Asylsökande i Australien och Japan

Australien

I Australien håller man på att överge den tidigare politiken att "fängsla" alla asylsökande. Migrationsminister Chris Evans säger att det är ett steg mot en mer human inställning till asylsökande.

Children will no longer be detained in immigration detention centres, while people deemed to pose no danger will be able to remain in the community while their visa status is being resolved.

The government will reserve the right to detain some people arriving illegally by boat - mainly as a deterrent to people smugglers - but immigration officials will now have to justify why they pose a risk that requires their confinement. "This isn't about a mass opening of the gates, this is about a more humane treatment of asylum seekers, a more humane detention policy," Mr Evans said.

Den tuffa policyn att låsa in asylsökande i särskilda läger, ofta på öar i stilla havet, infördes av arbetarpartiet på 90-talet och fullföljdes av John Howards konservativa regering.

Japan

Global Nation har publicerat en intressant artikel om kurdiska asylsökande i Japan.

Yusuf is one of a growing number of Turkish Kurdish children living precariously in Japan, where their parents wage court battles for legal status that often take years and almost always end in defeat.

Japan, as a leading democracy in Asia, has had a growing pull for Kurds fleeing Turkey, especially since the late 1990s when European nations tightened their immigration policies, and in part since Japan emerged as a major donor in the region following the first Gulf War.

But not a single one of several hundred Kurds who have applied for refugee status in Japan has succeeded in a country that has never welcomed large-scale immigration.

Under 2007 beviljade Japan 41 personer av 816 sökande asyl. 35 av dem var från Burma.