Weekly media wrap - 14 March 2016

Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying six Bangladeshis and two alleged people smugglers  and transferred the passengers to an Indonesian fishing vessel for their return to that country. Indonesia’s foreign ministry said it does not support for Australia’s policy on turning back boats, and indicated a potential straining of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Recently released documents show that between December 2014 and January 2014, Australian maritime patrols unintentionally entered Indonesian territorial waters six times when turning back 13 boats. Australia later apologies for the incursions into Indonesian sovereign waters.

Iranian foreign affairs minister, Dr Mohammad Javad Zarif, is visiting Australia next week to discuss a possible deal for Iranian asylum seekers in Australia. Negotiations are likely to focus on allowing forcible removal of Iranians who are found not to be refugees, in exchange for guarantees that this group would not face persecution or punishment. Iranian asylum seekers represent a significant proportion of the ‘legacy caseload’ of 29,000 asylum seekers in Australia.

The office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed that two of the five refugees who were transferred to Cambodia have returned to their home country. The Australian Government has committed to maintaining the $55 million cost of the deal with Cambodia, regardless of the number of refugees that are resettled, and has spent an additional $2 million in resettlement costs under this agreement.  

In Australia, churches held ‘sanctuary training’ with instructions on peaceful resistance towards authorities who forcibly remove asylum seekers, as part of the #LetThemStay campaign. Senior staff of Australia’s largest asylum seeker service, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, have left the organisation, with claims of a toxic work environment and bullying, and concerns for the safety and wellbeing of staff.

A recent University of Melbourne study showed that amongst their focus groups, the most important driver of negative attitudes towards asylum seekers was ‘religious prejudice’ and concern for the  ‘Islamisation’ of Australia. The research concluded that more constructive public debate on issues related to asylum seekers was needed, to build knowledge and correct misconceptions.

At an emergency summit in Brussels, Turkey offered to take back all asylum seekers who cross into Europe through their soil as well as those intercepted in its territorial waters, effectively slowing the entrance of asylum seekers into Europe. European Union leaders have welcomed this proposal, and recognised this as a potential breakthrough in Europe’s refugee crisis. The UNHCR has distanced itself from the proposal. Meanwhile, the route used by asylum seekers to move from Greece to northern Europe has been blocked after Balkan countries Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia each closed their borders.

Weekly media wrap - 18 January 2016

The crew of an asylum seeker boat who were allegedly paid by an Australian official to return to Indonesia were jailed on people smuggling charges.  The six crew members were each sentenced to over five years in prison and ordered to pay fines between $50,000 and $70,000.  The sentencing followed an Indonesian police investigation which found that the Australian Navy had paid the crew $US32,000 to return the asylum seekers to Indonesia.  An Australian Senate inquiry, due to report in March, will assess the legality of payments made to the crew members.

An independent report found that Save the Children workers sacked on Nauru in 2014 are entitled to compensation from the Australian government.  The dismissals were found to be politically motivated and based on ‘no evidence or reliable information’.  Save the Children CEO Paul Ronalds welcomed the report and urged the Australian government to end the practice of mandatory detention of children.

Twenty-eight refugees living in Nauru wrote to New Zealand’s Prime Minister, John Key, requesting permanent resettlement.  Despite a deal negotiated between Australia and New Zealand in 2013, in which New Zealand agreed to accept 150 refugees per year from Australia’s offshore detention facilities, no resettlements have been granted.  New Zealand’s immigration minister, Michael Woodhouse, responded to the letter, stating that ‘it is for Australia to take up the offer to utilise the… 150 places’.  Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull argued that resettlement in New Zealand could ‘result in creating incentives for people smugglers to get back into business’. 

In Papua New Guinea, Benham Satah, the key witness in Reza Barati’s murder trial, requested to be transferred to a different compound at the Manus Island detention centre, where he has been detained for over two years.  Satah, who was offered protection before giving evidence against two local men accused of killing Barati, said he is being targeted by guards and fears for his life at the centre.  A public petition requesting that Satah “be brought immediately to Australia and settled in the community” drew more than 16,000 signatures.

The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) called for greater government investment in organisations supporting asylum seekers.  RCOA toured Australia gathering information about the challenges facing these support centres, and will make recommendations to the Australian Government in February.

Weekly media wrap - 1 December 2015

The government refused to discuss the whereabouts of an asylum seeker boat which came within 200 metres of Christmas Island last week. The group of 16 asylum seekers were found stranded at sea near the town of Tabolong, on the western tip of West Timor, Indonesia. It is not clear whether the passengers on the boat made asylum claims, or whether any claims were assessed on board.

Also in Indonesia, two asylum seekers told an Indonesian court they witnessed Australian authorities paying the crew of their boat a cash payment in June 2015, before escorting them back to Indonesian waters.

An Iranian asylum seeker on Nauru protested to draw attention to the condition of the 95 children in detention on the island. See more statistics at Asylum Insight’s statistics page. Earlier in the week, the Australian Senate passed a bill calling for all children to be released from detention.

Germany will begin to deport asylum seekers from the Western Balkans whose applications for asylum have been unsuccessful. Balkan countries have imposed stricter border controls, allowing only Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers to pass through from Greece. The controls have been met with violent protests from asylum seekers on the Greek side of the border. The UN has warned of humanitarian problems as restrictions chiefly involve people being profiled on the basis of their alleged nationalities

Read the Kaldor Centre weekly news roundup.

Weekly media wrap 10 August 2015

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton announced 20 boats carrying more than 630 asylum seekers have been turned back since December 2013, with the most recent incident being the confirmed return of 46 asylum seekers to Vietnam last month.

A statement from the commander of Operation Sovereign Borders indicated that border officials had assisted asylum seekers in May 2015 when they had turned back a distressed boat whose crew was allegedly paid to return to Indonesia.  The statement was provided to a parliamentary committee investigating whether cash or other inducements were paid for boat turn-backs.

The Australian government has reportedly removed an undisclosed number of Iranian asylum seekers on bridging visas from their communities and returned them to detention facilities. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it was working to resolve cases of ‘failed asylum seekers’ currently living in communities.

The Papua New Guinea government has ordered a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to alcohol and drugs among staff at the Manus Island immigration detention centre, including regular substance testing. This comes after the alleged rape of a local woman who worked at the centre. The Australian immigration department has maintained that the Australian operator of the centre upholds strict drug and alcohol policy.

The Australian Government is expected to soon make a decision on a five-year contract for running detention centres on both Nauru and Manus Island, the ABC reports Transfield and Serco are being considered.

In an interim report released this week, the Australian Law Reform Commission suggested that a range of federal laws be reviewed in light of their potential interference with “traditional freedoms”. This has included law that extend the Australian government’s powers over asylum seekers who arrive by boat. 

UNHCR officials visited Greece this week to assess the refugee crisis. The number of refugees and migrants arriving by sea has risen by 750% in one year in this country, with 50,000 new arrivals having been reported in the month of July 2015. 

Read the Kaldor Centre's Weekly News Roundup.

Weekly media wrap 27 July 2015

At the Australian Labor Party (ALP) conference, a motion to prohibit asylum seeker boat turnbacks was defeated. Despite support for the motion from several senior Labor members, including deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, Labor will turn back boats to transit countries ‘where it is safe to do so’. A second motion, calling for the closure of offshore detention facilities that don't meet ‘humane and safe conditions’ was also defeated.

The ALP conference saw the announcement of Labor's new immigration policy, which includes the following elements: the abolishment of Temporary Protection Visas; the reinstatement of references to the UN Refugee Convention in the Migration Act; an increase of humanitarian visa places to 27,000 by 2025; a contribution of $450 million to UNHCR over three years; the implementation of independent oversight of detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru; and the introduction of a children's monitor.

An ongoing senate inquiry investigating conditions at the detention centre on Nauru heard that, despite 30 child abuse allegations against detention staff, no charges have been laid. In a submission from Save the Children case workers, the inquiry heard that female detainees were denied easy access to sanitary products and women and children were often provided with ill-fitting clothing. 

A boatload of Vietnamese asylum seekers was intercepted and is being held off the coast of Western Australia. Vietnamese community leaders in Australia and asylum seeker advocates argued that the asylum seekers would risk imprisonment if returned to their home country. The federal government refused to comment.

Guardian Australia continued its investigation into International Health and Medical Services (IHMS), Australia's healthcare provider for asylum seekers in detention.  The Guardian cited leaked documents that highlight tension between the company's required standard of professional clinical care and its commercial interests.