Why it's time for UN sanctions against Australia

My weekly Guardian column is published today: This month, the United Nations accused Canberra of… potentially breaking international law… by forcibly repelling refugee boats back to Indonesia.… Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for refugees,… said… that the international body was “concerned by any policy or practice that involved pushing asylum-seeker boats back at sea without a proper…

Launching Profits of Doom at Curtin University in Perth

I launched my book Profits of Doom at Curtin University in Perth on 29 November to a packed house (more details and photos here… and audio is here). The focus was on Australia’s privatised immigration detention system. Dr Caroline Fleay from The Centre for Human Rights Education (CHRE) introduced me with a generous speech that I…

Hussain's Journey from Pakistan to Australia

Australia’s official attitude towards asylum seekers is based on cruelty and punishment. We too rarely hear from refugees themselves, the privatised system deliberately obscures their stories and faces. The Global Mail has produced a stunning piece of multi-media, video journalism that details the reasons Hazara man like Hussein must leave Pakistan, due to threats on…

Profits of Doom receives positive coverage in Paraguay

The wonders of the internet. I was informed this week that a leading daily media outlet in Asuncion,… Paraguay, Ultima Hora, published a great article about my new book, Profits of Doom. The journalist,… Guido Rodriguez, emailed me to explain that the message of the book resonated with many people in his country. The following is a…

The fallacy of Clinton-backed "support" in Haiti

When I visited Haiti last year I investigated the reality of industrial parks and how they largely shafted locals. I cover it in Profits of Doom. A new report (via Common Dreams) reveals the fallacy of this Western elite pushed scheme: Haiti’s Caracol Industrial Park—the U.S. State Department and Clinton Foundation pet project to deliver…