Malaysian police intercepted a boat carrying 131 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, bound for Australia or New Zealand. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the people smuggling operation had been running since mid-2017. In response, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said ‘the need for Operation Sovereign Borders is as vital today as it was when it began.’
In relation to refugees in Papua New Guinea, Minister Dutton said resettlement to another country was very unlikely. Refugees in the country hope to be resettled under an agreement between Australia and the United States entered into in 2015. While the agreement provides for the resettlement of up to 1250 refugees from PNG and Nauru, the United States is under no obligation to accept that number.
In Nauru, Iranian and Somali refugees seeking resettlement to the United States have been rejected, apparently in line with the Trump Administration ‘travel ban’. The Guardian reported that 85 refugees have been resettled from Manus Island and 162 from Nauru. UNHCR pointed out that over 80 per cent of asylum seekers transferred by Australia to PNG and Nauru have been recognised as refugees, therefore requiring a durable solution.
In Rome, seventeen people applied to the European Court of Human Rights claiming that Italy violated absolute norms of human rights law in providing aid and assistance to Libyan border authorities. A number of the applicants, who were rescued at sea and returned to Libya in November 2017, were allegedly detained and treated inhumanely.