Weekly media wrap - 2 March

The Abbott Government continues to defend its criticism of Professor Gillian Triggs. Described by some as an 'attack', the Government accused Triggs, the President of the Human Rights Commission which produced The Forgotten Children report into children in detention, of harbouring political bias due to the timing of the report. The advocacy group Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children rallied in Melbourne in support of Professor Triggs.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed that the Bladin Alternative Place of Detention in Darwin will close in April 2015. The Coalition Government has attributed the closure to its ability to stop the arrival of asylum seeker carrying boats and the success of Operation Sovereign Borders.

According to reports in The Guardian, the trial of the two men accused of murdering asylum seeker Reza Barati in a riot on Manus Island on 17 February 2014 will soon begin. Asylum seekers on Manus Island have been asked to give evidence and are reportedly nervous about their safety if they testify.

Amnesty International has called on Australia to do more to help the millions of refugees fleeing violence in Syria and Afghanistan, including increasing Australia’s humanitarian intake. Amnesty also released its annual report in which it condemned the Australian Government for its offshore processing policies and the continuing detention.

 Meanwhile, the Obama administration is pushing to increase the number of Syrian refugees settled in the United States, but is facing resistance from Republicans concerned about security screening of refugees.

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.