Weekly media wrap - 23 March

The Moss Review, established in October 2014 by the then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, was released on Friday. The review, by former Integrity Commissioner Philip Moss, investigated two separate claims relating to the Regional Processing Centre in Nauru. The review heard evidence of rape and sexual assault, finding that many detainees on Nauru were concerned about their safety and privacy in the centre. The review also found no evidence to substantiate the allegations that Save the Children employees had encouraged protests or acts of self-harm.

The Moss Review published 19 recommendations, including a review of the dismissal of the Save the Children employees. The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton stated that the department had accepted and responded to all 19 recommendations. Save the Children CEO, Paul Ronalds, responded by agreeing to work with the government on a review of the dismissal.  He also called on the government to immediately end its practice of mandatory and prolonged detention.  Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for his response to the Moss Review, following an interview on talkback radio station 2GB.

Former Nauru Chief Justice Geoffrey Eames criticised the Nauruan government, expressing concern about the health and safety of asylum seekers and refugees on the island  

Refugees who have been settled on Nauru spoke out about their lives on the island.  In a series of covert interviews, the refugees, who have been settled on five year visas, reported mental health problems and sexual and physical violence.

 The Italian home affairs ministry released a planning paper, suggesting that Egyptian and Tunisian naval units play a role in rescuing asylum boats off the coast of Libya.  According to this plan, Egyptian and Tunisian operations should be supported, technically and financially, by the European Union.  

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 - 5 January

Former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison threatened to revoke Moreland Council’s right to hold an Australia Day citizenship ceremony if Mayor Megan Hopper refused to read an official Ministerial message. The message is normally delivered at citizenship ceremonies, however it isn’t compulsory. Ms Hopper said the Federal Government’s asylum seeker policies conflicted with the council’s policy. In response, Wollongong Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the letter was ‘fairly innocuous’ and ‘full of motherhood statements’.

The Guardian reported that refugees released from detention on Nauru have pleaded to be allowed back into detention centres due to fears of violence and harassment from locals.

In her New Year address German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a more welcoming attitude to refugees amid concern at the rise of anti-Islamic groups in the country. The first refugees moved into so-called ‘container towns’ in Berlin – emergency housing built from stackable, portable blocks.

Weekly media wrap - 15 December 2014

The Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee released an inquiry report into the February 2014 incidents on Manus Island, which led to the death of Iranian man Reza Barati. The Senate inquiry found that the government 'failed in its duty' to protect the asylum seekers. It also found that there were violations of human rights that warranted compensation for those who were injured. Coalition MPs who sat on this committee rejected some recommendations, arguing that the underlying issues that led to the riots were the responsibility of the previous Labor government. 

Asylum seekers on Manus Island wrote to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to be taken off the island, as they fear they will be killed if released.

Documents obtained by The Australian regarding ill asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei’s transfer from Manus Island in August reveal that the transfer was delayed by bureaucratic obstacles.

Guardian Australia data showed that asylum seekers were put in solitary confinement on Manus Island 74 times during the 25 weeks between 23 May and 17 November.

Asylum seeker families held in the Inverbrackie Immigration Detention Centre in Adelaide were released into the community on bridging visas.

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 wrap - 10 November

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told a NSW Liberal party function that the Abbott Government would not reconsider its policy of turning back asylum seeker boats. Mr Morrison said that '[t]he government will never, ever move away from the policies that we know work'.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs claimed that Scott Morrison is using children in detention as 'bargaining chips' to facilitate the passage of the Abbott government’s proposed changes to the Migration Act. A report delivered by the Parliamentary Committee into Human Rights states that the proposed changes are incompatible with Australia's human rights obligations.

A high-level roundtable that was run in July 2014 by the Centre for Policy Development, Australia 21 and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law released its report. The report's key recommendations include lifting Australia's humanitarian intake to at least 25,000, processing asylum seekers in their home countries before they flee, and better treatment of asylum seekers in Australia.

Tensions at Regional Processing Centres on Nauru and Manus Island continue to rise, with reports from Nauru that an Iranian refugee was stoned and then beaten by a group of local men. The PNG Government has announced that it will begin the process of finalising refugee status determinations and will provide training to refugees in English, the national language of Tok Pisin and PNG culture in a purpose built facility.

In other international news, a boat carrying asylum seekers has capsized off the coast of Istanbul with reports that at least 24 people are dead. UNHCR welcomed a new set of international guidelines calling for countries to adopt a more gender-sensitive approach to dealing with female refugees, asylum seekers and stateless people in order to take account of the abuses they frequently suffer.