Francois Crepeau, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, published a criticism of Australia’s immigration processing centre on Nauru, calling it a ‘blemish’ on the country’s good human rights record. While praising Australia’s formal refugee resettlement program, he contended that conditions at offshore processing centres were ‘unjustifiably punitive’. The Australian Government rejected Crepeau’s findings, claiming he had made a number of errors of fact and law.
A six-metre high inflatable sculpture of a refugee created by Belgian art collective Schellekens will feature during Refugee Week on the Yarra River. The artwork draws attention to the current global migration crisis.