Weekly media wrap - 6 June 2016

Immigration minister Peter Dutton said the government was not negotiating with Canadian officials, following media claims that a plan to resettle some refugees detained in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in Canada was being considered. Mr Dutton said talks had been held with many third countries in the hope of reaching an agreement quickly.

The Nauruan government decriminalised suicide and homosexuality to comply with international treaty obligations, following criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups. An Iranian asylum seeker was charged and sentenced for attempting suicide in Nauru last month.

On Manus Island, media reported that conflict had emerged between residents and newly released asylum seekers and refugees, with both locals and those newly arrived concerned for their safety.

A worker at Yonga Hill detention facility in Western Australia was suspended pending an investigation into claims he assaulted an asylum seeker. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection did not deny the claims, but would not reveal the number of other detention incidents referred to police in Australia.

The bodies of more than 100 asylum seekers washed up on the coast of Libya, likely from a boat that capsized on Wednesday. Hundreds more are believed to be missing from a separate capsizing off Crete. Italian authorities said 13,000 people were saved in the Mediterranean Sea in one week. Medecins San Frontieres reported that many of those who had reached Italy from Libya said smugglers had beaten or raped them. Warmer weather and the blocking of safer routes have been cited for the increase in crossing attempts and increase in tragedies.

Elsewhere in Europe, Dutch authorities reported an increase in people smuggler arrests, and the mayor of revealed plans to build an asylum seeker camp in the French capital. In Greece, two separate riots erupted between asylum seekers at detention camps on the islands of Lesbos and Samos.

Weekly media wrap - 17 August 2015

In Australia, a 21-year-old Afghan asylum seeker is expected to be deported to Afghanistan. His two younger brothers have been killed and father has gone missing in Afghanistan. The Afghan government has sought to curb the flow of forced returns from Australia and other countries, recently blocking the return of the asylum seeker.  

At the parliamentary inquiry examining abuse at the Nauru detention centre, a Wilson Security guard claimed that asylum seekers in the island’s detention centre were being subjected to torture techniques including water-boarding. Both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton have rejected these claims, stating that they were unsubstantiated.

Legal proceedings began this week against the Commonwealth Government over the alleged negligence of a five-year-old Iranian asylum seeker at the Nauru detention centre. The young girl’s lawyer told the Northern Territory Supreme Court that she suffered significant mental injuries caused by a year spent in detention.

The family of a female Iranian asylum seeker, who was allegedly raped three months ago in Nauru, say the Federal Government has refused to allow her to be treated in Australia. A spokesperson for the Immigration Minister indicated that the woman concerned is receiving appropriate medical and mental health support and care in Nauru.

A whistleblower claimed Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was filmed and photographed while on a visit to Nauru in 2013. Greens leader Richard DeNatale demanded Wilson Security be excluded from future contract tenders, and called for a federal policy investigation into the incident.

On Manus Island, Guardian Australia reported that refugees are being encouraged to resettle in Papua New Guinea, and are being told that if they do not cooperate they may be moved to Port Moresby and held in custody where conditions are worse.

In Europe, UNHCR expressed concern over the living conditions of an estimated 3000 refugees and migrants living in makeshift sites in Calais, on the northern coast of France. UNHCR highlighted the rising death toll among refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Channel into the United Kingdom.

Italy arrested five men accused of multiple murders and human trafficking following a shipwreck in early August, which left more than 200 people feared drowned. The vessel was believed to have had over 600 migrants onboard when it began the journey. 

Read the Kaldor Centre's Weekly News Roundup.

Weekly media wrap 20 April

At least 800 people died in the Mediterranean Sea when a boat capsized off the coast of Libya. More than 7000 people were rescued from boats in a four day period over last weekend. In response, UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants François Crépeau called for a global humanitarian plan to resettle refugees and regulate migrant mobility.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop invited Iranian officials to visit Australia to continue discussions about taking back failed asylum seekers, after being unable to reach agreement during her recent visit to Tehran.

The West Australian reported Australia is transferring almost 50 Vietnamese asylum seekers back to Vietnam from a vessel that was intercepted north of Australia earlier this month. A spokesperson for immigration minister Peter Dutton said no comment would be made on ‘operational matters’. Human rights groups have criticised the government for returning the asylum seekers Vietnam, where they may face persecution.

The ABC reported that a fact sheet about life in Cambodia was distributed to refugees in Nauru, with expectations that the first transfer of refugees between the two countries will happen next week.

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) put forward a submission disputing a migration amendment bill to allow immigration officers to use ‘reasonable force against any person’ if the officer believed it was exercised ‘in good faith’.

In Darwin, there was a disturbance at the Wickham Point detention centre, where a spokesperson from the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network said he had been told there were 25 self-harm attempts. A spokesperson for Mr Dutton said reports from refugee advocacy groups were ‘wildly exaggerated and inaccurate’, but confirmed there had been a disturbance.

An Australian National Audit Office report has recommended that interpreters who are deployed to immigration detention centres should be given resilience training so that they can prepare for the “challenging and hazardous” conditions of the facilities.

Weekly media wrap - 23 February

The Federal Government announced that four Sri Lankan asylum seekers were handed over to Sri Lankan authorities earlier this month. The men were determined not to be refugees after their boat was intercepted off the coast of the Cocos Islands. This interception is the first occurrence of on-water processing and transfer since the High Court ruled in January that offshore operations such as this are legal. Critics expressed concern about interceptions at sea and the quality of screening processes being undertaken when on water.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton visited Nauru to reaffirm the Australian Government’s bilateral agreement with the island nation to resettle Australian-bound refugees. Formal visit proceedings were disrupted by refugees protesting Australian asylum policy. Minister Dutton announced an open centre arrangement where selected asylum seekers would have more flexibility in coming and going from the Nauru detention centre within agreed times. Minister Dutton confirmed that 512 asylum seekers have been granted refugee status and 400 had been resettled in Nauru.

The anniversary of the death of Iranian Reza Barati was acknowledged and remembered on social media by thousands. Barati was killed one year ago on Manus Island during the rioting in the immigration detention centre.

An open letter to the Prime Minister Tony Abbott, signed by 50 prominent Australians, expressed support for the Human Rights Commission’s Forgotten Children report and concern about the personal attacks on the Commission's President Gillian Triggs.

More than 2,100 migrants were rescued 160kms off the coast of Italian island Lampedusa by Italian and Maltese rescue vessels. 

Weekly media wrap - 16 February

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) called for a Royal Commission into the policy of holding children in immigration detention, following the government’s release of its The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention report. The report found more than a third of children in detention in the first half of 2014 had serious mental health disorders. It found more than 300 children committed or threatened self-harm in a 15-month period, 30 reported sexual assault, nearly 30 went on hunger strike and more than 200 were involved in assaults.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott criticised the report as ‘a blatantly partisan politicised exercise’, questioning ‘where was the Human Rights commission when hundreds of people were drowning at sea?’ Professor Triggs said she made the decision to hold the inquiry last February because the release of children had slowed down over the first six months of the new Coalition Government.  

The government announced there would not be a Royal Commission into children in detention.

 More than 200 Australian organisations (including Asylum Insight) signed a letter calling on parliament to stop holding children in immigration detention.

Meanwhile, it emerged through Fairfax media that the government had sought the resignation of AHRC president, Professor Gillian Triggs.

The High Court ordered that the Immigration Minister grant a permanent protection visa to a Pakistani refugee. It unanimously found the decision by former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison not to grant the visa on national interest grounds because the man was an unauthorised maritime arrival was illegal.

Around 300 people were feared drowned after four people-smuggling boats sank in the Mediterranean. Twenty-nine people died of hypothermia aboard Italian coastguard vessels after being picked up from a boat adrift near Libya. 

Weekly media wrap - 20 October 2014

Asylum seeker advocates claim the Australian government’s proposed bill to reintroduce temporary protection visas contains controversial hidden laws. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the bill ‘reinforces the Government’s powers to undertake maritime turnbacks and introduces rapid processing and streamlined review arrangements’. Critics claim that hidden laws would limit scrutiny of the Government’s actions and may reinterpret Australia’s obligations under the UN Refugee Convention.

The High Court considered the matter of 157 asylum seekers who were detained on the high seas earlier this year. Lawyers for the defendants produced evidence to show the asylum seekers were given no opportunity to claim asylum during their detention.

In a separate case, the Federal Circuit Court found that infants born to detained asylum-seekers do not have the right to an Australian visa.

A group of 50 Vietnamese asylum seekers will be released to live in the Western Australian community. The group, who are predominantly catholic, fled religious persecution in Vietnam.

In an interview with Fairfax, incoming Indonesian president Joko Widodo said that it is unacceptable for the Australian navy to enter Indonesian waters uninvited while turning back asylum seeker boats.

The Italian government operation to rescue asylum seekers at sea concludes in two weeks. The operation has rescued 140,000 asylum seekers in the past year. Critics are concerned that the closure of the operation will lead to more asylum seeker deaths at sea.

Weekly media round-up No. 37

The governor of Port Moresby published an open letter expressing “grave concern” at the conditions on Manus Island. PNG immigration minister, Rimbink Pato, said that a refugee quota could be imposed, limiting the number of refugees resettled.

Fairfax published graphic images of detainees injured in the February riots on Manus Island. The Australian High Court heard arguments that the centre is constitutionally invalid and the Australian Government has no power to send asylum seekers to PNG. The case is ongoing.

Indonesian officials claimed the Australian navy added three asylum seekers to a boat turned back to Indonesia on 4 May. Federal police may be asked to investigate the incident, which may have breached Australian and international law. The Australian Government refused to comment on the incident.

Dozens of asylum seekers died when a boat sank off the coast of Libya. Meanwhile, Italy appealed for European Union support as 1200 asylum seekers land in Sicily.