Weekly media wrap - 5 April 2016

Immigration minister Peter Dutton announced that there are no longer any children in immigration detention in Australia. Around 65 children remain on Nauru. According to Guardian Australia the government has reclassified sections of detentions centres to support this claim. The number of children in detention peaked in 2013 at over 2000.

At least 196 of the 267 refugees at the centre of the ‘Let Them Stay’ campaign are now in community detention, according to advocates. Refugees that remain in community detention may still be transferred to offshore detention, but must be given at least 72 hours’ notice.

‘The Journey’, a film commissioned by the Australian government depicting asylum seekers making a dangerous journey across the Indian Ocean to Australia, screened in Afghanistan this week. Put Out Pictures, the film’s production company state the aim of the film is “to educate and inform audiences in source countries about the futility of investing in people smugglers, the perils of the trip, and the hardline policies that await them if they do reach Australian waters”.

UNHCR’s Andrew Harper criticised Australia’s selection of Syrian asylum seekers. ABC program 7.30 revealed that the applications of 1,400 Syrian refugees referred to Australia by the UN have not had their cases processed. Only after their application has been rejected are they able to be referred to another country. Minister Peter Dutton told UNHCR that the main delay in processing was due to rigorous background checks, especially important given the number of fake Syrian passports currently circulating in Europe.

At a UNHCR meeting in Geneva, member states committed to modest increases in the number of refugees they are prepared to resettle, bringing the total to 185,000 worldwide. Minister Dutton announced Australia would contribute a further $8.5m to the UNHCR.

Weekly media wrap - 21 September 2015

Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbot as Prime Minister after a leadership ballot. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton retained his position in the cabinet reshuffle despite earlier in the week having offered to resign. The Indonesian government welcomed the leadership change, suggesting an opportunity to improve diplomatic relations with the new government.

The Turnbull Government consulted with the Refugee Resettlement Advisory Council on the mechanics of settling 12,000 Syrian refugees expected to arrive in Australia between now and the end of the year.  The majority of the extra refugees are expected to be resettled in Sydney and Melbourne, where the bulk of Australia's Syrian community lives.

The federal court found that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s investigation in to a data breach which published the details of almost 10,000 asylum seekers, was designed to fail.  The court said the immigration department responded to the data in a way that was ‘unfair to a significant degree’ and had not provided procedural fairness to asylum seekers affected.

An Afghan refugee who had his visa cancelled due to child pornography convictions set himself alight at a West Australian immigration detention centre after previous bids to end his own life.

The refugee crisis in Europe continues as Hungary closed the border between Serbia and Hungary. The UNHCR has again called for European Union member states to reach agreement on a plan to relocate up to 120,000 refugees.

Read the Kaldor Centre’s Weekly News Roundup.

Weekly media wrap - 1 September 2014

The Abbott Government will attempt to win the support of Senate crossbenchers to reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs). Labor and the Greens do not support the change in policy. 

In Papua New Guinea, a 24 year-old asylum seeker was transferred from Manus Island to Port Moresby with in a serious infection. Meanwhile, an asylum seeker lost his legal battle to prevent deportation back to Afghanistan. He will fly back to his home region of Jaghori on Tuesday.

Coalition government backbencher Andrew Broad came out in support of work rights for asylum seekers, while Western Downs mayor Ray Brown thanked a group of Tamil asylum seekers (who arrived before 2012) for taking jobs that locals were unwilling to fill, including cleaning up garbage dumps and rubbish from roadsides.

A Fairfax investigation claimed that the government’s failed attempt to return 157 asylum seekers to India cost the taxpayer over $12 million dollars, including the running cost of HMAS Perth, chartered flights from Cocos Islands, and costs associated with the legal challenge. Human Rights Watch described the cost as ‘outrageous and unnecessary’.

Law firm Maurice Blackburn launched a class action against the government on behalf of detainees injured while detained on Christmas Island over the past three years. A pop up ‘embassy’ highlighting the lack of diplomatic representation for refugees and asylum seekers appeared outside the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.