'I don't take any responsibility': Baron Waqa refuses to accept blame for poor treatment of refugees on Nauru. By Lydia Lewis, RNZ
A former Iranian refugee, who sought asylum in Australia but instead ended up at Nauru's offshore detention centre, wants former Nauru president and the current Pacific Islands Forum secretary general, Baron Waqa, to admit responsibility for the "cruel and inhumane" treatment of refugees.
Tuvaluans determined to stay put are fighting challenges from rising tides to depopulation. By Coco Veldkamp, ABC News
Tuvalu is on the front lines of the climate crisis, with regular flooding already destroying vital crops and infrastructure.
Pacific sea levels are rising faster than the global average, putting Tuvalu at even greater risk, according to a recent report from the World Meteorological Organization.
In response to this existential threat, last month Australia and Tuvalu signed the Falepili Union, offering up to 280 Tuvaluans — 2.5 per cent of the population — permanent residency in Australia each year.
While the treaty has been embraced by those seeking education and work opportunities, it raises an urgent question: What happens to those who stay as the land and population shrink?
Tony Burke has granted the first humanitarian visas to Palestinian families fleeing Gaza. By Ewa Staszewska, SBS News
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has issued the first humanitarian visas to Palestinian families arriving in Australia after almost a year of pressure on the issue.
No maps, no GPS, no training: How 44 people survived being turned back in the Timor Sea. By Zach Hope and Amilia Rosa, SMH
A boatload of migrants allegedly turned back by the Australian Border Force without maps, navigational equipment or reasonable training ran aground on rocks on Rote Island, Indonesia. Another group beached a few kilometres away and had to be rescued by locals responding to pleas for help.
One man said they were so scared after being cut loose in the vast Timor Sea with only a 15-minute Border Force course in navigating, that they didn’t dare to touch anything but the steering wheel………..
Hamzah Hamitu, a fisherman from Kupang and veteran of these waters, was incredulous when he heard there was no crew on the boats to guide the migrants to Rote Island safely.
“They [the Australians] shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “The Timor Sea is a dangerous place. We have strong currents – they could have easily died.”
'Does he understand the difference?': Dutton criticised for international student remarks. SBS, By Jessica Bahr
Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary at the immigration department, described Dutton's comments as "nonsense".
"The boat arrival comparison is nonsense; boat arrivals come without a visa, all of these students came with a visa," Rizvi said.
"If he (Dutton) doesn't understand the difference between that, he shouldn't have been home affairs minister."
Behrouz Boochani confirmed as keynote speaker at Rural Australians for Refugees conference. By Jonathan Strauss, Green Left
Behrouz Boochani, Kurdish refugee, author and activist, will be the keynote speaker at the Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) national conference in Kyneton, Victoria, from October 11–13.
Boochani’s address on collective resistance and activism will set the framework for discussions.
Moz (Mostafa) Azimitabar will present his and Farhad Bandesh’s film, Freedom is Beautiful, on the evening of October 12.
Refugees could be the simple answer to Australia's skills shortage. By Edwina Guinan, SBS News
Australia has a serious skills shortage yet many qualified refugees still struggle to find appropriate jobs. A new project aims to change that, by offering positions to those facing barriers, such as limited local experience.
Refugees could be the simple answer to Australia's skills shortage. By Edwina Guinan, SBS News
Sukhdeep wants to see her mother while she is still alive – but Australia’s visa rules have left her in limbo. By Rafqa Touma, The Guardian
Sukhdeep Kaur with her husband Jaswinder Singh and daughter, Ravneet Garcha. Kaur cannot return to India to visit her mother, who is undergoing cancer treatment, without becoming unable to return.
“She is 75 years old, she is calling me every day to see her,” Kaur tells Guardian Australia. “She’s asking, ‘I want to see you while I am alive.’’ But, Kaur says, “I can’t leave to see her.” If she does, she won’t be able to return to Australia for three years.
That’s because Kaur is on a bridging visa. Kaur and her family have lived in Sunbury, in Melbourne’s north, since 2015.
She has been in limbo since then, unable to visit her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in seven years. Experts say her experience is shared by many migrants on bridging visas waiting for ministerial intervention applications to be considered.
‘It grows this anger within people’: how Australia treats those fleeing humanitarian disaster depends on where they came from – and when. By Rafqa Touma and Ben Doherty, The Guardian
Over the past three decades, Australia had issued at least 25 different visa types to assist people forced from their homes by humanitarian emergency, according to a policy paper from the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.
“When crises threaten lives, the Australian government often steps up – but not always in a predictable, efficient, equitable and effective way, if responses to Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza are anything to go by,” the policy brief reads.
“For some people escaping these conflicts, travel to Australia has been relatively easy; for others, impossible,” the brief, written by Prof Jane McAdam and Dr Regina Jefferies, says.
Immigration detention's epidemic levels of self-harm paint Australia as a 'brutal outlier' among peers. By David Estcourt, ABC News
From 2019-24 Home Affairs recorded a total of 2,670 incidents of self-harm or threatened self-harm, an average of 1.54 reported incidents every day.
To house a detainee in detention it cost the Australian government $428,542 per person, per year, over the 2020-21 financial year, compared to $54,798 in community detention.
‘Sneaky move’: Labor accused of trying to quietly curtail appeals from people seeking asylum. By Paul Karp, The Guardian
Labor has been accused of attempting to sneak through changes limiting the ability to seek merits review from immigration detention, overturning the effect of a recent high court decision.
UN Palestine vote: Australia shows it lacks a backbone. By Greg Barns and Paul Heywood-Smith, Pearls & Irritations
Yet when it came to voting yesterday on a UN Resolution advanced by Palestine to give effect to the International Court of Justice decision of 19 July, Australia abstained from voting for it, along with the UK, Canada and Germany. But our neighbour New Zealand voted for it, as did Ireland, Japan and France.
The Resolution states that Israel must put “an end to its unlawful policies and practices, including… repealing all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation, including those which discriminate against the Palestinian people”; “Allowing all Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their original place of residence”; and “Making reparation for the damage caused to all the natural and legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. ”
Asylum claims at six-year high as record numbers await decision. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
The list of people in limbo is growing by about 1000 a month, creating a backdoor for people on temporary visas who run out of options, including students, to keep working in Australia by applying for asylum and entering the drawn-out appeal process.
It means those found to be genuine refugees are also forced to wait years for security.
Asylum claims at six-year high as record numbers await decision. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
Photographer Barat Ali Batoor captures the truths of displaced refugees. By Behrouz Boochani (writer and former refugee), The Saturday Paper.
Hazara photographer Barat Ali Batoor gives a distinctive perspective on the lives of refugees and the realities that face his people.
Australia's population reaches 27 million with growth largely driven by overseas migration. By Ahmed Yussuf, The Guardian
Australian National University demographer Liz Allen said hitting the 27 million population milestone was a moment to consider the challenges and opportunities facing the country in the future.
Dr Allen said it could affect social cohesion and potentially drive harmful rhetoric around migration when Australia's population change was problematised.
"If Australia didn't have immigration, we would not have the socio economic good standing that we have. Immigration keeps Australia economically and socially afloat," she said.
Dutton suggests apology for calling Lebanese-Muslim migration a ‘mistake’ made to ‘senior person’ in community. By Paul Karp & Andrew Messenger, The Guardian
In November 2016 Dutton, then the immigration minister, told Sky News’s Andrew Bolt that “the reality is that Malcolm Fraser did make mistakes in bringing some people in the 1970s and we’re seeing that today”.
Dutton then doubled down in question time, claiming Fraser should not have let people of “Lebanese-Muslim” background into Australia by citing as evidence a small cohort of individuals who have been charged with terrorism offences.
In 2023, when asked by Annabel Crabb on the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet if it was a racist remark, Dutton replied: “You know they’re comments that I shouldn’t have made. I’ve apologised for that.”
Five leaders of Australia’s Lebanese Muslim community interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald reportedly said they have no recollection of Dutton making that apology.
Malaysia’s Promised Immigration Reform Fails Children. By Bryony Lau Deputy Asia Director Human Rights Watch
One year ago, the Malaysian government launched Baitul Mahabbah, an initiative to move children ages 10 and younger from regular immigration detention centers, known as depots, and place them in dedicated centers for children. There are now 170 children – some unaccompanied – in Baitul Mahabbah centers, facilities that do not provide a genuine alternative to detention.
Australian citizenship's 75th anniversary: Here's where our newest citizens are from. By Ruchika Talwar, SBS News
Out of 115,300 migrants who became Australian citizens by conferral up to 31 August this year, more than 15,000 — 13.51 per cent of the total number — were born in India.
Migrants born in New Zealand have a slender lead over them, with just over 16,000 born in Australia's neighbouring country, making 13.97 per cent of the total number of foreign nationals to acquire citizenship.
Bibi was given $4 a day to survive. Now that allowance has been cut to zero. By Zach Hope and Karuni Rompies, SMH
The United Nations has decided to pull funding from the most desperate refugees stuck in Indonesia, including people with chronic illnesses and children without parents, because it is running out of money and prioritising other global crises.