Weekly media wrap 1 June

Asylum seekers on bridging visas, who arrived to Australia by boat after August 2012, began receiving letters this week offering them to apply for temporary protection visas. The Australian government has lifted a freeze on processing the claims of 'unauthorised maritime arrivals' who arrived from mid-2012, and has begun the use of fast-track processing.

A Senate committee heard that the Australian government spent $2.4 billion over two years maintaining offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.

The family of a five-year-old Iranian girl is suing the Commonwealth of Australia and minister for immigration for negligence, which allegedly led to the child's severe psychiatric symptoms. The family is seeking financial damages and an injunction preventing their return to Nauru. This week the immigration department decided to transfer the family to community detention in Brisbane. Nauruan police are investigating the sexual assault of an Iranian asylum seeker last week.

Five detainees were removed from the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre or placed in solitary arrangements after confronting facility guards. Another group of 23 detainees, including some asylum seekers, have been transferred to Christmas Island from the Maribyrnong centre in Melbourne.

 Victorian Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye criticised immigration officials for blocking court ordered access for lawyers representing asylum seekers on Christmas Island. The lawyers were denied access to a group of asylum seekers who are suing the Australian government for neglecting to provide them appropriate medical care. 

The European Union sought a commitment from its member states to admit 40,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea landing in Italy and Greece. 

Read the Kaldor Centre's Weekly News Roundup

Weekly media round-up No. 32

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison met with Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng this week to discuss the possibility of resettling asylum seekers in Cambodia. The move was criticised by a member of the Cambodian Opposition party, Son Chhay, who said that the country should not be seen as a “dumping ground.”

The majority of asylum seekers on Manus Island have been interviewed for refugee status, with both the Australian and Papua New Guinean governments confirming that all those determined to be refugees will be resettled in PNG. An Iranian asylum seeker being assessed at the Manus Island detention centre is seeking to challenge Australia’s offshore processing policy before the High Court.

Meanwhile, the Abbott Government refused to release a report concerning details of the inquiry into the death of Reza Barati on Manus Island. The Australian Federal Police also declined to assist the interviewing of witnesses in relation to the death.

Asylum seekers at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney failed in a last minute legal bid to thwart an impending relocation to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. A group of more than 60 people gathered at Villawood to protest the transfer.

A report containing details of an internal review of Australian boat incursions into Indonesian waters was met with scrutiny by the Opposition and the Greens.  The report was censured for its lack of detail around the incidents that occurred under Operation Sovereign Borders.

Médecins Sans Frontières released a report detailing the harsh conditions facing asylum seekers living in detention in Greece.