Comments on: Backing away from mandatory detention

By: s0metim3s

s0metim3s — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 07:31:49 +0000

There’s no hyperbole in calling Baxter, Port Hedland and other similar places ‘concentration camps’. This is the legally precise term for indefinite, extra-judicial internment. Those who wince at the apparent ‘excess’ of terms such as ‘gulag’ and ‘concentration camp’ are in denial about the legal conditions in which those camps are established and maintained.

And, btw, the Australian Labor Party have not ‘sat on the fence’ on this question. They introduced the policy of so-called ‘mandatory detention’ in 1992 (a move led by the Socialist Left faction of the ALP), and have consistently supported it while in opposition.

By: bi

bi — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 07:39:30 +0000

Jim Birch: pinko.

By: Jim Birch

Jim Birch — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 07:21:14 +0000

Funny who will take up political correctness when it suits.

By: Mill

Mill — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 14:53:14 +0000

Troll or not, they were and are often referred to as gulags by activists. Here’s a typical example:

http://www.hopecaravan.com/imaginepeace/2002_02_09_01.htm

“Very few staff who have been employed at Australia’s refugee gulags, have spoken out about the treatment meted out to refugees because of binding confidentiality agreements they are required to sign to obtain employment.”

Off-topic, but the real problem with the whole “Gitmo is a gulag” thing is not that gulag is too bad a word for the place, but that the word “gulag”, like “fascist”, “nazi” etc., has been so wildly and hyperbolically overused over the decades that it no longer has any force at all.

Back on-topic: this is great news and it’s especially encouraging to see Liberal backbenchers pushing things over the edge.

By: bi

bi — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 04:53:39 +0000

No, but Billings is called a “troll”, and rightly so.

By: Billings

Billings — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:05:05 +0000

Are the Australian detention centers also called “gulags”?

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 00:18:35 +0000

Thanks for passing this on, John- it’s good news, even if not as good as it might be. Those of us interested in asylum/refugee issues need all the good news we can get these days.