Following them home: the plight of failed refugees
The plight of failed refugees once they slip out of Australian consciousness has been highlighted in a new book by David Corlett, a researcher in the politics department at La Trobe university. His book “Following Them Home: The Fate of Returned Asylum Seekers” is based on research that he undertook in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan during the middle of last year. He spoke with a number of asylum seekers whose applications for protection in Australia were rejected and who were subsequently returned to their home states. While there has been considerable media coverage of the treatment of refugees inside detention centres, particularly since the case of Cornelia Rau emerged, there has been little attention given to the dangers faced by rejected asylum seekers on their return to the nations they had felt obliged to flee. Robert Manne, in the forward to the book expressed concern about “the near-universal lack of curiosity about several hundred asylum seekers successfully turned away”. David Corlett spoke with Sarah Greenlees about what he learned about the plight of these individuals in the course of his research.