The ASRC's Detention Policy Casework Lead Heidi Abdel-Raouf has accused the government of attempting to shelve its responsibilities.
"The Australian government has tried to abdicate their responsibility for the refugees and the people seeking asylum to the PNG government. However, they cannot absolve their responsibility and their duty of care to these people who they banished to Papua New Guinea more than eleven years ago. And so, the refugees are so unwell, the Australian government must medically evacuate them to Australia for urgent medical treatment. But in the interim, the refugees and their families must have access to safe accommodation, medical care and food."
Former Afghan refugee delivers the Kaldor Oration, ABC RN, Saturday Extra
Zaki Haidari arrived by boat in Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan at the age of 17 in 2011.
This week he delivered the inaugural Kaldor Oration - a speech intended to enrich the national conversation on refugee issues.
Former Afghan refugee delivers the Kaldor Oration, ABC RN, Saturday Extra
More than 80,000 at risk of deportation from Australia under Labor bill likened to UK’s failed Rwanda plan. By Paul Karp, The Guardian
Carina Ford, the chair of the Law Council’s migration committee told a Senate inquiry that there is “no requirement” in the bill that removal countries have signed up to the refugee convention.
“It’s probably very unlikely they would be, if you look at past history of deals that have been made not just here but in the UK, I think the best example in the UK is the failed Rwandan removal country – sometimes it’s easier to deal with countries [that have not signed up].”
Mobile phones could be confiscated from immigration detainees under new Home Affairs proposal. By Nicole Hegarty, ABC News
Mobile phones could be confiscated from immigration detainees under a federal government response to what it says are an increasing number of criminal activities being organised inside.
But immigration law experts argue the changes could have serious implications for the rights of detainees.
As a Sudanese Australian, it is heartbreaking to see the devastating war in my homeland overlooked. By Sara Sinada, The Guardian
The Sudanese crisis may not be dominating the headlines, but for families fighting for survival and Sudanese Australians torn between our past and an uncertain future, our struggle is real. We need our government to acknowledge that our pain, though less publicised, is no less urgent.
Sudanese refugees in Australia deserve the same recognition, stability and security as others. Our stories deserve to be heard, and our community deserves to be seen. It’s time for the Australian government to act – because no refugee should be left behind.
Why I empathise with asylum seekers – The forgotten humanity in the boat people debate. By Kosmos Samaras, Neos Kosmos
Recognising the humanity in others, especially those in crisis, isn’t just about compassion; it’s about reflecting on who we want to be as a nation.
These “boat people” are not a threat; they are reminders of the resilience that has built and sustained this country for generations. Let us not be a society so secure in our privilege that we cannot see the humanity in those who yearn for the very freedoms we so readily take for granted.
Addressing harms caused by Australia’s response to ‘Slavery’. By Elena Jeffreys, Pearls & Irritations
Soon after the Rudd election victory Attorney General Debus and Ministers Evans, Plibersek and Smith adopted practical systems of accountability and transparency on human trafficking policies. In that same spirit the Albanese government this week delivered on the promise of a commissioner for anti-slavery. But as former minister Evans takes up this newly formed role in December, the opaque challenge of Operation Inglenook and related Border Force powers surely looms large.
In recent months a semi-autonomous network led by Asian Migrant Sex Workers, AMSWAG (Asian Migrant Sex Worker Advisory Group) has been joined by more than forty civil society organisations, many from the modern slavery sector, calling for an end to the Inglenook gender and race profiling at the border.
For Asian migrant sex workers caught in the cross-fire of anti-slavery policy, Villawood detention centre has become ‘home’.
SBS speaks to Maryam Zahid, an Afghan refugee working to uplift women in her community. Interviewed by Sam Dover (Audio 12:37 mins)
Maryam Zahid first fled to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan 26 years ago. Since then, she's been an advocate for women in her community being able to live freely and openly in their new home of Australia through her organisation Afghan Women on the Move. They help provide skills training, financial literacy and employment opportunities to women while helping to heal trauma through art programs and support groups. One of Maryam’s latest projects to get the word out about her organisation, is a one-act play called The Good Woman which shares some of the stories of women helped by Afghan Women on the Move.
Another rushed migration bill would give the government sweeping powers to deport potentially thousands of people. By Daniel Gezelbasch & Anna Talbot, The Conversation
… the sweeping new removal powers are not restricted to the non-citizens with criminal histories who feature so prominently in political speeches and media reports.
They could be used to deport a wide group of people, including refugees and people seeking asylum who have lived in and contributed to the Australian community for years. It could separate families and communities, devastating Australian citizens and permanent residents who are left behind. The bill is already causing widespread fear in affected communities.
Australia operates ‘immigration prisons’, human rights lawyer tells UN. By Karen Middleton, The Guardian
An Australian human rights lawyer and a former long-term immigration detainee have given private testimony to the United Nations on Australia’s detention and consular practices, condemning successive governments for “criminalising immigration” and alleging inadequate support for victims of hostage diplomacy.
Alison Battisson, from the charitable law firm Human Rights for All, and the former detainee Said Imasi addressed the UN working group on arbitrary detention in Geneva this week, in special closed sessions marking the group’s 30th anniversary.
Garngi rangers rescued foreign nationals stranded by boat. Local leaders say Australia’s border force is ‘asleep at the wheel’. By Lorena Allam and Sarah Collard, The Guardian
Back on Croker island, Clayton and the ranger group want to keep fighting to help the four men they rescued.
“I just wanted them to feel comfortable here on the island, and I wanted to talk to one of the police or someone else, like Border Force, just for them to stay here [so we could] take care of them. I can adopt people and keep them here,” Clayton says.
Analysis: Can Australia actually have a sensible debate about immigration? By Laura Tingle, ABC News
Vilification of communities with origins in Asia, Africa and the Middle East; Muslims being generically targeted as terrorists; a rise in anti-Semitism; and abuse of Indigenous Australians: these have all, unfortunately, become things that some of our political leaders are prepared to pursue, only faintly condemn, or at the least deal with very inconsistently.
Migration is intrinsically tied up in all these provocations: our intolerance of each new wave of migrants stems back to the early days of the colony. But just now that intolerance is also tied up in questions about our economy and about a very real housing crisis faced by many Australian families.
Can Australia actually have a sensible debate about immigration? By Laura Tingle, ABC News
Australia quietly ditches $4.6b detention contract with scandal-plagued Serco. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
There were 984 people held in Australian immigration detention at the end of September. More than 800 detainees have a criminal record and just over 100 are people who arrived unlawfully by boat.
An investigation by this masthead last year interviewed dozens of current and former Serco guards and detainees, many of whom claimed understaffing was entrenched, leading to violence, allegations of sexual assault and an illegal drug trade that puts both detainees and staff at risk.
New Report - Prison to Deportation Pipeline : How mandatory visa cancellation creates a parallel form of imprisonment for non-citizens By Human Rights Law Centre and University of Melbourne
The report finds that people on visas are set up to fail by discriminatory treatment in prison, with limited access to parole, rehabilitation, and education hindering their ability to have their visas reinstated.
While Australian citizens are granted liberty after serving a sentence, people who are subject to visa cancellation are ‘pipelined’ from prison to immigration detention and deportation from Australia.
These people face a heavy mental burden in prison, exacerbated by the anxiety of potential visa cancellation, limited legal assistance, and uncertainty about prolonged detention – with this pressure often leading to a forced choice to give up and accept deportation.
Over the last decade, successive Australian governments have dramatically expanded visa cancellation powers to punish visa-holders and pipeline them between prison, immigration detention and removal from Australia.
Young people on visas are missing out on crucial schooling and rehabilitation, for no other reason than their visa status.
This system sets up visa-holders to fail and to lose hope from the moment they are sentenced.
Four foreign nationals removed from Australia after reportedly being found on remote NT island. By Paul Karp and Helen Davidson, The Guardian
Four non-citizens reportedly found on remote Croker Island in the Northern Territory have been removed from Australia.
The ABC reported the four foreign nationals were found on Monday on the island north of Garig Gunak Barlu national park, near Arnhem land.
Guardian Australia understands the four people are no longer in Australia, but the government won’t say if this means they have been taken back to their country of departure, of origin, or to the regional processing centre on Nauru.
We knew offshore detention was bad for the mental health of people seeking asylum. Our new research shows exactly how bad. The Conversation
People who had been detained offshore were 16.5-20.2 times more likely to report PTSD, five times more likely to report depression, and 4.6-5.2 times more likely to report suicidal ideation, compared to people who had been detained onshore for less than six months.
A link between offshore detention and mental illness is not surprising. However, we were surprised by the magnitude of this effect.
Prolonged onshore detention also carried serious mental health consequences. People who had been detained onshore for six months or longer were 16.9 times more likely to report PTSD and 5.5 times more likely to report suicidal ideation compared to people who had been detained onshore for less than six months.
Unpacking PALM worker asylum seeking. By Stephen Howes, The Devpolicy Blog
The first blog in this two-part series made two main points: that the total number of Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme workers on farms is falling, and that the number of PALM workers applying for asylum is now in the hundreds per month. The blog argued that these points may be related. It is a risk for employers that workers that they have paid to recruit and travel to Australia may claim asylum and leave.
Unpacking PALM worker asylum seeking. By Stephen Howes, The Devpolicy Blog
‘Whitewash’: New Zealand foreign minister blasts Australian COVID inquiry. By Matthew Knott, SMH
Peters said the trans-Tasman relationship had been strained by the Albanese government’s adoption of a new immigration rule – known as direction 110 – designed to give administrative review officials more leeway to deport foreign criminals.
Peters said New Zealanders with little connection to their birth country, including those who had spent most of their lives in Australia, should not be deported in a bid to ease Labor’s political problems with immigration……
…The federal government scrapped the previous “direction 99” after it was blamed for allowing dozens of convicted criminals to be released into the community rather than returned to their country of citizenship.
Peters said Australia had been a “massive beneficiary of New Zealand’s education and skills system”, arguing that New Zealanders were the highest-earning immigrants in Australia.
‘Whitewash’: New Zealand foreign minister blasts Australian COVID inquiry. By Matthew Knott, SMH
Labor’s plan to re-impose ankle bracelet and curfew regime ‘very likely’ to face legal challenge, advocates say. By Sarah Basford Canales and Josh Butler, The Guardian
The Refugee Legal executive director, David Manne, who acted for the plaintiff YBFZ on Wednesday, was reluctant to forewarn of further legal challenges. But he described the new bill as “an offshore warehousing regime” and an “act of consciously calculated cruelty”.
Peter Dutton claimed the government’s response was “not enough”, signalling the Coalition would seek to make migration and border security a major issue at the 2025 federal election.
He said migration issues “were very real” in the US election, “and I think they’re going to be real in the upcoming [federal] election.”
Explainer: Labor's brutal Deportation and Surveillance Bill, HRLC
The High Court of Australia on 6 November 2024 ruled that forcing people released from immigration detention to wear ankle bracelets and live under curfews was unconstitutional. In response, the Albanese Government has tried to rush through brutal laws, which this explainer will unpack.
Explainer: Labor's brutal Deportation and Surveillance Bill, HRLC