The Tamil asylum seekers will be moved from Christmas Island to Perth community detention while they pursue legal matters and their youngest child receives hospital care.
This important case because represents a rare litigation win for an asylum seeker. He doesn’t automatically get the right to stay in Australia, but he’s won damages — and that’s unusual.
Group visits and food are prohibited, and visitors must sit in designated chairs apart from their loved ones. Celebrating holidays in detention didn’t used to be like this.
UN and NGO reports of ‘pushbacks’ at borders suggest 2,000 deaths linked to actions supported by EU border agency Frontex, yet EU plans to greatly expand its powers.
The dire conditions that brought waves of Cubans to the US in the 1980s and 1990s are again escalating on the communist island, provoked by Trump-era sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia has a long history of incarceration of migrants, Indigenous people and those considered ‘enemies’ of the state. This has formed a ‘template’ for modern-day quarantine and detention policies.
For the first time, a woman has been appointed to the hawkishly masculine home affairs portfolio. Whether this will bring a change of approach on asylum seekers and other issues remains to be seen.
The government lost another appeal in the fight over whether a Sri Lankan family can stay in Australia. It’s time to ask a fundamental question: is this hardline approach appropriate anymore?
If history is any guide, the new US president’s forward-thinking approach toward refugee resettlement could help drive Australia’s commitments to refugee protection, too.
In the Howard government, there was near-consensus in Cabinet that an ETS was eventually likely. A spike in asylum-seeker arrivals stimulated the hard “deterrent’ strategy” that would morph into the “Pacific Solution” in 2001.
New data shows self-harm incidents in immigration detention have spiked his year amid concerns over the pandemic. We must take steps to reduce asylum seekers’ vulnerability and prevent further harm.
As countries around the world develop their own private sponsorship systems, they should acknowledge how elusive refugee status can be. Policy-makers should proceed accordingly.