The Australian government is in the throes of a major recasting of traditional immigration and border security doctrines and institutions. The changes are being led by the incoming secretary of the newly…
Australians should demand a more representative dialogue on matters of refugee protection, inclusive of asylum seekers’ voices.
AAP/Refugee Action Coalition
Australia has long shown disregard for international conventions surrounding refugees. It labels asylum seekers in detention on Manus Island as “transferees”, also frequently referring to those who arrive…
Detained asylum seekers on Manus Island are searching for ways to communicate and be heard beyond the faceless inhumane bureaucracy.
AAP/Refugee Action Collective
Reports continue to emanate of escalating hunger strikes among asylum seekers at the Manus Island detention centre in protest at the length of their detention and their conditions. The Australian government…
More and more children are compelled to leave their homelands – with or without their families – in search of asylum.
EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak
When Karim (not his real name) was a teenager, he travelled from Myanmar to Indonesia as an asylum seeker. Stranded in Java without money and friends, he slept in a mosque for a number of weeks until an…
Scott Morrison has repeatedly characterised the Asylum Seeker Code of Behaviour as being necessary to protect the Australian community.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Recently, it was reported that asylum seekers are “staying indoors”, fearful of breaching the Asylum Seeker Code of Behaviour. All unauthorised maritime arrivals (UMAs) who are granted bridging visas are…
Asylum seekers with an existing mental health condition who receive negative outcomes during the application process are particularly vulnerable.
Barat Ali Batoor
After much controversy, the Senate passed the Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 late last week. One aspect of the law – the “fast track assessment…
No other minister has the same unchecked control over the lives of other people as the immigration minister has.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison now has unchecked power to decide the outcomes that will affect the lives of asylum seekers and refugees coming to Australia. Previous immigration ministers have had…
Despite what the protesters’ sign says, it remains to be seen how regional Australia accepts refugees under the proposed safe haven enterprise visa scheme.
AAP/Newzulu/Lesly Lotha
Australia has long had an obsession with migration law and national boundaries. Currently, it appears in the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill…
Australia has the second-highest number of immigrants – in relative terms – among OECD countries, according to a new report.
AAP/Dan Peled
Immigration is a political hot potato. On the day the OECD published its latest annual survey of global migration, Swiss voters rejected a referendum to reduce annual migration numbers. A few days earlier…
Australia announced this week that asylum seekers who are waiting in Indonesia to be resettled in Australia will not be accepted.
EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak
There was a collective shrug in Indonesia over Australia’s decision to stop accepting refugees who are waiting in Indonesia to be resettled in Australia. Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison…
Nauru’s culture of hospitality once applied to all, including the asylum seekers who arrived in 2001 to a dance of welcome, a tradition depicted on this stamp. Refugee resettlement has changed all that.
Refugees settled on Nauru woke on Monday to find an ominous letter, signed “Youth of Republic of Nauru”, had been delivered overnight. Copies had been left at shops, homes, workplaces employing refugees…
A ban on resettling asylum seekers from Indonesia calls into question the rationale of Australia’s resettlement program.
EPA/Hotli Simanijuntak
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has announced that asylum seekers residing in Indonesia while awaiting protection will no longer obtain resettlement in Australia. This move puts into serious question…
In matters of ‘security’ social problems, the persistent undesirable condition has been that of the ‘boat people’.
AAP/Scott Fisher
In matters of national security, who is deviant and poses a threat to our safety depends on the claims made by those in positions of power and the sociopolitical climate. The news media are crucial in…
The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, criticised Australia in his opening address to the UN Human Rights Council.
EPA/Salvatore di Nolfi
The Australian government is being examined on Monday evening by the United Nations Committee against Torture. Before the independent committee of experts, an Australian government delegation has to answer…
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Coalition had concerns at the time about the detail of the agreement Labor put in place just before the 2013 election.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The government wanted to ensure Papua New Guinea understood “absolutely” its responsibilities to resettle refugees from Manus Island, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said today, but avoided predicting when…
There was an expectation that there would be an increase of negative views on immigration in 2014 – but the reverse has occurred.
AAP/Dan Peled
The report on the 2014 Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion surveys, released on Wednesday, finds both continuity and change. On attitudes to asylum seekers, for example, there is a large measure…
Opposition leader Bill Shorten faces a difficult policy problem with boat turn backs.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Bill Shorten is in a awkward place on the issue of boat turn backs. Richard Marles’ suggestion that under certain conditions a Labor government might embrace the policy recognised reality. But the immigration…
Andrew Wilkie claims the Australian government is inflicting crimes against humanity upon asylum seekers and refugees.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie has written to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting the body investigate and prosecute the prime minister, Tony Abbott…
Hazaras have long been persecuted in Afghanistan, but those returned from countries like Australia are in particular danger of being tortured and murdered.
Wikimedia Commons/ISAF Public Affairs Office
It has been a bad time lately for Afghan Hazaras with Australian connections. In late September, the shocking news came through that the Taliban had tortured and murdered an Australian of Afghan background…
A supposedly proud record of generosity to refugees in no way alters the harshness of the government’s present policies.
AAP/Stefan Postles
How do Australian institutions and political leaders draw on history to tell us who we are? How do they make sense of Australia’s past as a country of immigration and a nation that has accommodated hundreds…