The Australian Government agreed to move a seriously ill refugee girl from Nauru to Australia to seek mental health care. She is at least the seventh child to be moved from offshore detention after legal action taken on their behalf. Another girl, a two-year-old refugee, was moved earlier in the week to receive treatment for encephalitis. The principal lawyer for the National Justice Project, which has represented most of the children moved, said the mental health of children in detention has reached a crisis point.
The Australian Border Force told the mother of Fariborz Karami, the Iranian asylum seeker who took his own life on Nauru last month, that his body will be sent to Iran against her wishes. Fazileh Mansour Beigi, Fariborz's mother, begged for her son to be buried in Australia, where her sister can perform a burial service and visit his grave.
The Guardian Australia reported on the case of ‘Akam’, a stateless refugee who faces indefinite incarceration in Australia because he is deemed to have failed the Department of Home Affairs’ character test.
The Federal Court ruled to reject a ban that would have seen asylum seekers detained in Melbourne, Sydney and regional Western Australia lose access to their mobile phones.
Former Defence Force personnel spoke out about the Tampa and children overboard affair in a new documentary, accusing former Prime Minister John Howard and former Labor leader Kim Beazley of manipulating events for political purposes.
A report published by Liberty Victoria's Rights Advocacy Project found laws and policies in the Australian Capital Territory are excluding asylum seekers and refugees from accessing essential services, namely housing and education.
Heavy fighting in south-west Syria pushed more than 270,000 people from their homes towards the Israeli and Jordanian borders. The UN warned of a humanitarian catastrophe caused by the fighting that erupted after a Russian-backed army offensive to recapture rebel-held southern Syria.
In Australia, the crisis support service is Lifeline (13 11 14).