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Racial equality re-examined : Comments
By Tom Calma, published 24/4/2008A HREOC Background Paper provides an international context to examine the Federal Racial Discrimination Act
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Unbeknown to those seeking to visit Australia--whether as tourists, for family reasons or for political purposes--the government has a blacklist of countries from which visa applications are almost automatically rejected.
There are 37 countries on the LIST THAT WAS OFFICIALLY GAZETTED by Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Minister Philip Ruddock on 24 June 1997. Most are Asian-Pacific countries, as well as South American, Middle Eastern and Eastern European, plus two southern European--Portugal and Greece, the two poorest states in Western Europe.
The list reads: Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Fiji, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mauritius, Nauru, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tonga, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Vietnam and Yugoslavia.
Residents of these countries are banned according to various age and sex categories. For Sri Lanka, the list specifies four separate "classes": males aged 25 to 39 inclusive, males 60 years or older, females aged 20 to 39 inclusive and females 50 years or older. For some other countries, the categories are even more sweeping. For the Pacific islands of Tonga and Samoa, for example, both males and females aged 20 years or older are barred. The same applies to Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey.
Most of this article I got from here.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jan1999/immi-j20.shtml