… six years on after the eventual abolishment of the Medevac legislation, 39 people still remain abandoned in PNG with no way to access the care they need.
The health crisis in offshore detention. ASRC (Asylum Seeker Resource Centre)
Musab longs for a call from his family overseas. But every time it rings, he's filled with dread. By Sam Dover, SBS News
Communication with loved ones in Sudan is rare and fleeting for Musab Hassan.
A member of the Zaghawa ethnic group, Hassan survived what in the early 2000s the International Criminal Court labelled as genocide in Darfur.
Now, from the safety of Sydney, he's spent every day waiting on word from the family he left behind.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says in a statement that: "The Australian Government is extremely concerned by the conflict" and they "unequivocally condemn the appalling violence directed at civilians."
For Musab, such condemnation and concern is welcome, but provides little comfort while he despairs for the safety of his family.
It would take 100 years to resolve claims of 7,000 asylum seekers stuck on bridging visas Greens claim. By Krishani Dhanji, The Guardian
Before the 2022 election, Labor promised to abolish the the TPV and SHEV visas and allow them to apply for a permanent Resolution of Status (RoS) visa.
However, about 7,000 asylum seekers got rejected through the fast track process.
Their only pathway to permanent status in Australia is through ministerial intervention by the home affairs minister, assistant immigration minister, and assistant minister for citizenship and immigration.
The intervention would allow those people to apply for permanent visas.
Figures released to the Guardian show that between July and 24 November, just 24 people have had their cases considered; 19 whose cases were intervened, and five were not.
At this pace, Shoebridge said it would take about a century to process the cohort, calling it a “farce”. “That’s not a process, it’s a cruel hoax,” he said.
Asylum seeker slated for deportation to Nauru has removal posponed due to legal challenge. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian
Home affairs minister Tony Burke says he is confident in government’s power to deport the man and ‘will proceed with removal to Nauru as soon as possible’.
Legal challenge launched to Australia's paid deportation to Nauru. By Tom Crowley, Jake Evans and Maani Truu, ABC News
The Human Rights Law Centre is representing a man who will challenge his deportation to Nauru in the High Court, in the first test of laws passed last year that allow the Australian government to pay other countries to accept deportees.
HRLC's associate legal director Laura John said the deportations: "Could set a dangerous precedent for the kind of treatment refugees and migrants are subjected to, both in Australia and around the world.
'Train wreck': What could a peace deal mean for Ukrainians who fled to Australia? By Cameron Carr, SBS News
Around 5,000 refugees and displaced Ukrainians in Australia may face limited options in post-war Ukraine….
…"We also have Ukrainians that are currently in Australia seeking refuge that are from occupied territories in Ukraine.
"So should a peace deal be made the way that [US] President [Donald] Trump is currently articulating and the occupied territories be handed over to Russia, which is an unfathomable outcome, the Ukrainians here wouldn't have a home to go back to."
Dutton wrongly says Labor is fast-tracking citizenship for Gazans to win votes. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke labelled Dutton’s comments “outrageous” while Rasha Abbas, who directs the agency assisting Palestinians fleeing the war, said just one family from Gaza had been given permanent visas on serious humanitarian grounds, but not offered citizenship. The rest are on temporary visas.
“This is not true. It’s all untruth,” Abbas said of Dutton’s claims. “There are laws around these things. There has been no citizenship granted to any of the Palestinians. There has been no change to the citizenship process. There is no bypassing of any security checks, they are done multiple times. Why are we singling out Palestinians?”
Juan arrived in Australia to a stocked pantry and kind faces. The government pilot that allowed it is here to stay, too. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian
The federal government will announce Thursday morning that the pilot program which brought the Santamarias to Australia – the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (Crisp) – will now be made a permanent part of Australia’s humanitarian migration program.
The assistant minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs, Julian Hill, says that through the pilot program more than 500 refugees had been supported by church, community and sporting groups to settle in cities and towns across Australia.
Australia is deporting 3 non-citizens from the ‘NZYQ’ group to Nauru. What could it do instead? By Mary Anne Kenny & Lisa van Toor, The Conversation
Other countries have established systems for managing non-citizens who are not entitled to protection or whose visas have been revoked due to criminal offences, ensuring they are not detained indefinitely.
After completing their prison sentences, these individuals are typically released into the community, where domestic law enforcement handles any further offending.
Neglecting to address offending behaviour or rehabilitation within the Australian system – whether during imprisonment, detention, or in the community – and then deporting individuals to developing countries doesn’t really solve the problem.
It simply means we are externalising the problem to a poorer country.
Majority of Australian voters expect fair and humane approach to refugees, poll shows. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian
Political leaders are being urged to embrace refugee policies “grounded in humanity, not cruelty” as new research has found a majority of Australians polled believe the federal government has a responsibility to accept people seeking asylum.
A mixed bag: views on immigration in Australia. By Alyssa Leng, Ryan Edwards & Terence Wood, Dev Policy Blog
We used a large public opinion survey to study the attitudes of people in Australia to migration. Our aim was to determine whether respondents’ beliefs about migration were accurate and whether attitudes could be changed with additional information.
The full findings are in our new Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper.
Burke expects legal challenge to Nauru deal deporting three violent NZYQ members. By Jessica Bahr, SBSr
Burke said the three men being removed from Australia had failed a character test, and their bridging visas were cancelled after Nauru issued long-term resettlement visas on Saturday.
He said they would not be deported within the next seven days, but it would occur "as soon as possible" once arrangements are made.
"When somebody has come and treated Australians in a way that shows an appalling character, their visas do get cancelled and when their visas are cancelled, they should leave," he told reporters on Sunday.
He signalled Nauru could take others from the cohort, saying the government there "had described these three visas as the first three".
Will Pekanbaru become Indonesia’s Cox’s Bazar? By Nino Viartasiwi & Antje Missbach, New Mandala
While Aceh used to be a rather welcoming place for Rohingya refugees, from late 2023 onwards their disembarkations were met with strong rejection from the local population, causing some boats to remain offshore for several days or move on to other sites where local people were more welcoming. Many have wondered what might have caused the drastic shift from hospitality to hostility and indeed many factors have contributed to this swift.
Will Pekanbaru become Indonesia’s Cox’s Bazar? By Nino Viartasiwi & Antje Missbach, New Mandala
Denigrating refugees: Media Watch is no exception By Peter Job, P&I
Australian citizens and residents who originally came to this country seeking asylum, as they are clearly entitled to do under international law, have been in the news recently, through no fault of their own and not in a good way. Sections of the media and some politicians have attacked them for doing what all citizens and residents have a right to do, that is to bring their partners and close relatives to Australia.
The ABC’s Media Watch program commendably took up this issue on 3 February under its new presenter Linton Besser. While there are certainly positive aspects to the Media Watch coverage, anyone with an understanding of fundamental refugee rights should be concerned by the way the program framed the issue, to the point of perpetuating misconceptions. To understand this, it is worthwhile having a look at Australian actions and policies towards refugees in the past few decades.
Denigrating refugees: Media Watch is no exception By Peter Job, P&I
Refugees released from detention denied tertiary education. By Dr Saba Vasefi, The Saturday Paper
Young refugees freed from Australian detention are then trapped by bridging visas that ban them from studying, deepening the damage inflicted by the immigration regime.
Refugees released from detention denied tertiary education. By Dr Saba Vasefi, The Saturday Paper
Referendum needed for Dutton’s call to toughen citizenship-stripping laws, expert says. By Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian
Constitutional law expert Helen Irving says such a change appears to be a distraction from serious nature of anti-Israeli comments from NSW nurses.
Offshore health crisis deepens: Advocates call on Labor to reinstate Medevac legislation, ASRC
Doctors and human rights organisations, including the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) and Amnesty International, have today backed the reintroduction of the Medevac legislation, calling it a vital lifeline for refugees and people seeking asylum abandoned by the Australian Government in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru, where a worsening health crisis requires immediate action.
Offshore health crisis deepens: Advocates call on Labor to reinstate Medevac legislation, ASRC
Climate impacts are forcing people from their homes. When, how and why do they have valid refugee claims? By Jane McAdam, The Conversation
..And the impacts of climate change and disasters are not indiscriminate – they affect people in different ways. Factors such as age, gender, disability and health can intersect to create particular risk of persecution for particular individuals or communities.
For example, a person who is a member of a minority may find their government is withholding disaster relief from them. Or, climate or disaster impacts may end up exacerbating inter-communal conflicts, putting certain people at heightened risk of persecution.
Now, we have a much more nuanced understanding of things. Refugee law (and complementary protection under human rights law) do have a role to play in assessing the claims of people affected by climate change…
Silencing journalism in Gaza, Mark Isaacs on Israeli censorship and the defiance of Palestinian reporters, PEN
See Mark’s article on Page 10.
How Australia plans to connect 600,000 skilled foreign workers and the industries desperate for them. By Dan Jervis-Bardy, The Guardian
A disconnected, complex and costly system for recognising overseas qualifications is blamed for preventing or delaying skilled migrants working in their chosen field in Australia.
As the federal election nears, a broad coalition of organisations spanning unions and employer groups is ramping up pressure on the major parties to fix the “skills mismatch” to unlock an estimated $9bn in economic benefits.
And new research suggests the public is on board.