In July last year, the federal government appointed Dennis Richardson, a former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Defence, to undertake a review of procurement for offshore processing in the Department of Home Affairs. That followed revelations the former government continued to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to a businessman convicted of corruption to provide offshore processing services on Nauru, even after he had pleaded guilty to bribing Nauruan government officials.
Time running out for Albanese Government to fix asylum system. By Abul Rizvi, P & I
Despite its $160 million package to better manage asylum seekers, time is running out for the Albanese Government to get on top of the asylum seeker issue. The risk of this being used by Peter Dutton in the lead up to the 2025 Election as a political wedge, despite Dutton’s role in originally allowing the problem to boom, remains high.
Time running out for Albanese Government to fix asylum system. By Abul Rizvi, P &I
Sovereign Borders wasted and mismanaged millions, claims senior official. By Nick McKenzie and Michael Bachelard, SMH
Home Affairs assistant secretary Derek Elias’ claims that taxpayer funds may have been spent on services that were never delivered and on questionable tasks – such as training the Nauruan president’s guard dog and $6 million for golf umbrellas – have emerged with the Albanese government yet to release what is expected to be a damning report on offshore processing by former spy chief Dennis Richardson.
Australia's population has hit 27 million. How did we get here? AAP, SBS
The estimate of 27 million is based on the nation's population on 30 June 2023, which was 26,638,544 people, and projected growth that includes a birth every one minute and 42 seconds.
It also assumes that a person dies every two minutes and 52 seconds and a migrant arrives to live in Australia every 45 seconds. These factors contributed to an overall total population increase of one person every 50 seconds.
Australia's population has hit 27 million. How did we get here? AAP, SBS
A symbol of millions of children’: Little Amal to bring her giant campaign to Adelaide festival. By Kelly Burke, The Guardian
The 3.5-metre high puppet highlights the plight of millions of refugees, especially displaced children fleeing war zones.
The whistleblower who exposed Australia’s secretive offshore detention system. 'Background Briefing', ABC RN, Paul Farrell & Maddison Conaughton
"Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers.
But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents.
Top French court rejects large parts of controversial immigration bill. Aljazeera
More than a third of articles in a controversial immigration bill must be scrapped, France’s Constitutional Council has said.
The council, a body that validates the constitutionality of laws, rejected measures in the bill on Thursday that call for the toughening of access to social benefits, family reunification, and the introduction of immigration quotas set by parliament.
Top French court rejects large parts of controversial immigration bill. Aljazeera
UNHCR: 569 Rohingya died at sea in 2023, highest in nine years. Aljazeera
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said nearly 4,500 Rohingya people took boats across the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2023, fleeing crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh or persecution in their native Myanmar.
“Estimates show one Rohingya was reported to have died or gone missing for every eight people attempting the journey in 2023,” UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said in a statement. “This makes the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world.”
UNHCR: 569 Rohingya died at sea in 2023, highest in nine years. Aljazeera
Tide turning on boat people bastardry. By Jack Waterford, P&I
The tide is turning for our boat people policies, and Australia’s shameful treatment of several thousand men, women and children fleeing war and oppression, some of it created by us, in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The overwhelming proportion were found to be genuine refugees, but, thanks to our policies, successive Australian governments, starting with the second Rudd government, tried to prevent them ever getting any right to live in Australia. Instead these people were placed in concentration camps on Nauru and Manus Island, and treated with conscious and deliberate cruelty as a way of sending a message to other asylum seekers that there was no point in trying to enter Australia by boat.
Many of those, including children, who suffered long term harm from their incarceration are now suing the Australian government. Not surprisingly, the Commonwealth has been trying to deflect blame for failing to meet its legal and moral responsibilities onto others.
Tide turning on boat people bastardry. By Jack Waterford, P&I
Child among asylum seekers returned to country of origin after being sent from Australia to Nauru.by Paul Karp, The Guardian
Ogy Simic, the director of advocacy at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the organisation was “deeply concerned by the complete lack of transparency and information provided to the Australian public” about the cohorts transferred to Nauru in September and November.
Simic said the answers give “no information” about where the eight asylum seekers returned to “and what process was followed”.
“It was also incredibly distressing to find out that the initial group transferred to Nauru included a child. The government’s refusal to answer questions about the activity on Nauru flies in the face of its own calls for greater transparency when in opposition.”
Woman arrested over alleged PNG drug smuggling plot linked to companies that reportedly received Australian refugee fund payments. By PNG correspondents Tim Swanston & Rory Callinan, ABC News
The ABC is aware of two other companies that had associations with Ms Lin and were reported by sources to have been involved in providing services to refugees.
One company appears to have been involved in providing security services, according to sources.
A Home Affairs spokesperson on Monday said Home Affairs hadn't had any role in service delivery in PNG since 2021.
Home Affairs was not aware of, or involved in, PNG's contracting arrangements associated with its independent management of the remaining cohort, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Australia had exited regional processing arrangements in PNG in December 2021 and agreed to a funding arrangement with PNG for its exclusive independent management of individuals remaining in the country after December 31, 2021.
"That arrangement provided funding to enable PNG Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority to manage individuals remaining in PNG to self-sufficiency, including settling individuals who chose to make PNG their new home or those seeking third country migration,'' the spokesperson said.
Perth chef Chris Anca's 'social enterprise' kitchen supporting disadvantaged people through food. By Zathia Bazeer, ABC News
Drawing from her own experiences after facing oppression in Romania, Ms Anca said she wanted to give opportunities to those who really needed them.
Ms Anca said businesses with a purpose build community and trust amongst customers.
"I do believe we live in an age where people want to shop differently, people want to have a feeling that the shopping that they do and the purchases that they make have an impact."
‘Extremely urgent’: Emails reveal Gareth Evans lobbied Penny Wong to speed up Afghan refugee intake. Charlie Lewis, Crikey
“I received a very positive response last October from those helping the CIMMYT employees, and in the absence of any further information to the contrary, I’m assuming all this is still on track,” Evans told Crikey. “So I’m very satisfied with Penny Wong’s response.”
The cables illustrate the general plight of Afghan refugees — those who did not have an international agency or former Australian foreign minister in their corner — and show that throughout October Australia had been lobbying, unsuccessfully, for an extension on the November 1 expulsion date, as well as for the removal of the US$830 (A$1,261) fee that Pakistan had imposed on exit permit applications.
UK Tories are following Australian politics down the sewer and into the sea. Guy Rundle, Crikey
…Thus the Tories made a rush to the boats, or to “stop the boats”, with a renewed push to use the Australian-style method of denying undocumented immigrants any chance at settling in this other Eden. We thought Nauru and Papua New Guinea were tough choices. You’ve got to give the UK Tories some evil points for choosing an actual post-genocide nation, Rwanda, as a place to send immigrants coming across the channel.
UK Tories are following Australian politics down the sewer and into the sea. Guy Rundle, Crikey
Australia urged to speed up visas for Afghan women who fear being sent back to Taliban rule. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian
The federal government has received more than 215,000 humanitarian visa requests from Afghan nationals since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, granting 15,852 visas so far as of December 2023.
If immigration must stay in Home Affairs, here’s how to fix the agency. By Abul Rizvi, P&I
And while it is good the immigration compliance function has been returned to the immigration area of Home Affairs, and funding somewhat restored after being run down under Pezzullo, there is not nearly enough compliance funding to significantly increase removal of unsuccessful asylum seekers.
In other words, despite the $160 million package, the number of asylum seekers in Australia is unlikely to fall by much, if at all.
The Dutton opposition will play this for all its worth even though the situation is a direct result of Dutton’s negligence when he was minister.
If immigration must stay in Home Affairs, here’s how to fix the agency. By Abul Rizvi, P&I
Taiwan says Australian detention centre funding led Nauru to officially recognise China. By Matthew Knott and Eryk Bagshaw, SMH
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry laid the blame on the Australian-run detention centre for the rupture in diplomatic ties, but the Australian government rejected those claims and insisted that the centre has not closed and that funding arrangements with Nauru remained in place.
Freed immigration detainee sues Australian government for damages for alleged false imprisonment. Paul Karp, The Guardian
A stateless Kurdish man released from immigration detention is seeking “aggravated” and “compensatory” damages for alleged false imprisonment – the first such case sparked by the high court’s ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful.
The intellectually impaired man, known as DVU18, has sued the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, through a litigation guardian, in a case that could pave the way for the 149 people released to sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars of compensation each.
Australia may be next for Rohingya refugees ‘running out of places to go’. Chris Barrett, SMH
“But the security situation in the camps is just completely out of control. There are kidnappings, rapes ... the Bangladesh authorities just don’t have control of what’s happening inside the camps.”
The violence from competing armed criminal gangs has left the Rohingya at the most vulnerable they have been since more than 700,000 crossed the border in 2017, according to a new report by Singapore’s International Institute for Strategic Studies………..
……………Brewster welcomes the extra Australian support on the ground but argues it is in the Albanese government’s interests to help build the capability of Bangladeshi maritime authorities and incentivise them to stop vessels departing, potentially for Australia.
Given the pushback in Indonesia, the inevitability of offshore processing and detention in Nauru, not to mention the dangers of such a perilous trip, may not be such a barrier for the Rohingya, Brewster says.
Australia may be next for Rohingya refugees ‘running out of places to go’. Chris Barrett, SMH
Australia singled out for criticism by Human Rights Watch - SBS News video
In its annual report, HRW warns that rights are in decline - with Australia criticised for high rates of Indigenous incarceration and treatment of refugees.
Australia singled out for criticism by Human Rights Watch - SBS News video