Nominations open for the Australia for UNHCR – SBS Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition

The award aims to recognise an individual with lived experience as a refugee who has generated positive awareness about refugees, helped create a positive understanding about the situation of refugees and, in doing so, built a more diverse and inclusive Australian community.

It is named after beloved sports broadcaster Les Murray AM, who hosted SBS’s The World Game football program and was himself a young refugee who arrived in Australia in 1956 at the age of 11 from Hungary.

Nominations open for the Australia for UNHCR – SBS Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition

Australia grants nearly 1,000 humanitarian visas in three months to those fleeing Israel-Hamas conflict. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian

The Greens senator David Shoebridge said the process had been too slow.

Unlike other visas processes, Palestinian and Israeli nationals fleeing the conflict cannot apply for the temporary humanitarian visa. It is only available by invitation of the home affairs minister.

Shoebridge said Australia needed to overhaul its visa rules in responding to international crises to avoid the process being impacted by “narrow political interests”.

“We need to return this to the department to process visas independently, not based on the next opinion poll,” he said.

“After years of ad hoc refugee responses to rolling disasters in Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Palestine, it is clear we need a simpler and predictable policy in place for future crises. This disaster-by-disaster approach only benefits the minister at the time, who can wield discretionary visas powers based on narrow political interests.”

Australia grants nearly 1,000 humanitarian visas in three months to those fleeing Israel-Hamas conflict. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian

Jailing children 'a blot' on Australia's global reputation, report claims. By Sophie Bennett, SBS News

"It's gone from bad to worse," Human Rights Watch's Australia director Daniela Gavshon said.

"What we do know as well in Australia is that there's no human rights act, so there's no overarching piece of legislation that puts all the human rights regulations and rules and responsibilities into one place."

There is no federal charter of rights, but some states and territories in Australia — the ACT, Queensland and Victoria — have human rights legislation.

Jailing children 'a blot' on Australia's global reputation, report claims. By Sophie Bennett, SBS News

Palestinians in Australia await Gaza ceasefire ‘but now we must grieve this unimaginable pain’. By Mostafa Rachwani, The Guardian

“The people of Gaza only need safety, to be able to return to our normal lives and not to face death on every corner.

“We cannot celebrate, after so many people died in Gaza. We are just happy to have this moment, to have some hope.

Palestinians in Australia await Gaza ceasefire ‘but now we must grieve this unimaginable pain’. By Mostafa Rachwani, The Guardian

Human rights report lashes Australia’s ‘diabolical’ asylum seeker treatment and ‘appalling’ youth crime laws. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian

Australia’s “diabolical” treatment of asylum seekers and youth crime has worsened, a global human rights advocacy body has warned, urging voters to push back on leaders politicising the issue for gain.

Human rights report lashes Australia's 'diabolical' asylum seeker treatment and 'appalling' youth crime laws. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian

Afghans evacuated by US in chaos of withdrawal are languishing in foreign camps, documents reveal. By Alice Speri, The Guardian

Afghan citizens who fled the country with American assistance after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan remain stranded in third countries, new documents shared exclusively with the Guardian suggest, some at prison-like facilities and many with no clarity about their prospects for resettlement.

US officials won’t say exactly how many Afghans remain at such sites, where they were taken after the withdrawal that involved hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives during the Taliban’s lightning takeover in 2021. Some advocates estimate that “hundreds” remain stranded in temporary facilities in up to three dozen countries.

Afghans evacuated by US in chaos of withdrawal are languishing in foreign camps, documents reveal. By Alice Speri, The Guardian

Asylum seekers’ frustration mounts, pressure on Australia to act. By Duncan Graham , Michael West Media


For the decade since 2013, when Kabul fell to the Taliban, Canberra has given almost 13,000 “Offshore Refugee and Humanitarian visas” to Afghans. There are 230,000 on the waiting list. The Australian community is 72,000 strong and goes back to 19th-century camel drivers.

Internationally, we’re bit players. By mid-2024, Iran was the world’s largest refugee host, sheltering 3.8 million people with 99 per cent from Afghanistan, according to the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.

Our border protection is no well-resourced ring of steel but relies on community spotters.

Mid-2024 media reports claimed the Australian Border Force (ABF), an agency of Home Affairs, paid fishermen with fuel for using their own dinghies to catch five unlawful arrivals believed to be from Senegal.

Asylum seekers' frustration mounts, pressure on Australia to act. By Duncan Graham, Michael West Media

Push to repatriate Indonesian ISIS brides. By Bill Birtles, ABC News Radio

There's a renewed push in Indonesia to bring home the family members of Islamic State fighters, who are stuck in Syria. 

Anti-terrorism experts estimate there are hundreds of Indonesian nationals held in prison camps there, roughly ten times the number of Australians. 

The fall of the Assad regime last month has sparked calls to bring them home, but it won't be easy. 

More Information

Featured: Rakyan Adibrata, Indonesia Country Director for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals
Greg Barton, counter terrorism expert, Deakin-Lancaster University

Greg Barton: Indonesia's been wrestling with this for years, it has to be said. The Jokowi administration decided not to do it. Back in 2019 it decided it didn't want to risk political capital on this project. But even then the opinion was split. Since then Indonesia has greatly improved its capacity at rehabilitation generally.


Bill Birtles: He says it's likely Indonesia will seek to repatriate women and children in the coming years from Syria, but not necessarily the men who actively fought for Islamic State. And he believes Australia should do the same for around three dozen women and children still in the prison camps there.

Australia is a wealthy country with much greater resources per capita in terms of psychologists and people that work with rehabilitation programs. So Australia really has no excuse for not managing it.

Successive Australian governments brought home 25 women and children since the defeat of Islamic State in 2017, but further efforts have ground to a halt. Last year an advocacy group failed in a legal bid to compel the federal government to arrange the repatriation of the remaining Australians from the camps in Syria.

Push to repatriate Indonesian ISIS brides. By Bill Birtles, ABC News Radio

Video: Malala urges Muslim nations to pressure Taliban's 'gender apartheid' in Afghanistan. SBS World News

Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged Muslim nations to place pressure on the Taliban by denouncing their severe restrictions on women's freedoms. During a rare visit back home to Pakistan, the human rights advocate spoke up for the plight of girls in Afghanistan - where for more than 3 years they've been banned from attending high school.

Video: Malala urges Muslim nations to pressure Taliban's 'gender apartheid' in Afghanistan. SBS World News

‘I felt less human, not human at all’: Australia faces moral crossroads over Nauru. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian

The UN human rights committee has urged Australia to compensate those it arbitrarily detained on Nauru. Arash wonders if that is even possible.

“I would like justice,” he says, “although I have no idea what that would look like.

“All those years that passed, they’re not coming back. I don’t know how they’re going to compensate me. What is money compared to 10 years of my life?”

'I felt less human, not human at all': Australia faces moral crossroads over Nauru. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian

Justice at last: UN says Australia violated human rights of refugee children detained on Nauru. RACS

Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) welcomes a landmark decision from the UN Human Rights Committee, which found Australia violated the human rights of a group of refugee children. The decision comes nine years after RACS lodged a complaint on behalf of a group of unaccompanied children who were arbitrarily detained on Nauru.

“I cannot overstate how important this decision is,” said Sarah Dale, RACS Centre Director & Principal Solicitor. “We have been fighting for this justice, against all odds, for almost a decade.”

Justice at last: UN says Australia violated human rights of refugee children detained on Nauru. RACS

Australia violated human rights treaty with Nauru detainees, UN committee finds. ABC News

A UN committee has found that Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on Nauru even after they were granted refugee status.

Under Australia's immigration policies, those attempting to reach the country by boat have been sent to detention centres including Nauru for so-called "offshore processing" since 2013.

The federal government is yet to comment on the findings.

Such facilities have previously drawn scrutiny from rights groups…

…"Offshore detention facilities are not human rights-free zones for the state party, which remains bound by the provisions of the covenant."

Australia violated human rights treaty with Nauru detainees, UN committee finds. ABC News

Baby born on crowded small boat crossing from Africa to Canary Islands. By Sam Jones in Madrid and agency, The Guardian

Domingo Trujillo, the captain of the Talía search and rescue vessel, said that although his crew knew a woman on the boat was pregnant, they had no idea that she had already given birth.

“The surprise was [finding] a totally naked baby who was born 10, 15 or 20 minutes earlier,” he told the state broadcaster TVE. Trujillo said the mother was lying on the floor of the crowded boat while the baby was in the hands of someone else near her.

“I covered him up, took him here [to my chest] and patted him so that he would stop crying,” the captain added.

Medics onboard recommended the mother and baby be transferred to a hospital by helicopter.

“It being Three Kings Day, this was the best gift we could have received,” Álvaro Serrano Pérez, the commander of the helicopter, told Reuters.

Baby born on crowded small boat crossing from Africa to Canary Islands. By Sam Jones in Madrid and agency, The Guardian

‘Hard to justify’: Albanese lashes Coalition’s handling of 2022 Djokovic detention. By Olivia Ireland and Broede Carmody, SMH

As Djokovic prepares his campaign for an 11th Australian Open title, Albanese criticised the Morrison government’s decision to refuse him access to religious ministration while in detention.

“I found it astonishing that in the lead-up to Christmas, Novak Djokovic was denied by the then-federal government the opportunity to see his Orthodox … priest,” Albanese said on Monday in Queensland. “That was something that I think was hard to justify.”

‘Hard to justify’: Albanese lashes Coalition’s handling of 2022 Djokovic detention. By Olivia Ireland and Broede Carmody, SMH

It was a year of uncertainty for international education, and there's more to come. By Maani Truu, ABC News

Offshore student visa applications fell by almost 40 per cent in 2024, compared to the previous year. In real terms, that's roughly 120,000 fewer prospective students seeking to study in Australia.

These are not students who had their applications delayed or denied under the government's oft-changing visa processing rules — though visa approvals are also down — but those who never applied in the first place.

And according to the higher education sector, that's a by-product of a chaotic crackdown on an industry that has long been heralded as amongst the best in the world.

"The message has gone out to our key student source markets that they're not welcome here," says Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia. "And they're voting with their feet."

It was a year of uncertainty for international education, and there's more to come. By Maani Truu, ABC News