Weekly media wrap - 24 November

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia’s humanitarian intake of refugees through the UNHCR would not include people in Indonesia whose claims were assessed after July 1. ‘We're trying to stop people thinking that it's OK to come into Indonesia and use that as a waiting ground to get to Australia’, Mr Morrison said. Australia will continue to accept 13,750 refugees in 2014-15, mostly from countries of first asylum.

Resettled refugees on Nauru received an anonymous letter telling them to leave the island and that ‘bad things’ would happen if they stayed. The Nauruan government dismissed safety concerns and blamed refugee advocates for a ‘campaign of misinformation’.

Amnesty International released a report stating that Turkish border guards killed 17 people fleeing Syria at unofficial border crossings between December 2013 and August 2014.

A boatload of 35 asylum seekers from India and Nepal arrived on the small island of Yap, 2000km north of Papua New Guinea. People smugglers had reportedly told them that they would be taken to Australia.

An investigative report on the Al-Jazeera network claimed there is an illegal market for UNHCR refugee status cards in Malaysia, with some paying people thousands of Malaysian Ringgit for the documents. Sources at UNHCR said an internal investigation has been conducted to assess the fraudulent activity of staff.

Weekly media round-up No. 50

Psychiatrists, bioethicists, human rights lawyers, novelists, priests and refugee advocates published a collective document accusing the Australian government of inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and demanding an end to mandatory detention and offshore processing.

Dr Peter Young, former director of mental health for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) and chief psychiatrist responsible for the care of asylum seekers in detention for the past three years, accused the immigration department of deliberately inflicting harm on vulnerable people in an extended interview with The Guardian. He received support from peak medical bodies for speaking publically.

One hundred and fifty-seven Tamil asylum seekers transferred to Nauru in late July were allegedly offered lifeboats and instructed to row themselves back to India. Immigration minister Scott Morrison explained the decision to return them to Nauru was due to the asylums seekers’ refusal to speak with Indian consulates.  A spokesman for the Indian high commission said India never agreed to accept the return of any of the Tamil asylum seekers who were not Indian citizens.

Five Save the Children employees working in the detention centre for families on Nauru were suspended for encouraging or engaging asylum seekers who were peacefully protesting.

Mr Morrison called for a reinterpretation of the Refugee Convention which would require asylum seekers to change their behaviour or employment to avoid persecution. The matter will be considered by the High Court.

The Department of Defence released its report into the allegations that asylum seekers suffered burnt hands on board a boat as it was turned back to Indonesia in January. The defence report found no evidence supporting the claim.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance obtained documents from the immigration department which shows that since coming into power the Abbott Government has spent more than $3 million to encourage approximately 1110 asylum seekers to return to the country from which they fled.

Fairfax Media reported that at least 25 delegates who attended the 20th International AIDS conference in Melbourne in late July intend to seek asylum in Australia.

Weekly media round-up No. 49

An Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry in to the health and wellbeing of children in immigration detention continued this week.

Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection Martin Bowles told the inquiry the number of children in detention has fallen from 1330 in July 2013 to 659 in July 2014. The inquiry heard evidence from Dr Peter Young that the immigration department requested the withdrawal of evidence of mental health concerns among young detainees. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison rejected this claim. The inquiry also heard evidence that the department chose ‘young looking’ detainees for offshore transfer, because of the enhanced deterrent effect on prospective arrivals.

One hundred and fifty-seven Tamil asylum seekers were moved from Curtin detention centre to Nauru. Mr Morrison returned from India after securing an agreement from officials to repatriate Indian nationals, and consider the claims of Sri Lankan nationals. Detainees rejected the offer to be assessed by Indian officials. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young attempted to visit the detainees, but was denied access. Lawyers for the asylum seekers say they were not given adequate access to their clients before their transfer to Nauru. The relocation cuts short a High Court challenge to the processing of asylum seekers at sea.

Fifteen asylum seeker youths in community detention in Adelaide have fled fearing a return to custody. A Church-sponsored report called for the appointment of an independent guardian for children in detention. The position of immigration minister as guardian is untenable, the report argues, given he is ‘also tasked with being their judge and jailer’.

Weekly media round-up No. 48

The 157 Tamils held for almost a month on board an Australian Navy vessel travelled to the Cocos Islands and from there to the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia, making them the first asylum seekers to reach the Australian mainland in six months. Human rights lawyers questioned the legality of the Australian government’s decision to allow officials from India, where the boat originated, to interview the asylum seekers.

 Documents filed in the High Court showed that the National Security Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, decided that the boat’s passengers should not be taken to Australia two days after it was intercepted.

Police in Puducherry, India, arrested two men on charges of renting out the boat they own to Tamils trying to reach Australia.

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison granted a permanent protection visa to a 15-year-old Ethiopian boy, after previously insisting the boy, who reached Australia by stowing away on a ship, would have his application rejected under a new ‘national interest’ test.