Crossbench members of parliament introduced a private member’s bill that would require the urgent evacuation of any asylum seeker on Manus Island or Nauru who, on the recommendation of two or more doctors, is ill and unable to be treated offshore. The proposed changes would also require the urgent medical transfer of all asylum seeker children on Nauru.
A related rally at Parliament House earlier in the week delivered a petition of 170,000 signatures urging the government to remove children and their families from indefinite detention on Nauru. Meanwhile, a group of refugee men voluntarily left Manus Island for Nauru hoping for better conditions while they wait for resettlement in a third country.
A Bahraini refugee who has lived in Australia for four and a half years was detained in Thailand and threatened with deportation to Bahrain, where he fears persecution.
US President Donald Trump defended his country’s use of tear gas at the Mexican border to repel thousands of Central American migrants – the so-called 'migrant caravan'.