Stopping Cost Blowouts with Sovereign Borders

PM Tony Abbott says his Government is "stopping the border protection costs blowout", and Mr Morrison has cited the closure of a number of mainland detention centres as one of the first cost savings made because the arrival of asylum seeker boats has slowed.

So what are the costs?

Ending Modern Slavery

27 Million people are today enslaved, that's more than double the number of people removed from Africa during the entire transatlantic slave trade.
This horrific indictment on our society was highlighted again this week with yet another attempt to do something about it. Mining magnate Andrew Forrest launched an organisation (The Global Freedom Network) to end modern slavery. The Network is supported by Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, (the senior Sunni Muslim authority). Leaders of other faiths have been invited to join the network.

Mr Forrest said he was moved to act after meeting a nine-year-old Nepalese orphan who had been a victim of human trafficking. "She looked at me with this look of abject terror - this horror, this disgust, this revulsion - and she screamed," he said.

"Since that time, Nicola, my wife, and I can't actually get that sound out of our heads. We committed ... to do something about it and that's when I came and ordered a full audit of Fortescue's supply chain and discovered slavery there as well."

But initiatives like Forrest's can only be successful if we support it too. So, I would urge you to find 20 minutes and sit down with your computer and take a look at this presentation by Lisa Kristine.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_kristine_glimpses_of_modern_day_slavery]

Sri Lanka: Detention of human rights defenders Ruki Fernando and Rev. Praveen Mahesan

On 16 March 2014, human rights defenders Mr Ruki Fernando and Rev. Praveen Mahesan were arrested and questioned by officers of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) in Killnochchi, in northern Sri Lanka. The police confirmed that they will be transferred to Colombo. It is unclear whether charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) have been formalised. Ruki Fernando is an adviser to INFORM, a human rights documentation centre in Colombo and a well known Human Rights defender in Asia, and Rev. Praveen Mahesan of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is the director of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Jaffna. (Ruki has also been very much involved in Sri Lankan asylum seekers and returnees work.)

The two human rights defenders were arrested at approximately 10:00pm on 16 March while visiting the Tharmapuram area of the Kilinochchi district to investigate the arrest, the previous day of Ms Balendran Jaykumari, a human rights defender campaigning against enforced disappearances, and her 13-year-old daughter. 

The police initially denied detaining Ruki Fernando and Rev. Praveen Mahesan, but later confirmed that they had been arrested by a specially appointed unit of the TID. The office in charge of the Kilinochchi police further stated that they had been arrested as “they behaved in a suspicious manner” as they visited families of disappeared individuals.

It is reported that they were questioned separately at the Killnochchi police station and that they were transferred to Vavuniya at approximately 1.30am on 17 March. In the morning of 17 March, Ruki Fernando’s parents were issued with a Notice of Arrest stating that he was arrested by the TID on alleged acts of terrorism and would be held for further investigation. It is not clear whether the family of Rev. Praveen Mahesan was issued such notice. At 1.30pm, their lawyers received confirmation that the human rights defenders had been brought to the TID Headquarters in Colombo. A police spokesperson announced that they will be charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, however it is unclear whether charges have been formalised. As at the time of writing neither individual has been allowed access to their lawyers.

The arrest of the two human rights defenders occurred while the United Nations Human Rights Council discusses a draft resolution on reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka.