Lavanya Thavaraja is a Melbourne based refugee activist and unionist. She is a founding member of Tamil Workers Council.

*Note: Apologies on the sound quality of this recording, there is a lot of background feedback noise in this episode and it was very hard to remove. Sorry for any inconvenience to your listening pleasure.

REFERENCES:

• 1989 Migration Legislation Amendment Act was a precursor to 1994 Mandatory Immigration Detention
• October 1999 – Prime Minister Howard introduced temporary visas (TPVs). Instead of getting a permanent protection visa, refugees were instead given only temporary protection (a 3 year protection visa). After that, their case would be reviewed. Also, their protection could be revoked if they left Australia during the 3 years, and it didn’t allow their families to settle in Australia. The number of boat people continued to increase afterwards. (From article: The facts about ‘boat people’ – The government and media are lying)
• United Nations Human Rights Convention
• Santharuban Case
• Rally Against the Deportation of Santharuban
• Tamil Family (Nadesalingam, Priya, and two daughters) from Biloela
  • https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/03/15/09/53/qld-town-wants-asylum-seekers-back-home
  • https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/13/tamil-asylum-seekers-taken-in-dawn-raid-supported-by-tens-of-thousands

Manus Island:

• Manus navy will remove detainees by force if necessary, base commander says
• Update on Manus Situation end of April 2018: “There’s no escape from Australia’s refugee gulag.”

The myth of “African Gangs” in Australia:

• Primminister Turnbull and home affairs minister Dutton make inflammatory comments on “African gang violence”
• African Community Leaders say “There are no gangs.”
• #AfricanGangs forum looks beyond politics and media headlines

Sunrise Encouraging Another Stolen Generation

• Why are white people on Sunrise with no experience calling for Indigenous child removals?
• https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/sam-armytage-responds-to-criticism-sunrise-stolen-generation/
• AMY MCQUIRE: SPARE US YOUR FALSE OUTRAGE

US Current Crisis: Immigrant Family Separation

Article that draws upon the example of Australia (indigenous child removal) to talk about engative and long lasting effects of family separation/child removal

Full Episode Transcript