In the media
Federal Budget
The Federal Budget included a $120 million cut to financial support for families and individuals who were transferred onshore for medical reasons. The cut took charities by surprise and was criticised as the final step in a systematic dismantling of Australia’s onshore asylum framework. The Government also removed 5,000 places from the annual humanitarian quota to save almost $1 billion, and refused to introduce any new pathways for asylum seekers to achieve settlement in Australia. Meanwhile the annual intake of refugees in 2019-20 fell short of the allocation, due to COVID-19 response measures.
Detention
In Brisbane, a refugee who remains in locked detention, despite being transferred onshore to be with his wife and child, attempted suicide. A Queensland police officer is being investigated for allegedly assaulting a man outside the hotel detention facility. Meanwhile authorities confirmed that a further 24 asylum seekers and refugees were transferred onshore for medical reasons in the past two months.
Courts
As the case to stop the deportation of the family from Biloela returned to the Federal Court, their experience of detention on Christmas Island was detailed by SBS News. An asylum seeker sued for false imprisonment after a judge found he was unlawfully detained. Lawyers questioned the extent to which federal ministers respect the rule of law in light of recent findings against ministers within the Department of Home Affairs.
International
Canada announced an increase to its annual humanitarian intake for 2021-2023. The European Union’s new Migration Pact was criticised for the extent to which it will restrict people’s ability to seek asylum. The UK Government reportedly considered an Australian-style offshore processing regime and legislation, whereby the rights available to asylum seekers would depend on the way in which they arrived. The ongoing persecution of Uyghur people in China was extensively detailed by the Economist. The former Interior Minister of Italy was charged with kidnapping over his 2019 decision to prevent people from disembarking a coastguard ship.
In policy
Refugee advocates delivered a petition to Parliament calling on the Government to accept New Zealand’s longstanding offer to resettle Australia’s offshore refugees. Earlier, officials confirmed that the offer is under active consideration, and that the USA resettlement program has accepted a total of 1,120 people to date.
Meanwhile, Senator Lambie will reveal the deal she struck over the ‘medevac’ repeal Bill if the Government does not do so by year’s end.
A new podcast was released on the plight of more than 14,000 people stranded in Indonesia following Australia’s reduction in refugee resettlement. A journalist spoke of his regret in deciding not to publish images of an asylum seeker who died by suicide on Manus Island in 2017.
In research
From 17 November, the Kaldor Centre is hosting a three-day virtual conference, ‘New frontiers of refugee law in a closed world’. The conference will host a range of leaders from around the world, and explore what the post-pandemic world will look like for refugees and other forced migrants.
Three researchers have examined offshore processing arrangements of four different periods and regions—the Safe Havens of the United States with Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the 2001 and 2012 Pacific Solutions of Australia with Nauru and Papua New Guinea; and the EU-Turkey deal. The article considers whether each of these arrangements had an impact on the ratification of refugee and human rights-related treaties by the states receiving the asylum seekers and refugees.
Jane McAdam and Jonathan Pryke write on climate change and the likely impacts on Pacific Islanders, calling for Australia to enhance mobility for Pacific peoples and reduce vulnerability to the impacts of disaster and climate change in the region.
The UNHCR’s annual Dialogue on Protection Challenges commenced in October, themed ‘protection and resilience during pandemics’. The Dialogue, continuing through to December, is focused on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the protection and resilience of refugees and people who are internally displaced or stateless and their host communities.