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ABC Radio National: Absence makes the heart grow fonder (part 2)

| Australia's Pacific Solution, Published Podcasts | No Comments
Ahmed spent six years in immigration detention before he won a landmark legal case and…

ABC Radio National: Absence makes the heart grow fonder (part 1)

| Australia's Pacific Solution, Published Podcasts | No Comments
Danice and Ahmed fell hard for each other, even though he was behind bars and…

Next level destruction: Northern NSW floods

| Published Articles | No Comments
The towns of the New South Wales northern rivers are used to floods – they…

Behrouz Boochani: Writing as Resilience and Resistance

| Australia's Pacific Solution, Published Articles | No Comments
This is a short extract from a chapter in a collection titled Creative writing practice :…

The Fall of Kabul: A Peace Imagined

| Afghanistan, Published Articles | No Comments
On Sunday 15 August, Khalid woke up at dawn and fled his home in the…

Imagining Peace: Kogarah Library Exhibition, Sydney

| Afghanistan, Photography Exhibitions | No Comments
From Saturday 13 February until Sunday 7 March 2021, I will be exhibiting the Imagining…

PROJECTS

Australia and the Asia-Pacific region

The human rights implications of Australia’s war on people smugglers

In May 2024, I submitted for examination my PhD dissertation titled, The human rights implications of Australia’s war on people smugglers. The study investigates the ‘evil people smuggler’ narrative which dominates Australian border politics and justifies militarised responses to people claiming asylum by boat. In doing so, it unearths an alternate system of punishment for non-citizens suspected of smuggling offences. I am currently waiting for the examiners’ response.

Afghanistan

A peace movement in a land of never-ending war

In 2016, I travelled to Afghanistan as part of a small team of researchers commissioned by the Edmund Rice Centre to report on the safety of rejected asylum seekers returned to the country by the Australian government. As part of our assignment we spent time with a group of volunteers, a multi-ethnic community—somehow, I had stumbled upon a peace movement in Afghanistan.

Mexico and Central America

The Migrant Caravan

In October 2018, more than seven thousand people, mainly from Honduras, but also from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, formed what the media called a “migrant caravan” and marched to the US border. I joined the Exodus on its journey north.

Australia, Nauru, Manus Island and Indonesia

Australia’s Pacific Solution

In August 2012, the Australia Government reintroduced the notorious Pacific Solution; a policy of incarcerating people who attempt to seek refuge in Australia by boat in the Pacific Island prisons of Nauru and Manus.

These are my collated writings from Nauru and Manus prisons, Australian communities and the people seeking asylum who have been stranded in Indonesia.

Asia and the Middle East

The Displaced People of Asia

Asia is home to a number of source countries for refugees. This series is a collection of my photos, videos and writing covering migration and displacement throughout the continent, including the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, reporting and community work from conflict zones in Myanmar, IDP camps in Sri Lanka, and nomad groups in Iran.