples as far as refugees are concerned. [More…]

• It recognises its humanitarian commitment and its responsibility to admit refugees for resettlement, it points out that a decision regarding admittance must always remain with the Government of Australia. [More…]

• The Government also points out, I think wisely, that it may not be in the best interests of some refugees to settle in Australia: It may well be that they must be resettled in some other part of the world. [More…]

• The Minister indicated that he was setting up a standing interdepartmental committee on refugees. [More…]

• On the nongovernment side, membership should comprise representatives from the major Australian refugee-receiving and overseasaid agencies, the Australian representative of the UNHCR - the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees- [More…]

• Red Cross, other organisations having practical experience in settlement work and post-hostel community support for refugees, and representatives from the academic community. [More…]

• I think that we will learn in a few days, if not tomorrow, that Austcare- the major nongovernment organisation in Australia for caring for refugees- is disappointed about this, especially in view of the conferences that were held between the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, his Department and the nongovernment organisation. [More…]

• I emphasise that voluntary organisations have been caring for refugees for as long as, if not longer than, governments have. [More…]

• Australia today has a great number of people who are skilled in the matter of looking after refugees. [More…]

• They have one unparalleled advantage which no inter-departmental committee could ever have, and that is that they are able to persuade public opinion in relation to public attitudes to refugees. [More…]

• -I also heard another program from Mark Aarons, I think it was the week before, which dealt with his view of the Cambodian situation, only giving one point of view, and not the point of” view of the refugees who have come out of Cambodia. [More…]

• If so, do these allegations have substance in fact, having regard to the interviews with East Timorese refugees in Portugal broadcast on 24 March 1977. [More…]

• Is the Government considering obtaining public evidence from the refugees as to the deaths of 6 Australian journalists in East Timor. [More…]

• Will the Government interview the refugees relating to the alleged atrocities committed in East Timor. [More…]

• The Government is also aware that interviews with East Timorese refugees in Portugal have been broadcast, but is not in a position to comment on the relationship between the allegations in Mr Dunn’s report and the broadcast interviews. [More…]

• I could not help but wonder, with due deference to people who have been involved in political struggles in Europe, whether we are even-handed when we define people as political refugees. [More…]

• When the Labor Government was in office and was endeavouring to bring to Australia victims of the military junta in Santiago, that junta tried to increase the number of those refugees by including a few child mutilators and other people like that. [More…]

• The contribution that Australia can make to the solution of these problems is mainly by way of humanitarian aid, assistance with refugees, medical assistance and other matters of this kind. [More…]

• The Arabs may well have a case that something should be done for the Palestinian refugees, for the Palestinian population which is scattered around the Middle East and those who were living on the west bank under military occupation by Israel. [More…]

• Mr Dunn testified on the basis of reports from Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• These refugees had reported to him that Indonesian forces had committed gross atrocities against the Timorese people. [More…]

• Bryant and James S. Dunn have been conducting extensive interviews with Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Minister received a letter from Mr J. Goncalves regarding the plight of the relatives of Timorese refugees in Australia. [More…]

• How many officers of the Department are fully engaged in the processing of family reunion applications from Timorese refugees in (a) Portugal, and (b) Australia. [More…]

• What initiatives have been taken by the Australian Government to involve (a) the International Red Cross, and (b) the United Nations Commission on Refugees, in the supervision of the evacuation of the families of Timorese refugees from Timor. [More…]

• The arrangements for reuniting East Timorese now in Australia with their relatives either in Australia or in East Timor follow from an agreement between the President of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of Australia that officials of their 2 countries would meet to resolve the problems of East Timorese ‘refugees’ who had come to Australia without their parents. [More…]

• I would add that the East Timorese in East Timor (or in Portugal) do not come within the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• 1 ) Is it correct that the Government does not consider the East Timorese people in Australia to be refugees but evacuees. [More…]

• What is the meaning of the term evacuees and can the Minister delineate how it differs from refugees. [More…]

• 1 ) and (2) For many years victims of many different circumstances have been called refugees. [More…]

• In 1951 the United Nations adopted a Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. [More…]

• We, your petitioners humbly pray that the Government take immediate steps to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees from South Africa, in particular by providing funds for: [More…]

• Scholarships and transport costs to enable student refugees to continue their education in Australia. [More…]

• I notice that a particular chapter in this Green Paper is related to that very vexed question of definition of refugees. [More…]

• I know that the Government and people like Senator Robertson have endeavoured to assist Timorese refugees. [More…]

• The great difficulty is that Australia, Canada and, to a lesser degree, the United States are the main countries which accept political refugees. [More…]

• We are in a dilemma over the question of political refugees. [More…]

• The Green Paper on immigration raises the question whether we should maintain a target of 5000 political refugees outside the normal categories of people entering Australia mainly as permanent migrants. [More…]

• Finally, with regard to refugees, I think that Senator Mulvihill mentioned that the Government ought to be contributing to a greater degree in this area. [More…]

• I refer to a news release by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr Peacock) in this regard which indicates that the Government announced recently a contribution of $lm to a special appeal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assist refugees in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. [More…]

• Refugees from South Africa [More…]

• We, your petitioners humbly pray that the Government take immediate steps to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees from South Africa, in particular by providing funds for [More…]

• Scholarships and transport costs to enable student refugees to continue their education in Australia. [More…]

• Refugees from South Africa [More…]

• We, your petitioners humbly pray that the Government take immediate steps to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees from South Africa, in particular by providing funds for the supply of clothing, medical supplies, etc. [More…]

• Scholarships and transport costs to enable student refugees to continue their education in Australia. [More…]

• What is the present status of Vietnamese refugees who arrived recently, as I understand it illegally, in Australia? [More…]

• What is the Government’s attitude towards the offers made by some State governments, as I understand it, and certainly by community organisations to provide accommodation and sustenance for these refugees? [More…]

• Is there a likelihood of a continued substantial influx of refugees from Vietnam? [More…]

• In the meantime I say that where refugees have arrived in this country there is an immediate payment of a special benefit to them. [More…]

• -I direct to the Minister representing the Minister for Health a question which relates to the arrival occasionally of Vietnamese refugees on the north-west coast of Australia. [More…]

• What steps are being taken by the Government regarding quarantine of the refugees and any of their possessions to prevent the possible entry of any diseases into Australia? [More…]

• I am not aware of any special arrangements that are being made in regard to the quarantine of Vietnamese refugees, but I am sure it is a matter that the Department of Health has in hand. [More…]

• I want to make a few comments about refugees because chapter 5 of the Green Paper stresses the need for Australia to have a refugee policy. [More…]

• Our handling of refugees from Lebanon was criticised, especially in the area of family reunion. [More…]

• It could arise anywhere in the world if refugees looked to Australia, especially for assistance, particularly for resettlement. [More…]

• It seems to me that at the moment certain nations to our north are not only refusing admittance to refugees but are encouraging them to try to reach Australia. [More…]

• We must accept that a large number of refugees will never be employed in Australia because of chronic illness, age, language barriers and many other reasons that I could state. [More…]

• I think we must accept that our handling of refugees does not compare with the handling of refugees by countries such as the United States and Canada especially. [More…]

• That is the situation in which these Vietnamese refugees who are arriving from our north are pointing out weaknesses in our coastal surveillance. [More…]

• Recently a group of refugees spent a week looking for somebody to help them after they had arrived on the north-west coastline. [More…]

• The Department is responsible also for the coordination of welfare services provided for refugees, evacuees etc. [More…]

• There is liaison between the Department of Social Security and the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs with regard to refugees who come into this country. [More…]

• We facilitate the provision of benefits that are available to the refugees and in all ways attempt to make their settlement in this country as comfortable and as secure as possible. [More…]

• The Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr MacKellar) made a statement about the Vietnamese refugees who landed in Australia. [More…]

• At one stage we would not take Spaniards as refugees because those who could not live under Franco were thought not to be any good to Australia. [More…]

• In a Press statement about the Vietnamese refugees on 29 June, Mr MacKellar said: . [More…]

• Despite the state of their health we accepted them as refugees. [More…]

• The Vietnamese refugees came a long way in an open boat. [More…]

• I remember that quite recently, following the arrival of a large number of refugees, for some reason unknown and particularly incomprehensible to the people of Kununurra they were taken to that township and then moved to Wyndham for quarantine. [More…]

• I have also noted the reference to refugees and, similarly, I will see that it is placed before the Minister. [More…]

• Is the Minister also aware that among this number there are many thousands of recently arrived refugees including some 12,000 Lebanese? [More…]

• Is the statement by Mr E. G. Whitlam an indication that the Australian Labor Party Opposition is opposed to the Fraser Government’s humanitarian policy of settling in Australia thousands of homeless refugees from many parts of the world? [More…]

• I think I was also asked with regard to the intake of refugees. [More…]

• I confirm that 12,000 Lebanese refugees arrived in this country between June 1976 and May 1977. [More…]

• It should be pointed out that people who have come here as refugees have found it very difficult to obtain employment readily and they have also had many other difficulties in settling in this country. [More…]

• The release informed us that the eleventh boat load of Indo-Chinese refugees had arrived on the north coast of Australia. [More…]

• In addition, over the last few months there has been a number of unauthorised landings by Vietnamese refugees in the north-west of Australia. [More…]

• The purpose of this enhanced program is to supplement existing surveillance activity with light aircraft to detect, report and act on, as appropriate, illegal landings and breaches of Australia’s quarantine, immigration, fishing and Customs laws, including the location of Vietnamese refugees through the co-ordinating machinery of the Marine Operations Centre. [More…]

• From my discussions with one of the leading Thai refugees in Australia, Dr Apichai Puntasen, it is clear to those who are here that the accelerated rural development program is not all that it may seem and that it has a psychological warfare basis. [More…]

• In more recent times, particularly in the last year, a number of refugees has come to this country from places such as Lebanon, South America, Vietnam, and Timor, to name four, and the demand for adult migrant educationEnglish language education- has increased beyond the normal trend in previous years. [More…]

• 1) The group of 47 Vietnamese refugees who arrived on 12 July 1977 have been issued with temporary entry permits valid to 22 November 1 977. [More…]

• The Government’s attitude, having established that the people concerned are genuine refugees, is expressed through Australia’s international obligations as a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. [More…]

• Refugees receive special Social Security benefits until family breadwinners obtain employment. [More…]

• It also acknowledges the offer made by the Tasmanian Government to accept a group of refugees in that State. [More…]

• Possibilities for resettling refugees in Tasmania have been discussed by Commonwealth and Tasmanian Government officers. [More…]

• Australia is committed to the acceptance of a regular flow of refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• Australia’s involvement in the acceptance of genuine refugees is not limited on the basis of nationality or race. [More…]

• A distinction should be drawn, however, between refugees and those who, not being refugees, seek to evade normal entry requirements. [More…]

• We have seen also Press reports of the same indignation expressed at a local level by citizens of Papua New Guinea over Indonesian action which has forced refugees across the border into Papua New Guinea. [More…]

• McClelland and wherein he stated that refugees were the cause of the increased demand for English language instruction by the Adult Education Migrant Service. [More…]

• Is the Minister aware that the number of refugees from countries such as Timor and Vietnam who are seeking to learn English is only a minor proportion of those presently on the waiting lists to learn English? [More…]

• As I stated to honourable senators in recent days, new factors, relating particularly to refugees and unemployment, have made the problem more complex. [More…]

• Honourable senators will recall that I have said here from time to time that a substantially increased demand for adult migrant education is emerging for a variety of reasons, including the nature of refugees, the nature of migrants, the emergence of women in the field and, to some degree, unemployment. [More…]

• In particular, some of the factors which have influenced today’s decision include the increasing number of refugees entering Australia, the Government’s desire to improve access to language classes for migrant women, a general increase in demand for English language classes for migrants, and the commendable way in which some employers are encouraging their employees to develop facility with the English language. [More…]

• The funds will be used to maintain the program generally in the face ofthe increased demand and to provide English language classes for refugees and further accommodation for classes at education centres in migrant hostels. [More…]

• In more recent times, particularly in the last year, a number of refugees has come to this country from places such as Lebanon, South America, Vietnam, and Timor, to name four, and the demand for adult migrant education- English language education- has increased beyond the normal trend in previous years. [More…]

• In addition, there will be new on-arrival English language programs for refugees, which will involve an expenditure of $820,000 on adult migrants and $ 144,000 on child migrants. [More…]

• That is to say, an additional $964,000 will be provided for on-arrival programs for refugees. [More…]

• New South Wales will take its appropriate share of funds for on-arrival language programs for refugees, English language courses conducted during the vacation, the development of further initiatives and the teaching of English in courses in the working place, assessing the feasibility of English teaching in television programs in high rise housing developments, and increased living allowances for persons in full time courses to the equivalent of the unemployment benefit. [More…]

• In view of the numbers of refugee immigrants coming into Australia, can the Minister advise whether refugees are accepted irrespective of health and other qualifications and whether it is considered that persons not eligible for immigration under normal causes may endeavour to gain entry as refugees? [More…]

• Both the Ministers whom I represent have made statements from time to time with regard to our concern for refugees who arrive in this country. [More…]

• It is a fact that refugees are being accepted into this country who may otherwise have been delayed in their applications for immigration or who in some cases may not be accepted as applicants for immigration. [More…]

• Where refugees have been arriving in this country, every effort has been made to ensure that their comfort and health requirements are attended to. [More…]

• Statements have been made in the Senate and there is information on support services that have been arranged for refugees. [More…]

• It involves simply a matter of the Latin American community in Sydney wanting parity with the over solicitous treatment accorded to South Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• I rise to make a plea to the Government concerning some political refugees in Argentina. [More…]

• The significance of the document is that in many cases, irrespective of the type of government from which people are seeking freedom, it is very hard to define in advance whether people really are political refugees or whether, to use the term usually adopted by our Foreign Affairs people, they are subject to political duress. [More…]

• There are always people who seek to falsify their position as genuine political refugees. [More…]

• The Minister has a copy of the telegram which I shall call document C. In the telegram I drew the attention of the Minister for Immigration (Mr MacKellar) to the fact that if we were cutting corners in relation to the boat people as political refugees at least we could do the same for Latin American people. [More…]

• The letter is referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Subsequently, along with other countries, Australia took a quota from each of those categories of refugees. [More…]

• Therefore, I make the point that, if Australia did that in relation to refugees from Chile, its actions do not square up with what is stated in the letter from the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Durack, in which he said, in effect, that this woman I am talking about is an Argentinian national. [More…]

• I do not wish to rub the sores that have developed in respect to some of the refugees from one Asian area. [More…]

• All we were saying was that, if the Australian Government cut corners in respect to one group of refugees, it had to do the same in respect of other groups. [More…]

• Conversely, we said that if adequate screening were applied we would avoid the possibility of people masquerading as refugees when they were not. [More…]

• They do not believe that the Australian Government is giving the same urgent consideration to refugees of this character. [More…]

• In strict legal terms, and these are the terms the Australian Government uses, persons are only regarded as refugees if they are so defined in the UN Convention on the status of refugees. [More…]

• Generally it is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who makes the judgment. [More…]

• Within these categories, between October 1973 and May 1975, Australia accepted for permanent residence 110 non-Chilean refugees as defined by the UNHCR. [More…]

• In the same period 275 Chilean refugees, also as defined by the UNHCR, were accepted for permanent residence. [More…]

• Within normal Australian parlance, these people would probably also be described as refugees. [More…]

• He had simply doubled the gross figure for the first six months of the current financial year, forgetting that during that time we received many refugees from different countries. [More…]

• The Vietnamese refugees, the unfortunate people, have been coming down in shiploads. [More…]

• In fact the only reason why we took it up was that we found that there were more vessels with Vietnamese refugees on the way. [More…]

• Then there was the incident concerning a boat load of refugees that entered Darwin last year. [More…]

• I do not for a moment criticise the refugees. [More…]

• The fact that refugees can come in undetected shows up the problems of surveillance of Australia ‘s coast. [More…]

• And, although he does not want to pre-empt the Government’s decision, he is not happy at the idea of military forces searching for illegal refugees, pirate fishermen, drug runners and animal smugglers. [More…]

• Are we to assume, on the basis of Press reports, that the impending discussions between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs will be restricted solely to Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• I am advised by the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs that the discussions wtih the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and his officials are not confined to the Vietnamese but cover a review of refugee-type situations throughout the world. [More…]

• The problems of refugees in Latin America are also involved in the discussions. [More…]

• As at 30 June 1977 Australia had accepted 1,038 Chilean refugees. [More…]

• In the current financial year Australia has received from Latin America to date 48 refugees, including 39 people who represent the last remaining Chilean refugees in Peru. [More…]

• You wrote to me on 6 December 1977 seeking financial support for the work of the Timorese Committee for Permanent Residence in assisting refugees from East Timor to settle in Australia. [More…]

• Senator Missen and I, although coming from different political parties, were able to obtain a little further enlightenment on Saturday of last week when we had a meeting in Melbourne with members of the Timorese community who are refugees in this country. [More…]

• The meeting which Senator Missen and I attended was also attended by some 150 refugees who are living in Melbourne. [More…]

• If I might briefly explain the situation of Timorese refugees in this country: There are some 2,000 refugees from Timor, most of whom are women. [More…]

• Most of the adult Timorese refugees are women. [More…]

• He will also, I think, be referring to a petition that was given to us by the refugees present at the meeting last Saturday. [More…]

• It would not seem to be as difficult as the Department pretends to bring some of those refugees from Portugal. [More…]

• It is admitted that there have been difficulties in bringing refugees from Timor to Australia. [More…]

• ACFOA is concerned that the Minister appears to be reneging on his former statements regarding the acceptance of refugees from East Timor. [More…]

• Special assistance K required for Timorese refugees as the bread-winners of the majority of families stayed in East Timor. [More…]

• Further, ACFOA believes that the excessive delay in processing Timorese refugees presently in camps in Portugal is quite inhumane, is inexcusable and should be rectified forthwith. [More…]

• We should therefore regard all East Timorese wishing to come here as refugees and treat them as such. [More…]

• That document from ACFOA is a damning indictment of this country’s indifference to the plight of refugees from another country which in earlier years did so much for us when it was not bound to do so. [More…]

• We, the undersigned, Timorese refugees in Australia very respectfully submit to you the following: [More…]

• The arrangements for reuniting East Timorese now in Australia with their relatives either in Australia or in East Timor follow from an agreement between the President of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of Australia that officials of their two countries would meet to resolve the problems of the East Timorese ‘refugees’ who had come to Australia without their parents. [More…]

• Senator Button referred also to the refugees who are in Portugal. [More…]

• In fact, something like one million refugees in Portugal have come from various overseas territories. [More…]

• In all only about 1,500 people in the camps are Timorese refugees. [More…]

• In that report, which is recorded in Senate Hansard for 23 March 1977, Mr Dunn pointed out that at that time there were only about 1,500 Timorese refugees in Portugal. [More…]

• About 95 per cent of the Timorese wish to come to Australia where more than a third of them are said to have relatives, most of whom came to Australia as refugees from Timor in August 1975. [More…]

• I believe that the standards laid down by our Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs for allowing these refugees to come from Portugal to Australia are altogether too strict. [More…]

• Apparently very few of these refugees are allowed into Australia. [More…]

• I have been told by people I saw the other day that some of the refugees have suffered sickness because the food is not satisfactory in the camps in Portugal. [More…]

• Nevertheless in view of the widely acknowledged and demonstrable importance of family support systems in times of crisis ACFOA urges that in the case of refugees: [More…]

• ‘families’ should be widely interpreted in the terms of the culture and background of the refugees concerned rather than according to the normal criteria of Australian immigration procedures- this would involve the acceptance, appropriate to each particular ethnic group, of degrees of what we might describe as extended families ‘; [More…]

• These are extra frustrations which are worrying the Timorese refugees in Australia. [More…]

• If these people had come here by boat as some refugees from Vietnam have done they would probably have been treated in a much more reasonable way. [More…]

• No boats are able to bring refugees from Timor. [More…]

• The matter of the refugees from East Timor has been raised most sincerely by Senator Button and Senator Missen. [More…]

• Senator Button and later Senator Missen mentioned that in March 1977 the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs announced that following discussions in Jakarta the Indonesian Government agreed in principle to a visit to East Timor by a team of Australian officials to interview Timorese refugees who were eligible for entry and who were nominated by relatives in [More…]

• Matters were raised concerning the funding of the association or an individual in that association which has done so much to present the cases of those people to government and elsewhere and to alleviate the distress and hardship of the refugees in this country. [More…]

• I simply summarise by saying that I feel sure that the case of the East Timorese refugees that has been presented to the Senate will receive the urgent and active attention of the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. [More…]

• On 14 March both Senator Missen and I again raised questions about the position of Timorese refugees in Australia. [More…]

• There were 2,000-odd Timorese refugees in Australia and some 1,500 other people in East Timor and in Portugal who wanted to come to Australia for the purpose of reuniting with their families. [More…]

• The Timorese refugees to whom Senator Knight referred are rightly apprehensive that the sort of undertaking given in March 1977 will be of the same value as the undertaking which is now being given again. [More…]

• More importantly, when this issue of Timorese refugees was raised in the Senate on 14 March 1978 the Minister for Social Security (Senator Guilfoyle) said that she would obtain information for the Senate about the allegations which were made by Senator Missen and myself. [More…]

• On 30 March the Northern Territory News ran a story reporting the arrival of a boatload of Vietnamese refugees who had come from camps in Thailand. [More…]

• Did a party of immigration officials go to Thailand to discourage refugees from coming illegally to Australia? [More…]

• J. Ducker, M.L.C., share my concern that we give much less compassion to Latin American cases involving political refugees status than we have to the stream of boat people who besiege Darwin. [More…]

• POLITICAL REFUGEES [More…]

• New English language programs will have to be provided for those people who are described on arrival as refugees. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs and relates to the question asked by Senator Douglas McClelland concerning the formation of a group of Vietnamese refugees whose explicit intention is the overthrow of the Vietnamese Government. [More…]

• Whilst many people have considerable sympathy for migrants and, particularly, refugees coming to Australia, such as those from Timor and Vietnam, they are becoming increasingly alarmed at the continuous flow of foreign boats landing at Darwin or on the northern coast and escaping the scrutiny of our immigration and quarantine officials until they are close to shore or have actually made a landfall. [More…]

• Following the concern expressed by the Government at the number of Vietnamese refugees coming by boat to Darwin and the Government’s attempt to stop these unheralded arrivals by sending additional immigration officers to Indo-China, I ask: Is there any truth in the claim that following the previous Government’s ratification of the 1967 extensions to the United Nations Convention on Refugees, Australia is now obliged to accept all refugees regardless of number without any restriction on their entry due to a criminal record, political activity or health? [More…]

• Australia acceded to the United Nations Convention on Refugees on 22 January 1954. [More…]

• It is not true to say that we are obliged to take for permanent settlement any refugees. [More…]

• It is when refugees are lawfully in the country that the obligation under the Convention and protocol applies. [More…]

• If not, what is the actual number of refugees who have arrived in Australia to date? [More…]

• In other words, as the number of refugees increases, is the Government cutting down in any way the number of migrants admitted to Australia from other countries? [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, is based upon information that was furnished to Estimates Committee C on Friday, at which she was present, and at which her officers disclosed that the ratio of Vietnamese political refugees to Latin Americans was running as high as six to one. [More…]

• I now ask the Minister: In view of our apparent open-ended commitment in regard to these refugees and in view of further queue jumping which has taken place over the last three days, do we contemplate any emergency curtailment of the situation? [More…]

• As an example, a few days ago the Press was saying that the United States Vice-President was here to make sure that we take more Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• In view of this move, has the Minister any further information regarding the present situation of Timor refugees in Australia being permitted to reunite with their families still in Timor? [More…]

• Arrival of Vietnamese Refugees in Darwin [More…]

• Did a party of immigration officials go to Thailand to discourage refugees from coming illegally to Australia? [More…]

• The staff deployed in the area have the objective of arranging the movement of an additional 2.000 boat refugees from the region before the end of June 1 978. [More…]

• The Government’s approach of locating officers in Thailand and Malaysia is to give genuine refugees the opportunity to apply to come to Australia through regular channels. [More…]

• The officers’ presence in the region has been widely publicised and refugees have no need to resort to illegal means of entry. [More…]

• From April 1975 to 11 May 1978, Australia has accepted 8,474 Indo-Chinese refugees, comprising 6,466 Vietnamese, 1,407 Laotians and 601 Cambodians. [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs and relates to the question asked by Senator Douglas McClelland concerning the formation of a group of Vietnamese refugees whose explicit intention is the overthrow of the Vietnamese Government. [More…]

• My question to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs stems from revelations at the Estimates Committee hearings that our intake of Vietnamese refugees is in the ratio of six to one compared with those from Latin America. [More…]

• The number of refugees in Thailand is about 110,000 with 7,500 boat people in Malaysia. [More…]

• Refugees must outflow from Vietnam in the order of 3,000 a month. [More…]

• As the Minister has announced, last year Australia took in refugees from 40 different countries. [More…]

• I can assure him that we will continue, quite separately, to view the problems of Chilean refugees with the compassion and understanding which are already reflected in the ongoing program for refugees from South America. [More…]

• The other remarks that the honourable senator has made are consistent with what I have said about Chilean refugees and our ongoing program for South America. [More…]

• We certainly would not be looking at a ratio of refugees as between one country and another, but rather would continue to look at the intake of refugees with compassion and understanding. [More…]

• Honourable senators will be aware that over recent months, culminating in discussions during the Estimates committee hearings concerning the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, I have made the point that our intake of political refugees should have a more balanced ratio. [More…]

• The United Nations convention definition of refugees really requires that a person be outside his country of nationality or country of residence. [More…]

• In the past the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr MacKellar) has argued that as some Latin Americans from countries with extreme political oppression are not in a third country it would be very difficult to process them and define them as being within the ambit of political refugees. [More…]

• I refer again to page 314 of the Hansard report and the United Nations definition of a political refugee and make a strong plea to the Government to cable our embassy at Rio de Janeiro instructing it to accept a few of these people as genuine political refugees. [More…]

• I said at the commencement of my remarks that I have some misgivings, as does the Australian trade union movement, about whether we are getting a proper cross section of political refugees. [More…]

• My question relates to the Vietnamese refugees who are arriving in Darwin and to the comments made by a Dr Rosemary Hunter, who is the Director of the South Australian Tuberculosis Clinic. [More…]

• I understand that the incidence of tuberculosis in South East Asian countries is a great deal higher than it is in Australia and that the refugees who have been admitted could be expected to show a greater incidence of tuberculosis. [More…]

• The refugees arriving in Darwin are all fully clinically examined and X-rays are taken of them on arrival. [More…]

• Details of all refugees arriving in Darwin and then sent, south are forwarded to the State directors of health. [More…]

• If the refugees are shown to have high positive reactions they are placed on chemo-prophylax for one year. [More…]

• The Department is well aware of the higher incidence of tuberculosis among the refugees. [More…]

• As a spinoff to the matter I raised with Senator Carrick last night, I ask: Assuming that the people affected are deported to the Argentine, would our embassy in Rio de Janeiro consider their credentials as potential and genuine political refugees? [More…]

• It noted changes in attitudes to migration and to our responsibilities for international refugees. [More…]

• In this context I refer to the passage of the six Bills in the nuclear package- each of which in its own way represented part of the dilemma of inter racial relations, particularly the Aboriginal lands legislation- the urgency debate in the Senate about Aurukun and Mornington Island, the debate which involved the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, (Queensland Discriminatory Laws) Act, the problems we have had with the influx of boat people from Thailand, the refugees from Vietnam and the Papua New Guineans coming into the Torres Strait Islands, the controversy just yesterday over the Booroloola land claim report, our attitude to South Africa and Rhodesia compared with our attitude to other countries and the outbreak of several wars in black Africa, which is now alight with wars. [More…]

• Secondly, in expansion of my comments on the adjournment debate the other night, is it true that a number of political and trade union leaders have been exiled to the Argentine and have become political refugees? [More…]

• If any of these persons were to wish to come to Australia, the Government would need to examine very closely the question of whether they could be regarded as political refugees. [More…]

• Has the Government considered the recommendations of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, in its report on Australia and the Refugee Problem, that: (a) an Australian refugee policy council be established to assist the Government in the formulation of an Australian policy on all aspects of refugee resettlement; and ( b ) a standing interdepartmental committee on refugees be established. [More…]

• This body is the standing interdepartmental committee on refugees, comprising senior officers of the Depanment of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (which chairs the committee), Prime Minister and Cabinet, Employment and Industrial Relations, Social Security, Finance, Health and Education, with other departments and the Public Service Board being co-opted as necessary. [More…]

• The Senate Committee was concerned to ensure that the policy and co-ordinating bodies consulted and participated with the voluntary and other community groups involved in the reception and resettlement of refugees. [More…]

• Standing Committee on Refugees meets at least twice yearly with representatives of these bodies and in addition liaises as necessary with other State and Commonwealth Government departments as the occasion requires. [More…]

• Other of the Senate Committee’s recommendations dealing with follow-up welfare work, English language training, welfare benefits, family reunion, etc., are being carried out under the supervision of the Standing Committee, and the Determination of Refugees Status Committee. [More…]

• The issue of Indo-Chinese refugees has brought all Australians face to face with the reality that no longer are we insulated and isolated from immigration questions of immense significance. [More…]

• We have been at one on the principle of accepting refugees though some would put emphasis on one source, some on another. [More…]

• Migrant entry has largely been limited to nominated immediate family members, refugees, persons travelling under Australia’s bilateral arrangements with New Zealand, and a very narrowly-defined group of workers with occupational skills in continuing demand in Australia. [More…]

• -Has the attention of the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs been drawn to the reported remarks of the Secretary of the Wollongong Trades and Labour Council this morning that refugees coming to Australia from Vietnam are not in fact genuine refugees but include former pimps, brothel keepers and other undesirable people? [More…]

• The Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and I have stressed on a number of occasions that the Government is determined to screen arriving Vietnamese to ensure that they are genuine refugees according to the Geneva Convention. [More…]

• The comments were made in complete ignorance of the checking procedures we have introduced for arriving refugees. [More…]

• The Government will continue to pursue a humanitarian course in its approach to genuine refugees from wherever they come. [More…]

• As the report indicates, the Committee accepts the temporary use of Wiltona for housing refugees if there is an immediate and pressing need for hostel accommodation. [More…]

• In view of this move, has the Minister any further information regarding the present situation of Timor refugees in Australia being permitted to reunite with their families still in Timor? [More…]

• ls it coming in the same way as the Vietnamese refugees are coming in? [More…]

• 8 the Government records its support for the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is financed by voluntary contributions both to its general program and to special appeals made from time to time on behalf of particular groups of refugees and displaced persons. [More…]

• A total amount of $2.3m was ultimately provided in 1977-78 for special appeals for refugees from Indo-China and Thailand and other peoples in Asia, including the boat people. [More…]

• I am advised that a number of Commonwealth departments are concerned about the question of the disposition of refugees vessels not owned by the Vietnamese Government and that the whole question is presently under consideration by these authorities. [More…]

• Speaking about the difficulties of balancing legitimate claims of various political refugees, supported by my Latin-American colleagues, I said to the Minister that I believed that he was probably a little over-kind at times to all Vietnamese ‘refugees’, no matter how they reached Australia. [More…]

• The Ministers said that the 1 2 Vietnamese refugees who took over a vessel by force to sail to Australia had been given the benefit of the doubt; they could remain here. [More…]

• The Minister has informed me that he has received advice from the Committee on the Determination of Refugee Status, which advises him on applications from people in Australia claiming to be refugees, that the 12 Indo-Chinese people who were referred to by Senator Mulvihill should be granted refugee status. [More…]

• Further, having regard to the views of our ambassador, Mr Critchley, and others, of the plight of this great number of refugees, does the Government not regard the previous reply of Mr Peacock as being inadequate and complacent about the plight of these unfortunate people in East Timor? [More…]

• Again I request that consideration be given to the Australian Government requiring the presence of the International Red Cross in East Timor, having regard to the fact that in practically every other country the International Red Cross is recognised as the body to carry out work amongst refugees? [More…]

• The program is not static; its components are adjusted and adapted to cater for changes in the needs of migrants and refugees as these vary from group to group and vary over time. [More…]

• As I said, to all intents and purposes, apart from a short time when the buildings were used for Darwin refugees, they have been empty since October 1 972. [More…]

• As to the use of the hostel, it would appear that with the current problem of refugees from Asia it may well be that the hostel will have to be used in the near future, but within the foreseeable future that problem will pass and the hostel will have to be disposed of. [More…]

• It is also of interest to the refugee situation in Western Australia that the Committee has seen fit to say that the temporary use of Wiltona for refugees would be OK provided precautions are taken with respect to fire. [More…]

• Can the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs outline the criteria by which the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs determines the eligibility of persons to migrate to Australia as refugees? [More…]

• The Australian media has drawn considerable attention to the plight of some 1,200 refugees on the ship Southern Cross who have been given temporary refuge by the Indonesian Government on an island within Indonesia. [More…]

• In view of the suffering and continuing poor conditions in which these refugees exist, will the Australian Government take firm action to alleviate their distress and give a lead to other nations to assist their resettlement. [More…]

• Assistance will be provided to both government and non-government school authorities for teaching materials, salaries and administration in respect of child migrants and adult migrants, and extending to refugees. [More…]

• The program also includes provision for English language tuition for adult migrants and refugees. [More…]

• When there is an emergency airlift of refugees, for example, everyone gets together to try to solve the problems and they live with some of the other difficulties. [More…]

• Has the Minister considered the possibility of refugees from the Lebanon seeking admission to Australia? [More…]

• How many permanent settlers in the following categories: (a) family reunions; (b) political refugees; and (c) people possessing trade skills listed in the Minister’s monthly schedule, entered Australia from 1 January to 30 June 1978. [More…]

• the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs does not have a separate statistical category for political refugees; hence it is not possible to distinguish political refugees from other types of refugees. [More…]

• In total 5,817 refugees entered Australia between 1 January 1 978 and 30 June 1978; [More…]

• Further, having regard to the views of our ambassador, Mr Critchley, and others, of the plight of this great number of refugees, does the Government not regard the previous reply of Mr Peacock as being inadequate and complacent about the plight of these unfonunate people in East Timor? [More…]

• Again I request that consideration be given to the Australian Government requiring the presence of the International Red Cross in East Timor, having regard to the fact that in practically every other country the International Red Cross is recognised as the body to carry out work amongst refugees? [More…]

• Refugees who are financially disadvantaged; [More…]

• Has the inquiry yet taken evidence from Timorese refugees now in Portugal and said to have been in Balibo at the time of the killings? [More…]

• It has recently appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for help in reestablishing 47,000 Meo tribesmen who, it said, had requested the Laotian Government’s assistance. [More…]

• In March of this year did a boatload of Vietnamese refugees which arrived at Darwin include 30 people who had previously been rejected for entry to Australia by Australian immigration officers in Thailand? [More…]

• If so, what has happened to those refugees? [More…]

• 2) 1978, the bulk billing arrangements for disadvantaged persons could include people who are in the following categories: Persons who are on a low income, including social security unemployment, sickness or special beneficiaries; newly arrived migrants and some other ethnic groups; refugees who are financially disadvantaged; and persons who suffer financial misfortune because of substantial medical expenses caused by prolonged or severe illness. [More…]

• Persons who are on low incomes, including social security unemployment, sickness or special beneficiaries would be expected to be included in this bulk billing arrangement, as would newly-arrived migrants, some ethnic groups, refugees and people who suffer financial misfortune. [More…]

• That is all very well if we have groups of disadvantaged people, groups of unemployed, groups of low income earnershowever they can be detected- and groups of new refugees and migrants, but what about the poor individual, not a great group, who is disadvantaged in an area and is ignored- [More…]

• I do not think that one can fairly point to a society like that, a society which has been, per capita, the greatest contributor to United Nations organisations for the relief of refugees and for the assistance of children throughout the world and say that it has a more devalued view of human life than a society like Australia which is more concerned with its own economic problems perennially than with international problems of concern such as the ones I have mentioned. [More…]

• Government and the Singapore Government to the 2,500 Vietnamese refugees aboard the Hai Hong as reported in the Press yesterday? [More…]

• Have approaches been made to the Australian Government by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to allow these refugees to settle in Australia? [More…]

• In March of this year, did a boatload of Vietnamese refugees which arrived at Darwin include 30 people who had previously been rejected for entry to Australia by Australian immigration officers in [More…]

• If so, what has happened to those refugees? [More…]

• Priorities are allotted to the refugees based on the presence of close relatives here or the existence of former ties with Australia and those outside the top priorities have sometimes been tempted- as in this case- to re-embark and sail for Australia. [More…]

• The first matter relates to the situation of Timorese refugees in Australia and particularly the fact that today the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr MacKellar) saw representatives of Timorese refugees in this country and gave them a number of undertakings which must be regarded as of extremely doubtful validity. [More…]

• It is now some three years since there was a large influx of Timorese refugees to Australia. [More…]

• I refer to the undertakings given by the Government some 18 months ago in relation to the question of reunification of Timorese refugees with their families in Timor, particularly the fathers of families in Timor. [More…]

• I refer to reports in the Australian Press that Jacob Prai and Otto Ondawame two refugees from West Irian who have been imprisoned in Papua New Guinea, may seek politicial asylum in Australia. [More…]

• I understand that the Papua New Guinean Government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have been consulting on this question. [More…]

• -Has the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs been advised of concern being felt and expressed by the Timorese refugees in Australia, particularly those in Darwin and Victoria, relating to the delay in the processing of applications for the reuniting of families in Australia and to the discrimination practised by the Government of Indonesia against Timorese people who wish to come to Australia to be reunited with their families? [More…]

• Will the recent guidelines issued by the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs be used in the situation of Timorese refugees wishing to come to Australia or will the Government keep to the promises it has given over the last 1 8 months in response to questions and written requests? [More…]

• I think it is understood by the honourable senator and many other people that the Australian Government is concerned about the Timorese refugees, and whatever actions are required to be taken to assist them are being taken by the Government. [More…]

• My question, which is addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, relates to the misery, devastation and death amongst the refugees fleeing Vietnam in all sorts of vessels. [More…]

• One estimate is that 100,000 of these refugees have perished in their flight. [More…]

• The Government has in many ways assisted the settlement of Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• The possibility of this country having to take large numbers of refugees increases the need to upgrade and to assist our quarantine services, both in the Department of Health and in the Bureau of Customs. [More…]

• Priorities are allotted to the refugees based on the presence of close relatives here or the existence of former ties with Australia and those outside the top priorities have sometimes been tempted- as in this case- to reembark and sail for Australia. [More…]

• Has the Government been in touch with the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Geneva or have any reports been received from that office? [More…]

• My understanding is that the Government has at this moment no indication of actual bodily movements of refugees as the result of the Indo-China- Chinese situation. [More…]

• The Government is constantly in touch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• The member countries of the Association of South East Asian nations, even in the face of the Vietnamese Government’s sponsoring of the flood of refugees with which they had to cope, were positive and forthcoming in their dealings with Vietnam. [More…]

• The ASEAN countries, even in the face of the Vietnamese Government’s sponsoring of the flood of refugees with which they had to cope, were positive and forthcoming in their dealings with Vietnam. [More…]

• Why does the statement not go on and mention the fact that Vietnam is currently playing host to 150,000 refugees from Kampuchea and that Vietnam, in consultation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has pledged to house some 5,000 of those refugees as soon as possible and in the long term has pledged to the same Commissioner to house some 50,000 over the next few years? [More…]

• It refers to people in the Third World and particularly those who are most affected by international upheavals such as those to which we are referring in this debate, namely, the matter of refugees. [More…]

• But refugees are not the only people who are affected by such events as the wars which we are seeing within our own part of the world at this time. [More…]

• Only three weeks ago the Acting Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Mr Ellicott, said that since the fall of Saigon in April 1975 Australia had resettled about 17,000 refugees from the very part of the world which was the central theme of the Minister’s speech today. [More…]

• The Acting Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs pointed out that per head of population Australia has done better than any other country receiving refugees. [More…]

• The Acting Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs said that the exact number of Indo-Chinese refugees resettled since the fall of Saigon was 16,000 nearly 2,000 of whom had arrived in small boats. [More…]

• It is not sufficient in any discussion of international affairs to recognise only that a particular country, in this case Australia, has taken in a considerable number of refugees. [More…]

• MacKellar) only a few weeks ago indicated that Australia would support the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• This was of particular interest to me as a few weeks ago I had the opportunity of some conversation with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, particularly the High Commissioner’s deputy. [More…]

• Although Australia has taken a large number of refugees and its record is better than other countries, we have to remember that there are refugees in other parts of the world. [More…]

• As a result of conversations with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees the two Ministers announced that Australia would contribute about $3m to assist in the overall refugee situation, but particularly in Indo-China. [More…]

• I think most of those people are now refugees in the Sudan where they are receiving some assistance from a world charity. [More…]

• I believe that Australia with its reputation and record for helping refugees at least should be helping the refugees who have left the country. [More…]

• I deplore the absence of any condemnation, except in what the Minister meekly and weakly said of the monstrous action of the Vietnamese Government in sponsoring the flood of refugees out of the country, thus exacerbating the problems of other countries in trying to solve the internal problems of Vietnam. [More…]

• It is surprising to me that China should come to the defence of Chinese merchants in Ho Chi Minh City who were refugees from the regime in China and who subsequently, when they left Vietnam, went not back to China but to France and, as most of them did, to Taiwan. [More…]

• On the Air France jumbo jet on which I left Ho Chi Minh City, three sections were reserved for refugees who were free to go. [More…]

• When we got to Bangkok some of the refugees remained on board while others transferred to another plane whose destination was Taiwan. [More…]

• When the ships that came from China to pick up refugees anchored outside Haiphong, the only condition that the Vietnamese people put on the refugees leaving was that it should be done in the normal way; that lists should be given to the Vietnamese authorities of people wishing to go; that the Chinese ships could take only three days for the whole of the operation; and that they should enter only two pons, Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City. [More…]

• Is the Minister for Foreign Affairs aware that owing to terrorist activities in Rhodesia there has been a flood of black refugees, many of whom are children, into Bulawayo and Salisbury in search of tribal kinsmen? [More…]

• Will the Government also cease providing aid to terrorist organisations in southern Africa and redirect such aid to responsible agencies in order that the plight of these refugees can be alleviated. [More…]

• -I think all honourable senators who take a keen interest in foreign affairs, particularly the affairs of the troubled African continent, will have noted the increase in terrorist activities there and the effect that that has had upon both refugees and the lowering of living conditions. [More…]

• That is the problem of the exodus of refugees. [More…]

• He said it only objected when refugees hijacked boats or stole government property when leaving. [More…]

• In this morning’s edition of the Melbourne Age I noticed a statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Mr Dale de Haan, who said that Vietnam had told him that it will reduce the number of boat people leaving its shores if other countries take Vietnamese refugees on a family reunion basis. [More…]

• However, I do not wish to go into the question of refugees because this motion was not meant to refer to refugees. [More…]

• Descriptions of the sufferings and torments of refugees are heartbreaking. [More…]

• I refer simply to a headline in the Examiner of 3 March 1979 which said: ‘Vietnamese girl aged 17 buries 49 refugees’. [More…]

• I do not want to go into the whole question of refugees. [More…]

• I believe that the issue has been overtaken by the announcement of the Federal Government in January of this year concerning the cutting off of aid and the recent announcement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees concerning the apparent indication by the Vietnamese Government on family reunions. [More…]

• In effect, would he be the officer who would make the points system evaluation of people rather than have them deemed to be political refugees? [More…]

• Australia has so far contributed $ A 1 60,000 to international relief organisations to assist in resettling refugees who have fled to Eastern Sudan. [More…]

• The Sudanese Government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to whose budget Australia contributes, and a number of international relief agencies, are also involved in giving humanitarian assistance to the refugees. [More…]

• Many Spanish teenage refugees were taken by Latin American countries- probably countries like Mexico- and the Soviet Union. [More…]

• The Government has already contributed $A 160,000 to international relief organisations to assist in resettling Eritrean refugees who have fled to eastern Sudan. [More…]

• 000) to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assist Eritrean refugees in the Sudan. [More…]

• The Government believes that the provision of humanitarian assistance through international bodies working in the Sudan is the most appropriate and efficient means of helping Eritreans who have become refugees as a result of the conflict in Eritrea. [More…]

• 1 ) Has Australia resettled 16,474 Indo-Chinese refugees since April 1975. [More…]

• 3 ) Where are the refugees located. [More…]

• How many children are included in the total of IndoChinese resettled refugees. [More…]

• A total of 16,474 Indo-Chinese refugees had been resettled in Australia between April 1975 and 26 January 1 979. [More…]

• , (4) and (5) Separate statistics for Indo-Chinese refugees, other than those still resident in migrant centres, are not maintained. [More…]

• Thirty-seven per cent of the Indo-Chinese refugees who arrived between April 1975 and December 1978 were aged 15 years or younger. [More…]

• The Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs currently provides welfare services to migrants and refugees through its Bailey Arcade office in Civic and general immigration functions at the CML office in University Avenue. [More…]

• If this is a fact, will the Minister advise the Senate what is the current definition of ‘illegal immigrant’ and whether the Minister’s statement constitutes an open invitation for Vietnamese refugees to attempt to sail for Darwin rather than go through the official channels? [More…]

• 3m has been included for the Department of Employment and Youth Affairs for the extension of the Community Youth Support Scheme and $3.0m for the Department of Foreign Affairs for increased contributions to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees program of assistance for Indo-Chinese refugees. [More…]

• The problem of refugees from Indo-China is a human problem of vast proportions which affects all of us. [More…]

• Indonesia’s co-operation in the Indo-China refugee problem is of importance in maintaining an orderly intake of refugees into Australia. [More…]

• Indonesia’s continuing help in forestalling unheralded arrivals of refugees is very much appreciated, for it is much easier for Australia to take in a significant number of refugees when this is done in an orderly way and under proper immigration procedures. [More…]

• Indonesia’s generous and constructive proposal to establish an island processing centre for refugees is welcomed and supported by Australia and we will be contributing towards the cost of this centre. [More…]

• I rise tonight to ventilate a number of immigration problems because in recent days the Press of the major capital cities has emphasised the dilemma of the Government in regard to its committed intake of Vietnamese refugees from the turbulent area of Asia. [More…]

• There would be no question of the Australian Embassy in Tehran being able to regard Iranians living in Iran as refugees. [More…]

• The definition of a refugee under international convention and protocol specifies that refugees are persons outside their country of nationality or usual residence. [More…]

• In fact if one has any feeling for history or any sentiment about Norfolk Island one cannot but reflect a very strong sentiment for the interests and wishes of the Pitcairn Island people on Norfolk Island, the population of that island having been diluted, as it were, by various refugees from Australia, whether they be tax dodgers or retired people, who in a sense have had a very significant effect on the economy of Norfolk Island and who perhaps have too much say in the running of Norfolk Island to the detriment of the Pitcairn Island people. [More…]

• It is promulgated by such worthy organisations as the Daily News which in an article last Friday week, 18 May, twice referred to women’s refuges as ‘women’s Refugees’. [More…]

• I am not terribly sure whether this newspaper is suggesting that women’s refuges are to cater for the needs of women refugees who happen to come from some other country. [More…]

• The final matter with which I wish to deal tonight relates to the definition of political refugees. [More…]

• The first document is a letter from the Joint Working Group for Refugees from Latin America in Britain. [More…]

• JOINT WORKING GROUP FOR REFUGEES FROM LATIN AMERICA Formerly Joint Working Group for Refugees from Chile in [More…]

• Miss Allebi arrived in the United Kingdom in January 1975 with her son and daughter having fled from the aftermath of the 1973 Chilean coup d’etat to Lima, Peru, where she and her family received protection from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• She and her family on arrival in the UK were received and resettled by the Joint Working Group for Refugees from Latin America. [More…]

• MIGRATION BRANCH AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION Canberra House, 10-16 Maltravers Street, Strand, London WC2R 3ER 8 February 1979 Joint Working Group for Refugees from Latin America, 21 Star Street, London, W2 IQB [More…]

• I have read in the Press reports that Vietnamese refugees have alleged that the Vietnamese Government intends to expel its entire ethnic Chinese population which amounts, as Senator Sim has said, to between one million people and 1.5 million people. [More…]

• Moreover, the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs has recently claimed that about 200,000 Vietnamese refugees have drowned while attempting to flee from Vietnam. [More…]

• Since he is so concerned about the refugees who flow from Vietnam- a concern, if it is honest, which is shared by the Oppositionwould it not be to the advantage of the Vietnamese if the Government were to re-establish aid to Vietnam in order to make conditions there much more satisfactory than they are at present? [More…]

• Will the Government not accept some responsibility for the situation which leads to many Vietnamese refugees being drowned at sea? [More…]

• Secondly, it plays upon the fears and possibly the natural concern of many people in Australia regarding refugees generally. [More…]

• We must consider the situation in Thailand where tens of thousands of refugees have crossed the border in one day, or in Malaysia where people have been arriving in their thousands. [More…]

• The situation we face with refugees from Indochina, I think, is horrifying, when it is realised that the number of deaths of people escapingfor whatever reason- is as high as 250,000. [More…]

• If we believe that we are hard done by, because we have accepted some 2,000 people over the last three years, we should look at the situation in Thailand where the camps now have more than 160,000 refugees and where the situation is becoming worse every day because of the events in Kampuchea. [More…]

• I welcome the offer made by the Government of Indonesia with the support of the other countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations and Australia to make available an island for the temporary settlement of these refugees. [More…]

• I add to Senator Sim’s compassionate remarks concerning refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• However, today certain comments have been made which I consider to be inflammatory and which ought not be considered by the officers in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs when dealing with the problem of refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• He said that Vietnam was prepared to cooperate in setting up a holding place for Vietnamese refugees and would attempt to stem the flow from that country. [More…]

• Not only did Senator Sim complain of moves at a very high level in Western Australia to stop the flow of Vietnamese refugees to Australia but I notice that the Returned Services League State Congress in Queensland is also seeking that Australia refuse the intake of refugees. [More…]

• I suggest that it would be easier to stem the flow of refugees if we were to reverse our policy on aid to Vietnam. [More…]

• All I am doing is appealing to Senator Bonner to recognise the problems that Vietnam faces and to recognise that it is necessary to improve the economic conditions within Vietnam if we are in any way to stem the flow of refugees fleeing not so much from the ideology of Vietnam, but from the depressed economic conditions which exist there for the variety of reasons that I have given. [More…]

• What we are saying is that we cannot possibly allow the flow of refugees from Vietnam or from any other South East Asian country to continue. [More…]

• The flow of refugees would then be considerably reduced. [More…]

• If the compassion which the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (Mr MacKellar) showed to the Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines were to be shown in foreign policy, the larger arena, and if we made an effort to understand that Vietnam needs to be assisted, the problem of the refugees would not be so great and we would not have the RSL demanding that refugees be stopped from entering Australia. [More…]

• People are accepted on the basis of family reunion or job category or because they are political refugees. [More…]

• But a proportion of 10,000 refugees out of 40,000 or 50,000 is very high when one considers the other groups, which with considerable political backing- not all from my Party- feel that they are entitled to some consideration. [More…]

• I advise him that the Australian Government is prepared to consider the admission of individuals or groups of refugees or displaced persons in accordance with the criteria which relate to each situation. [More…]

• Senator Sim then opened the discussion on refugees, which ranged around the chamber, starting with a discussion of Vietnamese refugees and the record of Australia, which is a good one in that we have observed international responsibilities. [More…]

• Time is against me in regard to joining in the debate on the matter of refugees. [More…]

• He placed on Vietnam a heavy responsibility for the problem that we face in having to accept refugees from that country. [More…]

• I point out that this country forced death upon some people close to our shores when it refused to go to their defence and accept them here with the same compassion with which we have accepted Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• Australia refused to accept refugees from Timor and Portugal in the same way that we have accepted refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• If the refugees are from a socialist or communist regime, they are accepted easily, readily and in great numbers. [More…]

• If they happen to be refugees from fascist oppression- from Chile or Timor- the barriers go up. [More…]

• In addition, I wish to refer to a matter that Senator Georges raised and which is very dear to my heart, namely, the plight of the Timorese refugees who, under the present situation, do not appear to be getting much help. [More…]

• I take this opportunity to speak on the different approach that is taken with illegal migrants and refugees. [More…]

• I shall state simply our responsibilities with regard to genuine refugees as they are internationally understood to be refugees. [More…]

• In order to avoid the confusion, misinterpretation and lack of comprehension which results from word of mouth communication with refugees, the Committee recommends that their own language be used in individual communication with them as well as in the preparation of documents and information sheets which are of concern to them. [More…]

• In the Committee’s view the use of the refugee’s native language for both oral and written communication is of fundamental importance if practical application is to be given to the basic principle that refugees (and migrants) be assured of full access to statutory services and forms of support and assistance to which they arc entitled. [More…]

• 1 would expect that, as that report was presented in the hey-day of Vietnamese refugees coming to this country, at the moment we would have a full complement of Vietnamese interpreters in this country. [More…]

• Certainly it is not the fault of the Vietnamese refugees if that is not so. [More…]

• Of course he replied to the obvious criticism from the young children and said that he would be prepared to allow his flying hotels to be used to bring refugees to this country. [More…]

• I ask: In view of the mass forced exodus of many Vietnamese from their homeland, which it has been estimated may reach the figure of two million people, what action is being contemplated by Australia, and those other countries which are literally being swamped by this unfortunate mass of humanity, to endeavour to stem the flow of refugees which has been brought about by the acts of the inhuman Vietnamese Government? [More…]

• -I think that all Australians, including the interjectors, would agree that this is one of the most sad and unfortunate situations, particularly in view of the fact that so many refugees, perhaps measured in tens or hundreds of thousands, are drowning in their attempts to escape. [More…]

• Australia has successfully sought to encourage an international approach to the whole question of Indo-Chinese refugees. [More…]

• We are prepared to work through well-established forums for the resettlement of refugees and to this end we have officials in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia processing refugees in an orderly way. [More…]

• We resettle large numbers of Indo-Chinese refugees. [More…]

• The Government does not advertise to any large degree the fact that the largest migrant source, excluding refugees, was South Africa. [More…]

• that Australia was considering a plan to accept up to 10,000 Rhodesian refugees if the transitional Government collapsed. [More…]

• The Government has castigated other countries about the treatment of their nationals and their treatment of refugees. [More…]

• It has called on them to show greater compassion, to take a greater proportion of refugees and to allow more families to be reunited. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, relates to the matter of refugees and to the national and international discussion that has taken place since our Parliament last met. [More…]

• The most recent major Government statement on the IndoChinese refugee situation was made by the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs to the United Nations Conference on Refugees which was held in Geneva on 20 and 2 1 July. [More…]

• The question of any further statements on issue at this time will depend on developments, particularly those affecting the undertakings given by Vietnam at the Geneva meeting to restrict the disorderly outflow of refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• Honourable senators will be aware that the Minister announced at the Geneva meeting that Australia’s intake of Indo-Chinese refugees in 1979-80 would be increased from 10,500 to 14,000. [More…]

• This increase will mean that by June 1980 Australia will have accepted over 37,000 Indo-Chinese refugees. [More…]

• 19m of which was a direct contribution to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Of the 37 1 immigrant doctors, 14 were refugees and 25 were admitted on the basis of family reunion. [More…]

• As recently as last Saturday a meeting of the Laos group in Sydney claimed that they were not as well treated as some other South-East Asian people who claimed to be refugees. [More…]

• We have people who say that we should not accept refugees and we have others who say that we should have virtually an open house. [More…]

• We as parliamentarians know that people argue about the definition of family reunion’, about the trade categorisation of immigrants, and about the definition of ‘political refugees’. [More…]

• When the balloon went up in Iran I did not realise, and I suppose no one else here did, how many people there were here with problems that justified their being deemed as political refugees. [More…]

• Although I have dealt with two areas, there are three components of immigrationfamily reunion, job skills, and political refugees- and each year the problems are going to get more difficult. [More…]

• We are committed this financial year to an intake of 14,000 political refugees. [More…]

• The Minister said to me on one occasion that we took in political refugees from 60 countries. [More…]

• If 14,000 refugees are taken from one area, how do we divide the cake between the other 59 nations? [More…]

• I am sorry that the Aborigines were referred to by Mr Porter as refugees. [More…]

• Was he foisted on us by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or by the United States Government, or was he a selection of one of our own people? [More…]

• With regard to the second part of Senator Mulvihills question as to whether he was foisted upon us by either the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or by the United States Government, I am advised that the answer is no, he was not. [More…]

• The majority of letters to the local newspaper demand, for example, that Australia should ignore the plight of the Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• Both Ministers have called for an increase in the intake of Vietnamese refugees in to Australia. [More…]

• -Is the Leader of the Government in the Senate aware of reports that a significant percentage of refugees in Thailand have given famine as the main reason for their flight? [More…]

• My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Youth Affairs at the behest of several Latin- American groups in Sydney which assert that, because of the dilemma that the Government faces following the heavy intake of Vietnamese political refugees, when they front up for employment, having paid their own fares, they are met with a sort of sweetheart agreement between the Commonwealth Employment Service and the Government. [More…]

• The facts concerning refugees in the Sydney area do not substantiate what has been reported to Senator Mulvihill. [More…]

• Apparently, out of a total work force of 2,000, it has recruited only 20 refugees in the last 12 months. [More…]

• I gather that that figure refers to Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• Vietnamese refugees, like other migrants and locally bom citizens, are competing equally on the labour market. [More…]

• Generally it would appear that employers are showing satisfaction with them as workers and are developing a readiness to accept further refugees. [More…]

• There is no reason to believe that South American migrants or refugees are not equally well motivated. [More…]

• I understand that the meeting in Perth was attended by some members of the League of Rights and of the Immigration Control Association who identified themselves as such and were vocal in expressing their views against Asian migrants and refugees. [More…]

• Manifestations of racial prejudices are inconsistent with that non-discriminatory approach, especially since, as a nation, we have accepted obligations to resettle refugees here. [More…]

• On this basis we can build an even stronger and more tolerant nation with a greater capacity to assist in the solution of some of the major world problems, not the least of which is the need to exhibit humanitarian concern for people who have become refugees as a result of events in Indo-China and elsewhere. [More…]

• Does the Minister expect the situation to affect the already complex problem of other refugees from Indo-China? [More…]

• It has in the middle a small hill some 900 feet in height and on it were 33,000 refugees. [More…]

• I moved among them seeing something of the work that was being done by the Red Crescent, by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and by voluntary agencies from Malaysia. [More…]

• How on earth, for example, is Australia, which is not able at this stage to determine when refugees and others land on the Australian coast, to police a policy in relation to fishing throughout this enormous 200 nautical miles zone? [More…]

• For that reason, information about the events in Kampuchea under the Pol Pot regime was scanty, and most of it has come from refugees. [More…]

• Certainly there is considerable evidence to support that claim, in the sense that 150,000 Kampuchean refugees went into Vietnam prior to the invasion. [More…]

• I do not wish to recall 1969 and the saturation bombing by Americans of Cambodia, what happened under the Lon Nol regime when 500,000 people died and half of the population became refugees, or what happened under the Khmer Rouge or the Pol Pot regime. [More…]

• Representatives of the Council had interviewed refugees from Kampuchea and in the main they were informed that the refugees had come out of Kampuchea because of the food situation and famine that existed there. [More…]

• Not only have we done that; we have also constantly done everything in our power as a government and a nation to relieve the problems of refugees. [More…]

• Australia has taken tens of thousands of refugees, recognising their situation as part of this very great problem. [More…]

• One thousand of those refugees have been Kampucheans, coming directly to Australia from Kampuchea. [More…]

• I think that perhaps it is worth bearing in mind that we have not just been involved in negotiations with other governments and with international agencies to try to get aid into Kampuchea, which we have now done and which we have been among the first to do; the matter of refugees has to be seen in the same context. [More…]

• Australia as a nation and this Government have recognised the great suffering of those people and we have taken Indo-Chinese refugees in greater relative numbers than any other country. [More…]

• One thousand of those refugees have come directly from Kampuchea. [More…]

• I refer honourable senators to the other side of the coin, namely, the present commitments which Australia, Canada and the United States have towards political refugees. [More…]

• But they are being brought into a tight manpower situation and we do not ask the refugees what their job skills are. [More…]

• There is a point of principle involved in deciding what constitutes a close relationship and whether brothers and sisters of mature age, and perhaps having their own families, should be included in the concessional arrangements for refugees, possibly at the expense of reuniting immediate families within Australia’s annual refugee program limitation of 14,000. [More…]

• Japan has announced that it will contribute approximately $2m to international relief agencies for distribution in Kampuchea and an additional $1.3m for refugees in Thailand. [More…]

• At the same time that I make this plea for both these people, I think it is significant to note the terminology with regard to political refugees and those people who want political asylum. [More…]

• That the Australian Government should provide greater assistance and help to those refugees who have been forced to leave their homes in Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos. [More…]

• Provide an immediate increase in the number of IndoChinese refugees to be admitted to Australia for permanent settlement to at least 24,000 per year; [More…]

• Provide greater financial aid and assistance to those agencies which are assisting the Indo-Chinese refugees in their temporary camps in South East Asia; [More…]

• Bring maximum political and diplomatic pressure to bear upon the governments of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos to ensure an end to those policies which are causing the flight of refugees to neighbouring South East Asian countries. [More…]

• I ask the Minister: What action has been taken to speed up the resettlement of Indo-Chinese refugees in Australia? [More…]

• What is the Government’s attitude to requests for financial aid from those agencies which are assisting the Indo-Chinese refugees in their transit camps? [More…]

• What action is the Government taking to have the governments of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos end those policies which are causing the flight of refugees? [More…]

• The Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs has advised me that the Government has increased the program for Indo-Chinese refugees to 14,000 for this year. [More…]

• Australia has contributed more than $ 12m to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 1975 for Indo-Chinese refugees. [More…]

• As a result of the pressure brought to bear by Australia and other nations at the United Nations conference on Indo-Chinese refugees held in Geneva in July, the Government of Vietnam agreed to stop the outflow of refugees from Vietnam for a reasonable time. [More…]

• Can it be verified that about $10m paid to SWAPO was used as intended to ease the plight of a few thousand Ovambo refugees who reportedly still live as miserably as if they had received nothing at all? [More…]

• The increasing number of refugees from our near north adds to the problems which will face us in the future. [More…]

• I refer to employment opportunities for refugees. [More…]

• The Government is bringing in 14,000 refugees for whom jobs skills is not a factor, and lam not saying that it should be. [More…]

• The Minister is hopeful that the combined efforts of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Australian Government will soon result in an arrangement which is acceptable to the Australian and Vietnamese governments. [More…]

• I casually asked about the outflow of South East Asian refugees. [More…]

• I say respectfully that the sooner these people go into industry and become taxpayers the sooner we remove certain burdens that we accept as signatories to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. [More…]

• These are areas in which one does not apply to political refugees the skilled job category criterion or anything like that, for obvious reasons. [More…]

• We have to place those people in employment, as well as the refugees. [More…]

• Let us go beyond the refugees and look at those people who come under the definition of family reunion’. [More…]

• I heard Senator MacGibbon - I am not being provocative- say that South Vietnamese refugees were more diligent, more work intensified and were more aware of the work ethic than other people. [More…]

• Therefore, whether we talk about refugees or Australians, the number of manual jobs will be diminished. [More…]

• I would just like to believe that we can argue at Geneva and other places of the United Nations that if we take a fair number of refugees from South East Asia, we cannot lower our tariff barriers any further than we have done already. [More…]

• I am not moralising about political refugees. [More…]

• Refugees have existed throughout history. [More…]

• Australians will get used to- I suggest that they will have to get used to- the idea that refugees will be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. [More…]

• Our attitude to refugees and to boat people- however they may be described- and our attitude to the principle of population building generally will be a test of our sincerity and of our determination to develop Australia, not for any reasons of selfinterest but for humanity as a whole and, as the speeches at lunchtime today indicated, for our opportunity to make a contribution to South East Asia, to the South Pacific and to the world at large. [More…]

• Because one spends a couple of days among refugees one cannot and should not claim to be an expert on refugees. [More…]

• He has seen refugees in Europe, as I have. [More…]

• Through the kind agencies of our Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and the officers of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, I was able to visit that island, with its 33,000 refugees, and to move among those refugees for the best part of a day in conditions of heat and humidity which to me were quite indescribable and extremely uncomfortable. [More…]

• All of them formed part of that great company of people who survived the journey across the South China Sea and were placed on the island of Bidong, where they were being looked after in an administrative capacity by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and agencies in Malyasia and Kuala Lumpur, such as the Red Crescent organisation, which was carrying out the distribution of food and medical supplies and, indeed, was carrying out an enormous amount’ of detailed work in relation to correspondence and the distribution of the refugees to enable families to stay together if at all possible. [More…]

• Suffice it to say that I was greatly impressed to see that, among the 33,000 refugees, there was a sense of order. [More…]

• Some classes were conducted by educational authorities, some by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, some by the Red Crescent organisation and, I suppose the greater proportion of them by the religious organisations and churches which had already set up their establishments on the island. [More…]

• The Bill before the Senate reflects a number of things, not only in relation to our intake of refugees and not only in relation to people who might become residents of Australia; it reflects also a number of social and economic issues related to admissions and, more importantly, to Australia ‘s public response. [More…]

• Senator Mulvihill also referred to refugees and political asylum. [More…]

• The people who could be considered as refugees are given a visa overseas and an entry permit is given to them on arrival. [More…]

• Refugees on boats have been given temporary entry permits while their status is being determined by the DORS Committee. [More…]

• Other than the indirect effect outlined above, this Bill contains no specific provisions regarding refugees. [More…]

• We readily accept our obligations to humanity and those obligations which we assume under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. [More…]

• During the debate on the earlier Bill, I referred to one or two rorts attempted in relation to genuine Cypriot refugees, and I know that there are other problems in relation to Lebanon and Latin America. [More…]

• We seek from the Minister some information as to whether the charge will apply to refugees or to people who might be on special benefits from her own Department. [More…]

• One wonders again, in the situation of refugees or others in this country in similar circumstances, why the charge is $50? [More…]

• The other vexed question facing the Government- and this one will not go away- is concerned with the continuing intake of political refugees. [More…]

• That a grave threat to the life of refugees from the various States of Indo-China arises from the policies of the Government of Vietnam. [More…]

• That, as a result of these policies, many thousands of refugees are fleeing their homes and risking starvation and drowning. [More…]

• As a wealthy nation within the region most affected, Australia is able to play a major part in the rescue as well as resettlement of these refugees. [More…]

• It should be possible for Australia to: establish and maintain on the Australian mainland basic transit camps for the housing and processing of 200,000 refugees each year; mobilise the Defence Force to search for, rescue and transport to Australia those refugees who have been able to leave the Indo-China States; accept the offer of those church groups which propose to resettle some thousands of refugees in Australia. [More…]

• That a grave threat to the life of refugees from the various States of Indo-China arises from the policies of the Government of Vietnam. [More…]

• That, as a result of these policies, many thousands of refugees are fleeing their homes and risking starvation and drowning. [More…]

• As a weathly nation within the region most affected, Australia is able to play a major part in the rescue as well as resettlement of these refugees. [More…]

• It should be possible for Australia to: -establish and maintain on the Australian mainland basic transit camps for the housing and processing of 200,000 refugees each year; -mobilise the Defence Force to search for, rescue and transport to Australia those refugees who have been able to leave the Indo-China States; -accept the offer of those church groups which propose to resettle some thousands of refugees in Australia. [More…]

• Finally, how many Kampuchean refugees this month have fled to Thailand and what proportion of Australian aid relative to the aid provided via Phnom Penh is now being directed to helping them? [More…]

• Estimates of the number of Kampuchean refugees in Thailand vary, but the Thai authorities have put the figure at around 200,000 people. [More…]

• I think that it has been most unfortunate that the Timorese have not been classified as refugees. [More…]

• In my light- I believe it should be everyone’s light - they are refugees and they should be assisted to come to Australia as quickly as possible. [More…]

• Which community groups in the Australian Capital Territory are actively involved in settling refugees in the Territory. [More…]

• How many refugees has each such group assisted. [More…]

• Has the Government placed any refugees in Canberra; if so, how many; if not, has it left all the work to community groups to pursue. [More…]

• Although the Government has not directly placed any refugees in Canberra it is encouraging refugee settlement programmes in the A.C.T. [More…]

• with a project subsidy grant of $5000 out of which a vehicle was purchased for use by refugees for self-help projects. [More…]

• The Department of the Capital Territory has made houses available for accommodation of refugees, as well as a house in Narrabundah for use as a refugee community centre. [More…]

• Thata grave threat to the life of refugees from the various States of Indo-China arises from the policies of the Government of Vietnam. [More…]

• That, as a result of these policies, many thousands of refugees are fleeing their homes and risking starvation and drowning. [More…]

• As a wealthy nation within the region most affected, Australia is able to play a major part in the rescue as well as resettlement of these refugees. [More…]

• It should be possible for Australia to: - establish and maintain on the Australian mainland basic transit camps for the housing and processing of 200,000 refugees each year; - mobilise the Defence Force to search for, rescue and transport to Australia those refugees who have been able to leave the Indo-China States; - accept the offer of those church groups which propose to resettle some thousands of refugees in Australia. [More…]

• I think there was an allegation by the Queensland Minister that there were refugees from the Northern Territory at Camooweal. [More…]

• A further argument used against the establishment of a Senate select committee was that it would inhibit the delivery of aid to East Timor and the ability of refugees to leave East Timor. [More…]

• The simple fact is that more than two years later aid has not reached many of the Timorese and is still not reaching them, that the land has been devastated and that refugees in Australia, particularly those in the Northern Territory, who seek to be reunited with their relatives from East Timor have been unable to get their relatives out of East Timor. [More…]

• I reiterate that Australia and this Parliament cannot underestimate the danger of passing these amendments to one Act and thus introducing a new Act which has no teeth and which is merely a window dressing exercise which the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), on his recovery from flu and pneumonia, will be able to take back to Lusaka and parade on the stages of the world, saying ‘There is no racism in my country’, while the people of this country, including those who are less than white, those who are part of the more ethnic minorities and those who are refugees in this country, will continue to suffer. [More…]

• I think this part of my argument demonstrates that the proposition that people can rely upon the operations of the common law, leave it to judges, to tradition, to history and to the good sense of people in the community simply does not exist when there are pressures- the pressures against blacks, the pressures against Vietnamese refugees, the pressures of unemployment or anything else- because one of the first things that is sacrificed when those sorts of conditions prevail are the human rights of other people and essentially the human rights of voiceless and defenceless minorities. [More…]

• What about a trade union which refuses membership to Vietnamese refugees? [More…]

• That the Australian Government should provide greater assistance and help to those Refugees who have been forced to leave their homes in Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos. [More…]

• Provide an immediate increase in the number of IndoChinese Refugees to be admitted to Australia for permanent settlement to at least 24,000 per year; [More…]

• Provide greater financial aid and assistance to those Agencies which are assisting the Indo-Chinese Refugees in their temporary Camps in South East Asia; [More…]

• Bring maximum political and diplomatic pressure to bear upon the Governments of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos to ensure an end to those Policies which are causing the flight of Refugees to neighbouring South East Asian Countries. [More…]

• The Indo-Chinese refugee situation and Australia’s role in assisting the refugees, with particular reference to the report of the Committee on Australia and the Refugee Problem, tabled in the Senate on 1 December 1 976. [More…]

• My question, which is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, concerns Vietnamese refugees. [More…]

• I believe that as we bring, properly, more Indo-Chinese refugees and settlers to Australia they in turn will become the object of increasing prejudice. [More…]

• As we are to have a situation in which race relations in Australia will be severely strained not only, as I have said, by the increasing education of the Aboriginal population but also by the increasing number of Vietnamese refugees and the increasing tensions in the employment situation in this country, the Commissioner for Community Relations ought to be one of the members of the Human Rights Commission, one among many and an equal among many. [More…]

• Housing of Asian Refugees in Canberra (Question No. [More…]

• How many: (a) houses; and (b) flats, were being rented to Asian refugees. [More…]

• Initially 20 houses were set aside as interim accommodation for South-East Asian refugees. [More…]

• They are allocated to refugees on the recommendation of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs which co-ordinates the movement of refugees to Canberra. [More…]

• Refugees who take occupancy of these houses may register for standard government accommodation on the same conditions as applicants generally. [More…]

• The Department agreed to make available as the need arises a further 52 houses throughout Canberra to SouthEast Asian refugees sponsored by interested organisations in Canberra. [More…]

• -Has the Leader of the Government in the Senate seen a report that Thailand is prepared to take half a million Kampuchean refugees and to set up camps for them? [More…]

• I have seen reports that Thailand is prepared to accept large numbers of Kampuchean refugees. [More…]

• As I understand it, Thailand has already taken in more than 200,000 refugees and, with assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other international agencies, has begun constructing large new refugee camps and moving refugees from the border area to those camps. [More…]

• The Government has consulted closely with other governments and international agencies about the whole situation in Kampuchea, including the plight of Kampuchean refugees in Thailand. [More…]

• I repeat: The Thai Government deserves very great credit for the way it is handling the refugees. [More…]

• It is doing so to protect the lives of the refugees against the imminent threat of destruction by war. [More…]

• The Government suspended its aid program to Vietnam in January, in response to Vietnam ‘s invasion of Kampuchea and because of its role in the exodus of refugees from Vietnam. [More…]

• This has made special demands on neighbouring states and has at last attracted world-wide attention for the plight of the refugees. [More…]

• We are not treating the Timorese as refugees although I think we should. [More…]

• That is a reference to Australia’s immigration policy, which applies to all peoples of the world other than refugees. [More…]

• A great emphasis is currently being placed on the tragic circumstances of refugees in other areas to the detriment, it would appear, of the ones at our doorstep. [More…]

• Large scale assistance to emergencies in the region this year has basically been in relation to refugees in Kampuchea and East Timor. [More…]

• Not surprisingly, with a war in progress in Kampuchea only 300 kilometres from the conference room, and the threat of a further influx of Khmer Rouge refugees into Thailand as soon as the rains stopped later in October, the issue of ‘illegal immigrants’ occupied the minds- of delegates above all else. [More…]

• ASEAN requests resettlement countries to increase and hasten the intake of the refugees and illegal immigrants from Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos who have been provided temporary asylum in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore; [More…]

• ASEAN calls on the United Nations to initiate effort to update the International Convention Regulating the Status of Refugees in the light of the recent developments in South East Asia. [More…]

• It is a new camp which had been constructed specially by the Thai administration in order to allow refugees who had been living along the border for some time to move into the sanctuary of Thailand and to receive the aid that was being offered by the aid agencies. [More…]

• However, the camp was being administered by representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [More…]

• Most of the world aid agencies as well as independent relief teams including an Australian medical team were giving assistance to the refugees. [More…]

• Senator Martin on our behalf was able to express to the Prime Minister the appreciation of the Australian people for the very generous efforts which the Government of Thailand is making in assisting the refugees. [More…]

• At some risk to its own security Thailand is permitting the refugees to enter its country. [More…]

• I have been gratified to learn since we returned to Australia that even more camps are being constructed by the Thai authorities and more refugees will be moved from the very dangerous border areas into the relative safety of Thailand. [More…]

• There is no immediate resolution for the political problems of Kampuchea in sight; so there will be an on-going flow of refugees seeking refuge in Thailand, assistance from the world community and. [More…]

• The ICRC and other aid agencies are stockpiling tarpaulins, food, medicine and so on in anticipation of a huge influx of refugees in a condition similar to that of the poor wretches who are in Sa Keo, the camp which has received so much publicity in recent times. [More…]

• I refer to another area which is of great concern to the delegation and which we had an opportunity to observe at first hand on a number of occasions, that is, the circumstance of refugees in the area. [More…]

• We were able to see refugees in a staging camp at Jakarta in Indonesia, many of whom were in fact coming to Australia. [More…]

• In Thailand we saw a different group of refugeesmany thousands on the Kampuchean bordersome of whom have been in camps for three or four years and all of whom were refugees by land as distinct from the boat people. [More…]

• It was our endeavour to make clear what we had done in respect of the intake of refugees into this country and aid that we had given in the form of finance and food. [More…]

• The second is the personal plight and the community reaction to the last of our Australian migrants, the Indo-Chinese refugees and in particular the boat people. [More…]

• The very real problems that have arisen in this country, the resentment, the unfortunate effortscertainly by a minority of people- as a reaction to the arrival of the Indo-Chinese refugees and the boat people is something which I believe community education can assist to overcome. [More…]

• Requests the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to render all possible assistance to the people of East Timor particularly the children and those seeking to leave for another country . [More…]

• We should regard the East Timorese people as refugees, not as ordinary migrants. [More…]

• We should see the East Timorese people in the same light as other refugees. [More…]

• Housing of Asian Refugees in Canberra (Question No. [More…]

• 1 ) Has the Department of the Capital Territory allocated houses to Asian refugees, which houses have required considerable repairs and maintenance work, by community groups involved in re-settling refugees in Canberra, before being fit for occupancy. [More…]

• Are administrative procedures in the Department delaying the handing over of houses and flats to Asian refugees to the extent that: (a) community groups frequently are denied advice of when houses and flats will become available until the last moment; and (b) the Department is reluctant to hand over the keys to government houses and flats so that responsible community groups can put the dwellings in order before refugee families arrive in Canberra. [More…]

• Does the Department lack adequate welfare staff to help the refugees settle into Canberra; if so, what measures has the Minister taken to overcome this problem. [More…]

• Will the Minister arrange for the establishment of a unit in his Department to co-ordinate action on the resettlement of refugees in Canberra. [More…]

• (a) The Department of the Capital Territory has agreed to make available 72 houses throughout Canberra for South-East Asian refugees. [More…]

• Of these houses 20 are allocated to refugees as interim accommodation on the recommendation of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, and 52 are being allocated as the need arises to refugees sponsored by interested organisations in Canberra. [More…]

• This procedure is being followed in respect of the 52 houses being allocated to SouthEast Asian refugees sponsored by interested organisations in Canberra. [More…]

• The Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs is aiming to actively involve the community in the national process of re-settling the considerable number of refugees now coming into Australia. [More…]

• In so far as there may be, or may later develop, specific welfare problems amongst refugees the Welfare Branch of the Depanment of the Capital Territory would be expected to help. [More…]

• The Ethnic Liaison Officer and his staff constitute a unit to co-ordinate Departmental action on all ethnic matters, including re-settlement of refugees. [More…]

• 1 ) How many Indo-Chinese refugees are currently residing in migrant centres throughout Australia. [More…]

• How many of the refugees are in receipt of unemployment or sickness benefits. [More…]

• As at 12 November 1979 there were 5,834 IndoChinese refugees in migrant centres throughout Australia. [More…]

• b) does the Minister’s statement constitute an open invitation for Vietnamese refugees to attempt to sail for Darwin rather than go through the official channels; and [More…]

• Refugees who are permitted entry to Australia are not prohibited immigrants for the purposes of the Migration Act. [More…]

• Australia’s obligations as a party to the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees require us to consider the claims of persons arriving in Australia who seek refugee status. [More…]

• Australia in common with other regional countries must be concerned at the arrival of refugees in small boats without prior authority. [More…]

• Everything feasible is done to dissuade refugees from attempting to reach Australia in this hazardous manner. [More…]

• 1 ) Did page 19, paragraph 4, of the Minister’s speech to the Queensland Branch of the Institute of International Affairs on 4 June 1979 state that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are currently 14 million refugees and displaced persons in the world. [More…]

• He will appreciate that the definitions of refugees and displaced persons are complex. [More…]

• It seems that the figure of 1 4 million refugees and displaced persons probably refers to those resettled under UNHCR auspices in the period since the establishment of that organisation and those still requiring resettlement. [More…]

• It is difficult to be specific about the numbers of refugees and displaced persons in particular locations because of the fluidity of the flows of refugees and displaced persons. [More…]

• There are smaller groups of refugees in South America and in Western Europe- mainly people who have come from Eastern European countries. [More…]

• For instance, the Spring 1979 Bulletin of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that the 8,000 registered refugees in Argentina at the end of 1 977 had been reduced by almost half. [More…]

• It also reported that in 1978 tens of thousands of refugees, primarily Angolans, Burmese, Zairians and Latin Americans were repatriated. [More…]