Sarah Stephen

  • It's not a queue, it's a lottery

    One of immigration minister Philip Ruddock's central arguments against accepting "queue jumpers" (read, onshore arrivals) from Afghanistan is because they know that they have a better chance of being granted asylum in Australia

  • Worse for women

    While the repression and violence in Afghanistan would be enough to make anyone flee, the conditions facing women are even worse than those facing men: Women are totally deprived of the right to education and work; No woman can

  • They were called 'queue-jumpers' too

    The SS St Louis left Hamburg, Germany in May 1939 with 937 Jewish refugees aboard. They had paid $150 each for permission to land in Cuba, a huge sum of money at that time. Most were on a waiting list for entry into the United

  • Why they're fleeing

    BY RACHEL EVANS & SARAH STEPHEN In a letter to the Australian people on Auguts 30, the Afghan asylum seekers on the MS Tampa said of their plight, "You know well about the long-time war and its tragic human consequences ... the genocide and

  • We must become 'less attractive', PM vows

    It's hard to believe that it's possible, but the federal government is proposing to get even tougher on asylum seekers who arrive without proper documentation. Restrictions on their right to appeal, new regulations allowing

  • Labor to guard the coasts

    Opposition spokesperson Con Sciacca has stated that the latest influx of asylum seekers showed the government's approach was not acting as a deterrent. "For all their bravado and chest-beating, Prime Minister John Howard and

  • Appalling treatment of refugees exposed

    A storm of public outrage has been provoked by an investigation by ABC TV's Four Corners on the conditions inside Australia's immigration detention centres. The report, screened on August 13, was a damning indictment of the

  • Afghani refugees: Why they are seeking asylum in Australia

    BY TAMARA PEARSON & SARAH STEPHEN Zaher and Riz are "illegal" Afghani refugees who were held in an immigration detention centre and eventually granted refugee status. They are now living in Sydney on three-year temporary protection visas. Green

  • EGYPT: Charges dismissed against prominent feminist

    The Personal Status Court in North Cairo has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Egyptian feminist and writer Nawal el-Saadawi. Nabih Al Wahsh, an Islamic lawyer, attempted to have 70-year-old Saadawi forcibly divorced from her

  • A long search for freedom

    In 1989, Algeria's government stepped up its "Arabisation" program, imposing Arabic as the only language on the entire population, regardless of whether or not people spoke it. Even books were rewritten, from French into Arabic.

  • Raids on 'illegal' workers a denial of rights

    While hunting for the 46 escapees from Villawood detention centre, immigration officials raided a factory in a western suburb of Sydney, arresting 21 immigrants they claim were working illegally. The group was taken to Villawood on

  • Asylum seeker forced to beg for food

    The law has been used as an injustice of injustice against a Sri Lankan man and his family, Federal Court Justice Ron Merkel found on July 23. Priyankarage Upel De Silva was issued with a bridging visa while his case for refugee