The Australian Minister for Home Affairs raised the prospect of considering a New Zealand offer to resettle 150 refugees held in offshore detention, on the proviso that they would be banned from coming to Australia. Media reports this as a bid to pressure the opposition to support legislation to stop anybody who arrived by boat from ever reaching Australia’s shores.
A Rohingya refugee man reportedly committed suicide this week on Manus Island after jumping out of a moving vehicle. Refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island will hold a vigil on Friday for Salim, who is the seventh to die on the island and the third apparent suicide in less than a year. Salim had been on Manus Island for almost five years.
Also on Manus Island, 120 asylum seekers have been relocated on the island after a fire broke out in their accommodation. No injuries have been reported, but there was significant damage to the accommodation facility.
Doctors on Nauru have made repeated requests to the Australian Border Force to move a terminally ill refugee off the island to receive palliative care, which cannot be provided on Nauru. He is currently in the Australian-built RPC1 camp on the island, which doctors on the island have said is ‘dangerously inadequate’.
An edited transcript of a television interview by Labor MP Linda Burney on asylum seekers was distributed through Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's office. The edits removed Burney’s calls for a ‘time limit’ on the offshore detention of refugees. Ms Burney's office has taken responsibility and described the incident as a ‘stuff up’.
The Victorian state Labor conference this weekend is expected to discuss Labor’s policy towards asylum seekers and refugees, and debate an urgency motion calling for an end to offshore immigration detention and the transfer of all remaining asylum seekers to the Australian mainland within 90 days.
In a press briefing this week, the UNHCR highlighted a significant increase in the number of people fleeing persecution in the North of Central America, calling on the international community to address their protection needs. More than 294,000 asylum seekers and refugees from the North of Central America were registered globally as of the end of 2017, an increase of 58 per cent from a year earlier.