Open letter from academics regarding asylum seekers and refugees

Message from Anne Pedersen and Caroline Fleay

We are refugee advocates and academics working in the field of asylum seekers.  We are becoming increasingly alarmed about the politics which are playing out about asylum seekers.  As you may know, there is an Expert Panel led by Angus Houston that the government has tasked with providing a report about the best way forward in dealing with asylum seeker issues; public submissions are being called for.  There are also a number of concerned MPs who are meeting over the winter parliamentary recess to discuss this issue.

We would like to contribute to these deliberations and, to this end, we have put together an open letter outlining our concerns about issues such as turning back the boats, Nauru, the Malaysian Solution and temporary protection visas.  We have also included recommendations that are focused on the needs of asylum seekers.  As well as giving to the letter to the Expert Panel, we will also send it to some politicians.

If you agree with the content of the letter, and would like to put your name to it as an academic working in this field, please do so. You can do this by going to the web link: http://scored.murdoch.edu.au:8008/survey/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=8232982

Could you please note your professional title, name and affiliation?

We don’t have much time so we will shut down this web site at 5pm, Perth time, on Thursday, 12th July.