In the media
Detention
Around 60 people who were transferred onshore under ‘medevac legislation’ were released in December and January. The majority had been detained in hotels since July 2019. More than 150 of their peers remain in locked detention, including five families who have been detained in a hotel in Darwin for more than a year. Protests and rallies to highlight the plight of detained refugees were held over the holiday period, and Australians mailed Christmas cards to the family from Biloela who passed 1,000 days in locked detention at a cost of more than $6 million.
In the courts
The High Court ruled that lower courts can hear ‘duty of care’ cases brought by asylum seekers who were held offshore. However it also conceded that the Government can use a section of the Migration Act to argue that the case must be heard in the High Court. Meanwhile former Acting Immigration Minister, Alan Tudge, has appealed a Court ruling that he acted unlawfully when he failed to release an asylum seeker from detention.
International
The new US administration committed to increasing America’s annual refugee intake. The treatment of Uighur people in China was detailed in a long-form feature by a person who was held in the ‘re-education’ camp for two years. The conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, caused a large exodus of people into Sudan. Bosnia was urged to provide adequate accommodation for around 3,000 refugees and migrants who are sleeping on the streets or in abandoned buildings. Bangladesh continued to relocate thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island, despite widespread criticism. Spain launched the first ever publicly funded centre dedicated to asylum seekers who identify as LGBTI.
In policy
At the UN Human Rights Council more than 40 countries criticised Australia’s human rights record, including its asylum seeker policies. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights detailed a number of concerns about Australia’s human rights situation. Earlier, the government rejected the majority of recommendations in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s detention inspection report for 2019.
The Australian Information Commissioner concluded its lengthy investigation into the accidental publication of the personal details of more than 10,000 asylum seekers in 2014. The Government has been ordered to pay compensation to more than 1,300 people.
During December the Guardian ran a Lives in Limbo series comprising a range of articles about the situation of asylum seekers who remain ineligible to apply for protection because they arrived by boat after the government changed its asylum policy in July 2013.
The 2000 Cabinet Papers were released. They reveal an increasing concern about the arrival of asylum seekers by boat, concern about growing unrest on mainland immigration detention centres and a preference for contracting out detention centre operations.
In research
The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW, in partnership with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Lund University, announced the launch of a new Displaced Scholars Peer Mentoring Program. The program aims to support early career scholars who have experienced displacement and are researching and/or studying in the field of refugee and forced migration studies to pursue their academic and professional goals.
Shout outs
A young man achieved Dux of his school less than three years after arriving in Australia as a refugee. Meanwhile a woman who fled Kenya in 1999 won the 2021 Australia Day Local Hero Award.