Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other Coalition MPs described Labor as weak on borders after the opposition and the crossbench voted to pass a bill allowing medical transfers from Manus and Nauru.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
A refugee law expert on a week of ‘reckless’ rhetoric and a new way to process asylum seeker claims
The Conversation44 MB(download)
Today on Trust Me, I'm An Expert, a refugee legal expert busts myths about how proposed medical transfer rules would work, and described some of this week's border security rhetoric as 'reckless'.
Wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, in 2016.
AP/Christian Torres
As Congress and President Trump struggle to devise a coherent immigration policy along the US southern border, there are lessons from ancient history that could prove instructive.
Phelps has only been in parliament since she won the Wentworth by-election but she has got one big win under her belt.
Lukas Coch/AAP
A bill to allow for asylum seeker on Nauru and Manus Island to be transferred to Australia for medical and psychiatric treatment has passed both Houses. How will it change things for those detained?
Scott Morrison signals he might reopen the Christmas Island detention centre, closed in October 2018.
AAP
Morrison told a news conference cabinet’s national security committee had met early Tuesday to discuss the contingency planning already in train in anticipation of the bill’s passage.
Morrison operates a minority government and Tuesday’s loss underscored that he can’t.
automatically get his way.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The government will turn up the dial by announcing “contingency plans” against fresh arrivals. Morrison is already moving on to the claim that Shorten couldn’t be trusted to be strong on turnbacks.
Six of the seven crossbenchers backed the ALP amendment to the bill that had come from the Senate.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The government has suffered a historic defeat in the House of Representatives, with Labor and crossbenchers passing the legislation facilitating medical transfers from Manus and Nauru by 75-74.
Shorten has been caught every which way in the last few days.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
After Shorten was briefed by security officials and with enormous political pressure coming from the government, Labor moved back from its support of the bill as it has come out of the Senate.
Shorten is worried about Labor being wedged, because border protection is always a politically vulnerable area for the ALP.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Scott Morrison says the government will not shift from outright
opposition to the bill, which is based on a proposal originally coming from independent Kerryn Phelps but subsequently refined.
If the government feels it is on the rack over the amendments, Labor also is in an awkward position, and at least one of the independents finds herself in the spotlight.
Some young people are taken to immigration detention as they approach their 18th birthday.
The Prime Minister has been anxious over the last two days to hose down talk that a government defeat on the bill could lead to an election.
Rob Blakers/AAP
Morrison declares the amendments, based on a proposal from independent Kerryn Phelps, would leave the government powerless to stop the entry of a paedophile, rapist or murderer.
Trump before delivering the State of the Union address with Pelosi and Pence.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Pool via REUTERS
Four scholars weigh in on President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, exploring his statements on immigration, childhood poverty, the border wall and the investigations into his campaign.
The government has been hopeful that it can persuade independent Cathy McGowan to break ranks with other crossbench supporters of the bill.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Scott Morrison and David Coleman said: “There are now only four asylum seeker children on Nauru and they have all been approved for departure to the United States of America with their families”.
Behrouz Boochani won the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, and the Prize for Non-Fiction, at the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Amnesty International/AAP
Behrouz Boochani, an asylum seeker currently detained on Manus Island, has won Australia’s richest literary prize. The win commands the question, ‘what makes an Australian writer?’
Hakeem Al-Araibi’s case has become a crucial test of world football’s commitment to human rights.
AAP/EPA Diego Azubel
After 1.3 million migrants from the Middle East and Africa came to Europe in 2015, many countries built fences or closed their ports. That has pushed migrants to take riskier routes into the EU.
The case of Hakeem Al-Araibi (left), detained in Thailand while on honeymoon, raises questions about how Interpol red notices can be misused to target refugees.
Diego Azubel/EPA/AAP
Interpol red notices play an important part in international policing. Here’s how they work and how the system could be improved to safeguard human rights.
Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham
