As the Year 12 final exams get underway across the country, the pressure is on for all students to perform well. But, as advocacy groups explains, the challenge is greater for refugee teenagers, who are already grappling with a new life and a new language.
Year 12 exam pressure greater for refugees (4 min audio) By Phoebe Deas & Ciara Hain, SBS News
ASRC caseworkers can confirm the majority of people held in closed detention on Nauru have recently been moved into the community, with many now struggling to afford three meals a day, clothes, drinking water and basic necessities.
Since arriving alone as an asylum seeker in Australia in 2018, Aheda Amro has been on a mission to bring the flavours of her homeland of Palestine to Melbourne. The launch of her food van 'Aheda’s Kitchen' is the result of years of determination and hard work – not just Amro’s, but that of the vast network of volunteers she has galvanised to help make her dream a reality.
Controversial Australian government contractor Paladin is suspected of abusing taxpayer funds to bribe then-Papua New Guinea police minister Jelta Wong to enable the firm to run the federal government’s offshore detention regime……….
………….The federal police are also investigating Paladin for dishonestly obtaining millions of dollars from Australian taxpayers via the Home Affairs offshore detention budget to fund suspected bribery.
The Department of Home Affairs quietly published details about its temporary humanitarian stay visas last Thursday, which offer newly arrived Palestinians the possibility of a three-year visa with access to Medicare, benefit payments and working and studying rights.
The Albanese government’s new temporary humanitarian visa pathway for Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Gaza is a welcome first step, advocates say, but they warn the three-year option to stay is not good enough for those who have no home to return to.
Asylum seekers are still calling on Labor to fulfil its election pledge and end their visa uncertainty. After thousands of refugee claims were rejected under a Coalition-era assessment scheme, a new tribunal to process appeals has opened.
Asylum seekers demand an end to over a decade of visa limbo. SBS News (Video 2:16)
Ten months ago, Ms Maraviglia moved to Cooma, in the Snowy Mountains, with her husband and two children to support his work on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project.
Seventy years after Cooma became "the home of multiculturalism in Australia", the Maraviglias are among an influx of hundreds of migrant worker families again transforming the town.
“We’re losing faith that we’re going to be rescued.”
Between May 2018 and October 2019, Paladin was penalised 5,484 times by the department, largely for failures to meet deadlines and keep records.
Brereton said sustained public interest in the Paladin saga had prompted the NACC to publish the report.
“Home Affairs’ engagement of Paladin Holdings has been the subject of media attention and this public report will assist in ‘clearing the air’ in relation to this aspect of the engagement,” he said.
NACC finds no corruption in Paladin investigation. By Dan Holmes, The Mandarin
A growing number of international students are seeking asylum each month and thousands are challenging their visa refusals in a sign the federal government’s crackdown on foreign student numbers will create trouble for other parts of the migration system.
More than 500 international students applied for asylum in August, the largest number for one month in at least six years, as a squeeze on visas drives people towards other options for staying in Australia.
Student visa desperation: Appeals blow out, asylum claims climb. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
But, for many of the 6,000-plus Lhotshampa refugees in Australia, the royal visit holds different significance compared to others in the Bhutanese community who are studying here or have migrated under the Skilled-Visa scheme.
Taliban authorities have threatened Afghan women who had served in the police under the previous government, adding to the risks they face from their families who opposed their work.
Afghan policewomen have been doubly betrayed, first by the former government, whose officials were responsible for widespread sexual abuse, and then by countries that ignored the abuse when it happened and have not granted asylum.
Countries that supported programs to train and hire women in the Afghan police, including the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, and those in the EU, should support Afghan women seeking asylum and prioritize these women for refugee resettlement.
Afghanistan: Policewomen Report Past Abuse, Taliban Threats. Human Rights Watch
Officials responsible for a regime to redetain people released from immigration detention have cast doubt on its effectiveness, warning the minimum nine-month timeframe to put cases together could make it harder for the government to win.
“In the absence of any offending, [it is] hard to illustrate that they pose an ongoing risk – so the longer it takes it weakens [the applicants’] case,” officials said, according to minutes of a January meeting discussing the operation of the scheme, passed after the high court’s ruling that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.
People dying in small boats continues to happen on an all too regular basis; in fact, it is getting worse — but you could be forgiven for not noticing.
This has been a big election year and one of the main topics of conversation has been migrants. Around the world, refugees are dehumanized — they are referred to in numbers, with the word “refugee” often followed by “crisis.” They are referred to as anything but “people.”
With so many of their deaths unrecorded, we know little about their stories.
Dehumanization of refugees means their stories are lost. By Peter Harrison, Arab News
A newly launched class action seeks to expand the decision in NZYQ, which saw the release of approximately 150 detainees last year.
Many of the detainees had criminal records, causing the federal government a huge political headache.
Advocates say people in immigration detention are being kept in legal limbo for years, while the opposition has called for the government to pass legislation that it blocked in the Senate.
Rathy Barthlote was only 28 when she was forced to flee her homeland.
With her husband and two-year-old daughter, she escaped Sri Lanka's Tamil genocide and arrived by boat to Australia in 2013.
Over a decade later, they are still waiting for the safety and security of permanent residency.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that gender and nationality alone are “sufficient” for a country to grant asylum to Afghan women.
The ECJ ruled on Friday that discriminatory measures adopted by the Taliban towards women “constitute acts of persecution” justifying the recognition of refugee status.
The United Nations human rights chief has called for the Taliban to repeal the “egregious” laws, which he said were an attempt to turn women into “faceless, voiceless shadows”.
Gender, nationality ‘sufficient’ to grant Afghan women asylum: Top EU court. Aljazeera
Matt Thistlethwaite, the federal assistant minister for immigration, spoke to the Sydney Institute a few weeks ago. He explained how the Albanese Labor government was planning to fix Australia's broken migration system.
And he said something damning."For many decades Australia hasn't had a migration plan. We haven't had a migration strategy," he said.
A review in to Australia's migration system finds that temporary migrant workers are frequently "exploited" with the current system contributing to the risk of that. "As a result, Australia's migration policies have lacked direction and purpose. "Migration's been unresponsive to Australia's needs. It has provided marginal economic benefit and hasn't enhanced labour productivity.
A new policy brief, authored by Kaldor Centre Director Daniel Ghezelbash and Constantin Hruschka of the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg, provides evidence of a better way.
The deteriorating situation in Lebanon has drawn a particular focus in Australia with the widening conflict in the Middle East.
The government has urged an estimated 15,000 Australian citizens currently in Lebanon to leave.
But why does Australia have such a large diaspora from a relatively small country on the other side of the world, and a particular interest in what happens there?
The history of the Lebanese community in Australia can be traced back over 130 years and has evolved with waves of migration over time.
The story behind Australia's large Lebanese community. By Sean Tarek Goodwin, ABC News
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