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 - 6 April

Tens of thousands of people marched in capital cities across on Australia on Palm Sunday to protest Australia’s asylum seeker policies and treatment of asylum seekers. The rally in Melbourne drew an estimated 15,000 people.

Immigration detention centres across Australia are on heightened alert in response to a rise in self-harm incidents. Up to eight detainees at Darwin’s Wickham Point immigration detention centre self-harmed in the past two weeks, while an Iranian asylum is reported to be in a critical condition at the Royal Perth hospital after refusing food for 38 days in protest against the rejection of his claim for asylum.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton announced that Major General Andrew Bottrell has been appointed to head Operation Sovereign Borders. Minister Dutton and Major General Bottrell visited the Manus Island detention centre on Monday.

Fawad Ahmed, a Pakistani-born legspinner became the first asylum seeker to be named in the Australian test cricket squad.

Weekly media wrap - 9 February

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres responded to the High Court’s judgment of the Tamil asylum seeker known as  ‘CPCF’, decided on 28 January 2015.  Despite the judgement that Australian authorities acted lawfully according to Australian law, UNHCR urged Australia to recognise its international legal obligations.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser criticised the government for its attacks on the Australian Human Rights Commission in the lead up to the 2014 release of the Commission's report from the Inquiry into Children in Detention.

Senate Estimate documents showed that during the last financial year the Federal Government spent over $1.2 billion on the operation of detention centres on Manus Island, Nauru and Christmas Island.

Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC announced that he will represent an Iranian asylum seeker in an appeal after his application for refugee status was rejected.  The 33 year old detainee of Wickham Point detention centre has been on a hunger strike since his appeal was rejected late last year.

In international news, Guterres urged the European Union to grant asylum to more refugees, with 50 million people currently displaced globally, creating the largest refugee crisis worldwide since World War II.

Weekly media wrap - 11 January 2015

The group of 50 men on Manus Island with approved refugee applications are being prepared to move from detention to temporary accommodation at the Lorengau transit centre and then into the PNG community. They were told they would be treated like the local Papua New Guineans, but detainees are resisting this move for fear of violence from locals.

An Iranian asylum seeker who went without food for 51 days in the Wickham Point Immigration Detention Centre in Northern Territory during late 2014 has resumed his hunger strike. 

A teenage boy who was crew on an asylum seeker boat that arrived nearly two years ago will return home to Indonesia next week. He and another teenage boy have been kept in detention since their arrival, despite a government policy not to prosecute Indonesian children found on the boats. The second boy has also been released on parole and put in immigration detention.

Figures provided to Fairfax Media indicate that ten refugees have been released into the community since August 2014, after ASIO reversed their decisions that the refugees were threats to national security.

Prime Minister Abbott congratulated the new Sri Lankan president-elect Maithripala Sirisena and emphasised the two countries’ cooperation on addressing people smuggling and other issues.

Lebanon turned back Syrians attempting to cross the border under new visa regulations, which limit the amount of time they can stay in Lebanon. Lebanon is concerned about its capacity to accommodate more people displaced by the Syrian civil war.

UNHCR released its Mid-Year Trends 2014 report, which indicate that an estimated 5.5 million people became newly displaced during the first half of 2014. Of these, 1.4 million fled across international borders, with the remaining displaced within their own countries. Syrians have become the largest refugee population under UNHCR's mandate.

Weekly media wrap - 22 December 2014

Immigration and Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison announced that 31 babies born to asylum seekers who were transferred from Nauru to Australia before December 4 will be allowed to stay in Australia, along with their parents and siblings, while their protection claims are assessed in Australia. More than 20 expecting asylum seeker women, who are currently in Darwin, will not be eligible to access this arrangement and will be required to return to Nauru with their babies once born. This one-off arrangement came as a result of a deal made with Senator Rick Muir, whose vote recently secured the passing of new migration laws through the Senate.

The immigration department has been accused of actively delaying visa grants to an 84-year-old Iraqi refugee and her daughter until the new temporary protection visa laws come into force. The two women were both found to be refugees by the Refugee Review Tribunal, but are considering returning home to Iraq as the TPV does not allow a person to sponsor their family. The daughter has a young child who is still overseas with her father. 

An Iranian asylum seeker entered his 49th day of a hunger strike at Wickham Point Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, after being denied refugee status by the Refugee Review Tribunal earlier this year. Reports indicate this man’s health condition is deteriorating, which has sparked legal and medical debate on whether the Department of Immigration and Border Protection can force feed this asylum seeker. 

Papua New Guinea approved 50 refugee applications from Manus Island, but has not yet resettled anyone. PNG Foreign Minister said that the men will be resettled in PNG but that has been delayed by the lack of a policy framework.