Immigration Minister attacks detention bill
On Friday, June 17, Prime Minister John Howard agreed to liberalise Australia's immigration and detention system after seven Liberal MPs supported two proposed bills seeking changes to the system and another 20 Liberal backbenchers raised concerns about detention policy and recent Immigration Department failures. Liberal backbencher Petro Geogiou, who proposed the bills aimed to release asylum-seeking children and their families from detention and to free individual detainees after 12 months, has said that while he is happy with the outcomes, there is still more that can be done. The Age

Rwandan refugees flee to camps
Aid workers are rushing to improve facilities at transit camps in Burundi where nearly 5,000 Rwandans seeking asylum have arrived in within a week. The Rwandans from the ethnic Hutu majority say they fear unfair treatment at village courts trying suspected killers involved in the 1994 genocide of 800,000 minority Tutsis by Hutu extremists. Reuters

More food needed for Darfur
The number of people in Sudan's Darfur region requiring food assistance has increased to 3.5 million or more than half of the population. Rural families as well as refugees are now going hungry as continuing insecurity has stopped farmers from planting crops. The Age

AIDS increasing globally
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, says the Aids epidemic is accelerating on every continent and that only 12% of the people needing anti-retroviral therapies are getting them. The UN says that the spread of AIDS is outpacing many countries' prevention efforts. Guardian

The town that loves refugees
A formerly affluent, American industrial town has been saved from its economic and social decline by the arrival of refugees from all over the globe. Refugees

Born-again Liberals grow a backbone
"Yet, at its heart, mandatory detention stems from weakness, not strength. It reflects a moral emptiness infecting both main political parties, a spineless willingness to surrender ethical governance to the most primitive prejudices in the electorate." Ben Saul The Australian

Mandatory detention petition
You can vote to for or against mandatory detention for asylum seekers by going to the online petition at: Online Opinion

Refugees Go Home
This is a simulation game designed to produce a better understanding of the experience faced by refugees. The game can be adapted for groups with children as young as 9 through to adults.
www.scout.org/wsrc/peaceworkshops/workshop6_e.pdf

"Street Stories"
This is a weekly half-hour program dedicated to social documentaries which focus on local and international stories and experiences. You can access past programs including, "A Knife's Edge", the story of two women who came to Australia as tourists but stayed illegally after having children. They ended up in a detention centre separated from their family.

ABC Radio National - Wednesdays at 10.15am and Saturdays at 5.30pm

El Salvadorean Refugees meditation on The Lord's Prayer
"Give us this day our daily bread, the bread of peace, Lord, so that we can sow our maize and beans, watch them grow and share them together as a family."