The changes to Australia's asylum policy announced recently by the immigration minister, Chris Evans, were as inevitable as they were sensible. They are also incremental: they remove some of the worst aspects of a cruel system but leave intact much of the deterrent apparatus inherited from the former government. The introduction of mandatory detention is generally regarded as the work of Keating Government immigration minister Gerry Hand in 1992, although the policy direction can be traced three years previously to 1989. The Howard Government strengthened it in response to what it saw as a sizeable increase in numbers of boat people making for Australia's shores in the late 1990s. At the same time it introduced the infamous Pacific Solution, excising offshore islands from Australia's migration zone, taking people to Nauru for processing, introducing temporary protection for those who had transited 'safe' countries for more than seven days and employing a narrow definition of the Refugee Convention with which to process claims. The aim was to deter applications for asylum 'on shore'. Undoubtedly, the Liberals will say their tough strategy set up the conditions under which last week's changes became possible. There is some evidence for this. Recent research from the Australian National University indicates that deterrent measures such as limiting access to territory and those aimed at reducing the proportion of successful claims have played their part in reducing asylum applications worldwide.

This article, by the Director of Jesuit Refugee Serivice Australia, David Holdcroft, was first published in Eureka Street http://www.eurekastreet.com.au

Book Review: Hollenbach, David (ed.); Refugee Rights: Ethics, Advocacy and Africa. Washington DC, Georgetown University Press, 2008. RRP $26.95. ISBN 9781589012028

Titles on the ethics of forced migration are surprisingly rare. There is a plethora of works defining operational guidelines and standards for agencies working with refugees, of which the Sphere Project is one of the more well known. Guy Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam's The Refugee in International Law leads a sizeable literature on refugees in relation to international human rights law. Among titles that approach the question of how to deal with forced migrants in an ethical manner, Matthew Gibney's The Ethics and Politics of Asylum is the stand out in a sparse field. In Australia too, there is voluminous historical literature opposing the lamentable practices of succeeding governments and their deleterious effect on the most vulnerable people that seek the refuge of our shores. Frank Brennan's Tampering with Asylum and Klaus Neumann's Refuge Australia: Australia's Humanitarian Record provide essential background on the Australian stance towards asylum seekers. Only Brennan's book discusses the ethics in detail, however, looking to practice overseas in suggesting possible ways forward. It is into this context that David Hollenbach's Refugee Rights, Advocacy and Africa arrives. The book's collected essays construct a comprehensive framework for effective advocacy and thinking around refugees in the African situation. In doing so, they create a narrative for a group of people who, by definition, are cut off from the mainstream narrative of nation-building. This creation of a 'narrative of the dispossessed' is the collection's strength and major contribution. The opening essay grounds the work: Abebe Feyissa, an Ethiopian refugee, has spent over 15 years in refugee camps in Kenya. He elicits surprisingly refreshing insight from his experience, and gives them articulate expression (with the help of co-author Rebecca Horn). Emphasised is the denial of the right to freedom of movement of refugees and the dangers of prolonged encampment. In this nether world, people create their own mental landscape into which they increasingly escape. Absentmindedness, both laughable and sometimes with tragic consequences, is rife. Domestic violence is endemic, as small events prick the artificial thought-bubble and assume outlandish importance: as simple an occurrence as a late-served lunch can provide the spark needed to unleash violent forces within. This first-hand narrative becomes the foundation on which all the other contributions rely.

This review, by David Holdcroft, was first pubished in Eureka Street www.eurekastreet.com.au