Monthly Wrap 1 December 2020

In the media

Detention

A detained refugee brought a test case against the Australian Government, arguing that the widespread handcuffing of detainees for offsite appointments is unlawful.  

A group of the most recent medical transferees were moved into the community. While this is standard practice and has been applied to more than 1,200 ex-offshore detainees, it was significant because none of the men who were transferred under the so-called ‘medevac legislation’ have been moved out of locked detention. One of the detained men was denied permission to visit his wife in hospital.

Community

A Sri Lankan family received deportation orders following their father’s death (the primary visa holder), despite awaiting an outcome on their asylum claim. The local community has rallied to demand the family is given permission to stay.

International

The number of refugees resettled globally in 2020 hit an historic low. Greece faces legal action for allegedly returning Syrians to Turkey and was slammed by an EU committee for the conditions in its migrant centres. More than 110 people drowned in three days trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea and the Mayor of Paris expressed horror at the brutal way in which police dismantled a migrant camp there. The British Home Office forced volunteers to sign confidentiality agreements prohibiting the disclosure of information about operations in an asylum seeker facility. The election of Joe Biden in the USA offers positive prospects for the country’s refugee policies.  

In policy

An annual review of the best and worst legislation in 2019 (by right and left-leaning think tanks) found the repeal of the so-called ‘medevac law’ ranked amongst the lowest in terms of justification and need. As Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers was slammed by former federal Labor MP Barry Jones and labelled by actor Cate Blanchett as ‘not our finest hour’, 60 organisations launched the Time for a Home campaign demanding the resettlement of detained refugees and asylum seekers (onshore and offshore) by World Refugee Day, 21 June 2021.

Following their 2020 virtual conference, the Kaldor Centre released Temporary; an online exhibition of the cohort of asylum seekers who are ineligible for permanent residence due to Australian immigration policy. Refugee Action Collective (RAC) Sydney held a virtual forum on refugees and the media.

In research

In a new book, University of Queensland researchers argue there is no credible evidence of a link between asylum seekers and terrorism.

Monthly Wrap - 4 November 2020

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.

Monthly Wrap - 2 September 2020

In the media

Detention

Huyen Thu Thi Tran and her two-year-old daughter Isabella, who was born in detention, were released from a Melbourne immigration detention centre. The Acting Immigration Minister cited an incident of a Brisbane immigration detainee accused of possessing and distributing ‘child exploitation material’, as justification for the proposed legislation to empower ABF officers to seize electronic devices in immigration detention. Queensland police have not released any information regarding the man's background.

Darebin City Council (Melbourne) passed a motion to explore the planning regulations regarding hotel detention. Specifically, whether the men detained in the Bellcity Mantra are ‘away from their usual place of residence’ and whether the definition of ‘hotel accommodation’ excludes detention. One of the men detained in the hotel wrote about their experience over the past seven years.

The Supreme Court in Queensland ruled that a planned bridge blockade by refugee supporters could not go ahead because it would infringe on public rights. Instead, a smaller group of supporters staged a peak-hour march through the city to protest the ongoing detention of people in a Kangaroo Point hotel. 

The Prime Minister’s post of himself cooking a Sri Lankan curry caused a public backlash about the Murugappan family who remain detained on Christmas Island. Meanwhile, the transfer of around 250 men from mainland detention facilities to Christmas Island commenced. Australian Border Force stated that people seeking asylum would not be among those transferred and put the cost of the operation at $55 million.    

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an impact on people seeking asylum in Australia. Thousands have lost work and are ineligible for Federal Government support. Charities are struggling with demand and have called for a rational response from the Government towards people seeking asylum. A 68-year-old Melbourne immigration detainee with underlying health issues lost his court battle against being forcibly transferred to Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre in Perth over COVID-19 fears.

Papua New Guinea is seeing a rise in COVID-19 infections. Refugees and asylum seekers there expressed concern about their vulnerability due to the mental and physical toll of the past seven years. Meanwhile, resettlements to the USA continued. More than 800 people have been transferred under the USA-Australia deal to date.

International

Reuters reported on the effects of COVID-19 on global refugee resettlements. Canada offered permanent residency to asylum seekers who work in care roles associated with their pandemic response. In the USA, officers engaged on the refugee resettlement program fear that the pandemic has given their government an opportunity for a more permanent contraction of their refugee program. The UK has experienced a higher incidence of attempted boat arrivals over their summer. This prompted a feature story on the people aboard those boats. In Scotland a woman who experienced chronic destitution after she lost her work rights was found dead next to her baby. The incident caused an outpouring of support from Glaswegians. Far right activists were filmed harassing asylum seekers who are being housed in hotels.

Another boat capsized off the coast of Libya and at least 55 people drowned. Meanwhile, a new rescue boat for the Mediterranean Sea, funded by street artist Banksy, rescued 219 people in its first 10 days of operation. Its pleas for help from European countries went ignored until Italy relented. The situation facing Rohingya people in Myanmar was profiled in a story about the upcoming elections there. In Gaza, a lockdown has been imposed after families living in the al-Maghazi refugee camp tested positive. And Germany marked five years since the peak of the crisis for refugees.

In policy

The Acting Immigration Minister reported that detention costs have reduced by $1.89 billion since 2013/14. This figure excludes the approx. $7.6 billion spent on offshore detention and processing. In addition, the Acting Immigration Minister stated that 70% of the people in detention are awaiting deportation after completing prison sentences. Whereas the latest Department of Home Affairs statistics shows the figure to be 46%. 

The Commonwealth Ombudsman released their latest six-monthly monitoring report into detention (for the period July-December 2019). The report highlighted particular concerns about the excessive and frequent use of force in Australia’s immigration detention facilities. The experiences of people in immigration detention were featured in The Saturday Paper and The Monthly, as well as a new campaign urging the Government to accept the spare room offers that Australians have made to people in detention.

Australia’s failure to protect the rights of refugees, and the harm caused by years of uncertainty for people still in PNG and Nauru, were a focus of Amnesty International’s latest submission to the United Nations Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR is an assessment of each UN member states’ human rights record.

In research

In Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, authors write of the experience of those incarcerated in Australia’s immigration detention and the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on people seeking asylum, refugees and other non-citizens.

The Mixed Migration Centre released initial findings from a study adapting their 4Mi data collection program to capture evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on refugees and migrants. Between April and July, the Centre conducted almost 7,000 interviews with refugees and migrants in 13 different countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia.

The Kaldor Centre released a special series, ‘The Andaman Sea Crisis Five Years On’, aiming to inform regional discussions about protection. The series provides analysis from refugees, academics, human rights organisations and others at the forefront of forming regional policy in this area.

The Kaldor Centre’s Emerging Scholars Network has received a grant to deliver a mentoring program to promote partnerships and opportunities for early-career scholars of forced migration with lived experiences of displacement.