The case of the Tamil asylum seeker family from Biloela was heard in the federal court this week by Justice Mark Moshinky. The family may have to wait between one and three months for a decision to be handed down on whether their youngest Australian-born daughter can have her asylum application assessed. Tamil asylum seekers Priya and Nades and their Australian-born daughters Kopika and Tharunicaa are detained on Christmas Island. The hearing focused on whether the immigration or home affairs ministers had considered lifting the bar under the Migration Act to Tharunicaa from applying for a visa because, despite being born in Australia, she is considered an unauthorised maritime arrival like her parents. The court is also considering whether the process of deciding whether to lift the bar was fair.
A Rohingya asylum seeker told his story for the first time to Australian media of his escape from Australia's offshore processing centre on Manus Island, and eventual resettlement in Canada. Refugee advocates are describing it as unprecedented. Mr Jaivet Ealom said he escaped from the Manus Regional Processing Centre in May 2017 and boarded a flight to Port Moresby by posing as an interpreter. He then lived for six months as a fugitive in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands before arriving unannounced in Canada, where he was granted protected refugee status.
In Greece, protests over plans for new migrant camps on two of its islands turned into violent clashes between police and local residents, some armed with Molotov cocktails and shotguns. Hundreds of residents attacked police officers guarding the sites of the future detention camps on the islands of Lesbos and Chios. A large crowd later laid siege for hours to a Lesbos army camp where riot-control squads were billeted. Dozens of police officers were injured during the unrest.