The high court has agreed to hear two appeals that threaten the legality of the re-detention of more than 100 non-citizens who had been sentenced and served more than a year in prison.
Refugee Council of Australia to co-host global meeting on refugee settlement. (RCOA media Release)
Over 120 representatives from governments, NGOs, the UN and refugee-led organisations will be in Sydney this month for the global Working Group on Resettlement.
The four-day event starts with 12 site visits over two days where our international visitors will learn about Australian approaches from 18 local organisations.
Refugee Council of Australia to co-host global meeting on refugee settlement. (RCOA media release)
Protecting climate refugees requires a legal definition. By Cristina-Ioana Dragomir, Aljazeera
During the UN Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai last year, the terms “climate migrants” and “climate refugees” echoed loudly across meeting rooms and panels. These labels were passionately used by high-ranking UN officials, external stakeholders, scholars and activists grappling with the consequences of climate change.
During a panel discussion, I emphasised that these terms hold no legal weight and inquired about the need for specific legal protections for those affected by climate-induced displacement. My question was quickly shut down by the panel organisers, surprising attendees.
Protecting climate refugees requires a legal definition. By Cristina-Ioana Dragomir, Aljazeera
Concerns about treatment of asylum seekers sent to Nauru, RNZ
An Australian Home Affairs depertmental spokesperson told RNZ that "regional processing is an important measure to deter people smugglers from exploiting vulnerable persons from attempting irregular and dangerous maritime voyages, and thereby reduces the risk of the loss of life at sea".
"The Government of Nauru is responsible for the management of individuals under regional processing arrangements," the spokesperson said.
Concerns about treatment of asylum seekers sent to Nauru, RNZ
The small-town mayor, the ‘deathtrap’ barge and the Aussie company’s $3.2 billion black hole. By Colin Kruger, SMH
The Bibby Stockholm, which had its accommodation capacity doubled to more than 500 people with the installation of bunk beds, has been labelled a “deathtrap” by the UK’s Fire Brigades Union.
The barge had to be evacuated last August, less than a week after the first asylum seekers boarded, following the discovery of legionella bacteria in its water system.
Dan Tehan condemns ‘big Australia’ policy but won’t reveal Coalition’s immigration plan. Daniel Hurst, The Guardian
The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised a “big Australia” policy but refused to say what level of migration the Coalition would pursue in government, saying only that it wants “a better Australia”.
Behrouz Boochani : The many incarnations of Australia’s convict mentality, The Saturday Paper
My life in Manus Camp was a rope that led me into the deepest recesses of the Australian psyche. It led me to Australia not as a country or a nation but as a colonial mindset. I have written quite a bit about Manus, and all those pieces had the same underlying theme: Manus is the collective unconsciousness of Australia. My writing has been an attempt at finding the deep structures that connect Manus to the colonial history of Australia.
Behrouz Boochani : The many incarnations of Australia’s convict mentality, The Saturday Paper
Peter Dutton doubles down on immigration attacks despite Victoria police clearing detainee of assault charges. By Paul Karp & Benita Kolovos, The Guardian
Sanmati Verma, acting legal director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said that “relentless hounding to drum up community fear for political gain … endangers people who have been lawfully released from detention”.
A little support instead of billions on toxic cruelty. By Lucy Hamilton, P&I
Meanwhile Clare O’Neil’s Home Affairs is only beginning to reckon with the harm done to the Australian record and budget by Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Michael Pezzullo, their chief public servant, recently removed in disgrace.
Australians ought to be angry, not only about the vast quantity of taxpayer money that should have been much better spent. We ought to be angry that enterprising people who could, with a little support, have achieved great accomplishments enabling a better future for them and the countries that would host them.
A little support instead of billions on toxic cruelty. By Lucy Hamilton, P&I
Australia funding ‘unethical’ advertisements aimed at preventing boat arrivals. By Zach Hope, SMH
“A review of the [advertising] codes suggests these wouldn’t be accepted in Australia,” said Griffith University marketing expert, Dr Gavin Northey, who reviewed two of the commercials for this masthead.
“This raises the question: Why does the Australian government feel they are appropriate in another country?”
He said the ads trivialise mental health, particularly in a highly marginalised group and the campaign overlooks the life experiences and struggles of such people.
Australia funding ‘unethical’ advertisements aimed at preventing boat arrivals. By Zach Hope, SMH
Sky News debate on asylum seeker policy: Indisputable facts. By Abul Rizvi, IA
I (Dr Abul Rizvi) have been asked to participate in a debate on a new Sky News program, The Jury. The debate will be on asylum seeker policy.
Knowing that I will be at a significant disadvantage in such a forum, I proposed two conditions for my participation.
The first was that the debate question be policy-oriented and not politically based. Sky has agreed the debate question will be: Are we right to be panicking about recent boat arrivals?
My second requirement was that there would be an agreed set of facts that the moderator – who will be a Sky journalist – would read out.
The facts I have proposed the moderator read out are listed below……………… (click on link below to read these nine indisputable facts about asylum seeker policy)
* EDITOR'S NOTE
Sky News cancelled the debate with the reason given that the issue had "lost its topicality"!
Sky News debate on asylum seeker policy: Indisputable facts. By Abul Rizvi, IA
Backstory of a boat arrival and the bizarre day when 39 foreigners landed in a bush community. 7.30 / By Erin Parke, ABC News
“We had to laugh, but it’s also kind of serious,” one Aboriginal community resident told 7.30.
“I mean, what would have happened if all us families weren’t here? Those men would have died.
“And we still don’t know if there’s more of them out there.”
Details of the backstory of the boat arrival are only now emerging, with locals calling for more involvement in efforts to patrol and intercept foreign arrivals.
More boats, more votes: why Dutton is manifesting a crisis – Full Story podcast [19:53 mins] Presented by Nour Haydar with Paul Karp, The Guardian.
Chief political correspondent Paul Karp tells Nour Haydar how the arrival of an asylum seeker boat has reignited a war of words about Operation Sovereign Borders.
No, Peter, there is not a flotilla of boats coming. By Mike Seccombe, The Saturday Paper
“It remains impossible to reach Australia by boat and then seek asylum here,” says Daniel Ghezelbash, deputy director of UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. “Anyone attempting to do so is turned back to their country of departure or sent to Nauru. That policy is entirely unchanged.”
The visa change, he says, allowed a limited cohort of people who had arrived in Australia more than 10 years ago, who had been found to be genuine refugees but were “stuck on a cycle of short-term protection visas, year after year”, to apply for a permanent protection visa.
“Those people had been living in Australia since before Operation Sovereign Borders went into effect. For anyone who arrived after January 1, 2014 – or who arrives now – the TPV policy change is entirely irrelevant,” says Ghezelbash. “It does not apply.”
No, Peter, there is not a flotilla of boats coming. By Mike Seccombe, The Saturday Paper.
Usual cruelties: Imbeciles who fear the borders By Binoy Kampmark, P&I
The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues. In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable. Like juveniles demanding instant reward, they find complexity hideous. Focus on the now, the punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees.
Usual cruelties:imbeciles who fear the borders. By Binoy Kampmark, P & I
Unshackle immigration from Home Affairs and give it its own department. The Conversation / By Michelle Grattan, ABC
A freestanding immigraation department would allow "a clear-eyed, high-priority concentration on immigration policy and service delivery free of the distractions and distortions to which it is vulnerable in Home Affairs", Gourley wrote on Inside Story in November.
Opinion: People seeking asylum in Australia shouldn’t have to trade danger for degradation. By Frances Rush (CEO Asylum Seeker Centre, Newtown), The Guardian
It is a human right to seek asylum, regardless of how people arrive in Australia. People seeking asylum risk their lives to enter a system which is purposely designed to isolate and neglect them. By leaving their homes, families and communities to make a treacherous and often fatal journey, these people demonstrate untold resilience and strength.
No one chooses this course of action. It is forced upon them.
Our country is honouring the letter of this right, but not the spirit.
Dutton oversaw largest rise in asylum applications in history. They came by air. By Abul Rizvi, P&I
The Albanese Government has undoubtedly taken far too long to address the issue of unmeritorious asylum seekers arriving by plane that it inherited from the Coalition. Its $160 million package to address that is inadequate but it is far more than Dutton ever did on the issue.
However, for Dutton to now carry on about 40 odd boat arrivals is an extraordinary deflection from his own numerous failures.
‘New MO?’ Indonesians want Australia to share information on people smugglers. By Zach Hope, Amilia Rosa and Karuni Rompies, SMH
Jakarta: Indonesian police are calling on Australian authorities to share information about how recently arrived asylum seekers managed to avoid detection, so they can step up prevention efforts.
The call came as a local fishers’ association warned people smugglers may be using risky monsoon conditions off West Java to sneak past the watch of patrols.
What is Operation Sovereign Borders, and why are Australia's politicians fighting about it? By Gavin Butler,SBS
Crock has seen firsthand how this knock-on effect plays out on the ground.
I've been in Indonesia, I've been in the homes of people smugglers there, I've been taken around and I know how they operate," she said.
"Everybody's on a mobile phone, everyone's got immediate communications, and the smugglers use the language that is coming out of the [Australian] politicians 100 per cent to sell their dangerous voyages."
Crock said she’s also spoken to asylum seekers who were issued with tickets that made it look as though they were boarding a proper ocean liner, only to be forced onto dinghies by the people smugglers and taken out to sea.
"[People smugglers] are not nice people," she said. "They're murderous, evil, horrible people, and they're absolutely using the politics. [Dutton] knows it so well and doesn't care."
………..This latest incident happened to coincide with a major event in Indonesia: namely, the world’s biggest one-day election.
"At a particular time when John Howard had his massive surge in boats, in 1999 through 2001, it coincided with East Timorese independence and relationships with Indonesia were never poorer," Crock said.
"I think this event probably relates to the disruption of the election in Indonesia."