Weekly media wrap - 21 August 2017

On Thursday, the High Court again upheld the legality of Australia’s offshore detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island. After Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court ruled that the arrangement was unconstitutional in April, Australian lawyers argued that it was unlawful for Australia to enter into an agreement that was not legal in another country. However, the High Court ruled unanimously that there was no constitutional requirement for the Australian government to conform to the law of another country.

The Australian Government lost its appeal against a Federal Court ruling allowing immigration detainees to keep their mobile phones. In February, the Federal Court granted an injunction prohibiting Australian Border Force guards from seizing detainees’ phones. George Newhouse, the principal solicitor for the National Justice Project, claimed that removing phones was ‘part of the process of criminalising asylum seekers’.

In a short speech to parliament this week, Liberal backbencher Russell Broadbent called for asylum seekers held on Nauru and Manus Island to be brought to Australia if they are not resettled in the USA. 

Weekly media wrap - 16 August 2017

Iranian asylum seeker Hamed Shamshiripour was found dead in a forest near the East Lorengau transit centre on Manus Island. Shamshiripour had suffered mental health crises in the Australian-run detention system for over a year, with fellow refugees and asylum seekers making formal and urgent requests for his medical treatment. The reported cause of Shamshiripour’s death, suicide, was challenged by refugees and asylum seekers on the island, and his family requested an independent autopsy and inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton put forward amendments to the secrecy and disclosure provisions in the Australian Border Force Act 2015 (Cth). The provisions initially included the imposition of criminal liability on employees, former employees, contractors and consultants who disclosed any ‘protected information’ in connection with detention centres. They will now apply only to information that could compromise Australia's security, defence or international relations, interfere with the investigation of offences, or impact sensitive personal and commercial matters. 

An Iraqi man known as Saeed was deported after 4 years in Australia’s detention system.  Saeed, whose brother has been granted asylum, was deported overnight with no notice to his lawyer, Alison Battisson. 

Weekly media wrap - 8 August 2017

A transcript of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s January phone call with US President Donald Trump regarding the US resettlement deal for refugees on Manus Island and Nauru was leaked to the media this week. During the conversation, Turnbull told Trump that those detained were ‘economic refugees’ and assured him that his only obligation was to ‘go through the process’ of vetting the asylum seekers for resettlement.

Over 700 asylum seekers on Manus Island are continuing to protest after water and medical services were taken away from the detention centre in an attempt to force the remaining residents to move to the new camp of Lorengau. On Friday, protesters refused access to police and immigration officials attempting to move them on. They maintain that Lorengau is unsafe. 

Weekly media wrap - 2 August 2017

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Filippo Grandi, issued a statement saying that Australia had not honoured an agreement made on family reunification in Australia. The UNHCR agreed to help administer the Australia’s refugee resettlement agreement with the United States, on the understanding that vulnerable refugees with close family ties in Australia would be allowed to settle in Australia. The UNHCR was recently informed that Australia would refuse to accept these refugees. The Australian Government rejected the claim that such a deal was reached with UNHCR.

Refugees and asylum seekers in the Foxtrot compound of the Manus Island immigration detention centre were advised that they must vacate this week, forming part of the rolling closure of the facility. Water, power, and cleaning services within the Foxtrot compound are also ceasing.

Also on Manus Island, two men were reportedly seriously injured in separate armed robberies overnight: a 27-year-old Sudanese refugee and a 27-year-old Iranian asylum seeker. Both men are currently in the Lorengau Hospital.

A group of around 30 refugees from El Salvador, who are being held in Costa Rica, are expected to arrive in Australia in the next two months, according to two sources. This forms part of the refugee swap arrangement made with the United States. 

Weekly media wrap - 27 July 2017

Wednesday 19 July marked the fourth anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s announcement of a refugee deal with Papua New Guinea that would mean that ‘any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia’. Rudd tweeted on Wednesday night that this deal was only intended to last 12 months and that refugees should have been resettled in Australia by the Coalition Government three years ago. To mark the anniversary, refugee advocates organised 57 vigils around Australia urging the need to ‘evacuate [the detention centres] now’. Around 2000 people remain in offshore detention centres under the program. 

Immigration minister Peter Dutton expressed disappointment that US resettlement for asylum seekers in offshore processing centres had not begun this month as hoped, due to the US already having filled its refugee quota of 50,000 for the financial year. Dutton stated his hope that the eligible asylum seekers would be moved by 21 October, when the processing centre on Manus Island is scheduled to close.

Refugee advocates reported a six-fold increase in workload as they attempt to file protection claims for asylum seekers by 1 October. This is the deadline for asylum seekers living in Australia to make a claim for protection or risk losing government payments and being deported. An unnamed asylum seeker told SBS News that the uncertainty is causing depression and anxiety for those affected.

Weekly media wrap - 19 July 2017

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull considered the creation of a homeland security portfolio, bringing ASIO, the Federal Police and the current Department of Immigration and Border Protection under the one umbrella. Separately, the immigration department is reportedly considering outsourcing large parts of the visa system to private operators. The Community and Public Sector Union described the potential plan as ‘undermin[ing] the integrity of a core function of government’. 

The US State Department said it had reached its annual refugee intake. The US is currently assessing the applications of hundreds of refugees on Nauru and Manus Island as part of a resettlement deal struck with the Australian Government last year. 

UNHCR released a Roadmap to improve the situation of unaccompanied minors and separated refugee and migrant children. Since 2015, the situation for unaccompanied children and young people arriving in Europe has worsened, with a broadened use of detention and large scale institutional care, limited family reunification opportunities, and rising concerns over deportations. 

Weekly media wrap - 10 July 2017

Immigration officials are in the process of shutting down the Manus Island detention centre, although hundreds of asylum seekers are refusing to leave. A notice posted at the centre stated that refugees should move to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre without delay and that failure to cooperate would hinder their chances of being accepted for resettlement in the USA.

On Monday, former immigration department spokesperson Sandi Logan posted to Twitter that Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg was ‘under external investigation’ and had been suspended. Sources claim that the investigation is due to ‘personal behaviour’.

Andrew Goledzinowski, Australia’s ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking, stated that although most of the refugees detained on Manus Island and Nauru are to be resettled in the USA, New Zealand’s offer to take 150 refugees has not yet been rejected outright.

Weekly media wrap - 4 July 2017

A refugee on Manus Island was flown to Port Moresby for treatment of serious injuries sustained during an alleged robbery. The man was allegedly attacked with knives by locals after refusing to hand over his phone. Refugee advocates called for the man to be flown to Australia to see a specialist surgeon.

The Australian reported that the number of asylum seeker boats intercepted at sea has risen to 31 since Operation Sovereign Borders came into force in December 2013. Six Sri Lankans were returned to Colombo from Christmas Island as recently as Monday.

An Indonesian man jailed as a child for people smuggling had his conviction overturned. Ali Jasmin was likely 13 years old when he served almost three years in Perth’s maximum security Hakea Prison. The WA Court of Appeal ruled that Jasmin was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Weekly media wrap - 27 June 2017

Nauruan police this week charged one asylum seeker detained at the Nauru detention facility with indecent assault of a minor and arrested four others on drug charges. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection told the Courier Mail that they were aware of the relevant allegations, but deemed them to be matters for the Nauru Police Force.

Speaking at the Crawford Australian Leadership Forum this week, immigration department secretary Michael Pezzullo asserted the importance of ending the people smuggling trade. He called on other countries to increase their refugee intake to prevent people from ‘seek[ing] services of smugglers and traffickers’. Australia will increase its annual refugee intake from 12,000 to 18,750 in the 2018-2019 period.

According to UNCHR’s annual report, which was released this week, the global number of refugees fleeing their homes reached a record high of 65.6 million last year. South Sudan became the source of the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world. 

Weekly media wrap - 20 June 2017

The Australian Government agreed to a $70 million settlement to compensate 1900 asylum seekers currently or formerly held on Manus Island for alleged physical and psychological harm. Immigration minister Peter Dutton denied that the settlement is an admission of wrongdoing by the government, saying that the Commonwealth ‘strongly refutes and denies the claims made in these proceedings’.

The United States will tell dozens of refugees held in the Manus Island detention centre whether they will be offered resettlement in America within six weeks. US officials returned this week to Manus Island to conduct medical examinations on 70 men.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced legislation that would require migrants wanting to become Australian citizens to pass an English language test. Labor has decided to oppose the test.

Weekly media wrap - 14 June 2017

Francois Crepeau, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, published a criticism of Australia’s immigration processing centre on Nauru, calling it a ‘blemish’ on the country’s good human rights record. While praising Australia’s formal refugee resettlement program, he contended that conditions at offshore processing centres were ‘unjustifiably punitive’. The Australian Government rejected Crepeau’s findings, claiming he had made a number of errors of fact and law. 

A six-metre high inflatable sculpture of a refugee created by Belgian art collective Schellekens will feature during Refugee Week on the Yarra River. The artwork draws attention to the current global migration crisis. 

Weekly media wrap - 6 June 2017

Internal emails released under freedom of information laws showed that the Australian Border Force admitted to a failure to appropriately respond to allegations of sexual assault and abuse on Nauru. These findings were not disclosed to the recent parliamentary inquiry into allegations of abuse, self-harm and neglect of asylum seekers on Nauru.

Over 50 members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, including many from the migration and refugee division, were advised that they will not be reappointed to their roles. The AAT has been heavily criticised in some newspapers and by immigration minister Peter Dutton for overturning government visa decisions in the past year.

The Australian reported that almost 100 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia have been issued adverse security assessments by ASIO or rejected after being flagged by the Five Eyes intelligence network. This includes ‘close to 30 people’ seeking entry through the one-off humanitarian intake of 12,000 Syrian refugees, recently confirmed by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, as well as over 65 people who arrived by boat under the Labor government.

It was reported that a Syrian refugee has been transferred from Nauru to Cambodia for resettlement, as part of the Australian Government’s $55 million arrangement with the Cambodian government made three years ago. The Australian Government has not confirmed the arrival of this refugee.

Coptic Christian asylum seekers in Australia who were previously refused refugee status are being provided with visas to stay in this country while their cases for protection are reviewed. This decision followed violent attacks in Egypt, which have worsened in recent months.

Weekly media wrap - 1 June 2017

A notice was posted at the Manus Island detention facility requiring detainees to move to a new facility in the town of Lorengau, where US officials have begun ‘extreme vetting’ to determine eligibility for the US-Australia refugee resettlement deal. The new facility has a lower standard of medical care and is less secure than the detention centre, with many refugees having reported violence and abuse in the area.

A total of 659 asylum seekers who arrived by boat lodged protection claims in the two weeks before immigration minister Peter Dutton’s four-month deadline on the claims. This leaves 7194 asylum seekers who did not apply by the deadline. Last week, Peter Dutton announced a new immovable deadline of 1 October for these people to make their claims. Refugee legal services told The Guardian that this deadline was impossible to meet.

A class action against the Australian Government on behalf of Manus Island detainees will begin this Wednesday. The lead plaintiff is Majid Kamasee, an Iranian man who has been detained at Manus for several years, but the case will also represent 1905 other asylum seekers. Law firm Slater and Gordon will argue that these people’s imprisonment was illegal and that the conditions in the centre led to ‘serious physical and psychological injuries’. 

Weekly media wrap - 22 May 2017

Immigration minister Peter Dutton announced that approximately 7500 asylum seekers have until 1 October to formally apply for protection, or face deportation from Australia.  Refugee lawyers criticised the move, arguing that many of these asylum seekers were barred from lodging applications until late 2016, with legal centres now overwhelmed by demand.

The Guardian obtained internal working documents from the Manus Island detention centre revealing that a year-long plan has existed to make the site progressively more inhospitable for detainees. The documents, from camp manager Broadspectrum and security contractor Wilson, detail a strategy to pressure the 829 detainees to either resettle in PNG or abandon their asylum claims.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection confirmed that shots were fired into the Manus Island immigration detention centre on Good Friday. Department secretary Mike Pezzullo reported that nine people were injured in the shooting, including two refugees.

Senate Estimates heard further details about the United States resettlement deal.  While exact resettlement numbers have not been confirmed, the legal and constitutional affairs committee was told that 1440 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru have applied. 

Weekly media wrap - 18 May 2017

In a recording sent to Fairfax Media, a Papua New Guinea immigration official told asylum seekers held at Manus Island that the regional processing centre would be closed by 31 October. Refugees have been given the option to live temporarily at the East Lorengau camp while they wait for resettlement in the USA or to be permanently resettled in PNG. Immigration minister Peter Dutton reiterated that no asylum seekers would be resettled in Australia.

According to an Amnesty International briefing, there was digital verification this week of bullets being fired directly into the Manus Island regional processing centre on 14 April. While the Australian Government has not conducted an investigation into the incident, the PNG Police and PNG Defence Force have launched separate investigations.

In a new budget measure, the government will cut off income support and rental assistance from asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia by boat since 2012 and not lodged visa applications. The 90 days given to these asylum seekers in January to lodge their applications has run out and those who have not applied are set to lose their support.

Weekly media wrap - 8 May 2017

Immigration minister Peter Dutton’s claims about an altercation between asylum seekers and PNG police on Good Friday at the Manus Island detention centre were disputed again. An anonymous Border Force officer who witnessed the event said that there was no connection between the shooting and an earlier incident involving a young boy. The investigation is ongoing.

More than 1600 refugees and transferees on Manus Island and Nauru expressed interest in the Australia-US resettlement deal, which is expected to offer 1250 places. Immigration officials said that the most vulnerable of the group will be given priority, including women, children and families. Documents released by the immigration department reveal that the federal government has spent an additional $22 million in supporting the deal.

A report by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law concluded that asylum seeker boat turnbacks practised in Australia and Europe are illegal under international law and do not deter people from making dangerous journeys. Turnback policies continue to have bipartisan support in Australia.

Former immigration minister Ian Macphee said that the power accorded to current ministers regarding asylum seekers is unjust and unchecked. The comments come in a report by Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project that warns against the dramatic rise in the personal discretions and legal powers of the immigration minister.

A Federal Court in Melbourne ordered that immigration minister Peter Dutton revisit the refugee application of a Syrian man he wanted to deport. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is considering whether to appeal the decision. 

Weekly media wrap - 1 May 2017

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection confirmed that 41 asylum seekers detained on Nauru had contracted dengue fever by the end of March. There is currently a general outbreak of the viral disease on Nauru, and the number of asylum seekers affected is likely to have risen during April. The immigration department deemed this an issue for the Nauruan government and has not commented on strategies put in place to deal with it.

The federal government agreed to compensate a nine-year-old girl who was detained on Christmas Island for almost a year for a range of medical and psychological issues developed as a result of her detention. Her case was originally part of a class action aimed at securing compensation for thousands of refugees, but this was halted by the Supreme Court last month on the basis that the individual claims were too different. 

Weekly media wrap - 24 April 2017

During a visit to Australia, US Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that Australia’s refugee swap deal will go ahead, saying that ‘The US intends to honour the agreement – subject to the US vetting process’.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton alleged that asylum seekers led a five-year-old Papua New Guinean boy into the Manus Island detention centre, causing ‘angst’ and leading to the altercation between asylum seekers and PNG police on Good Friday. PNG police dispute this account.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is using targeted advertisements via YouTube to discourage asylum seekers from attempting to reach their shores via people-smuggling boats.  

Weekly media wrap - 20 April 2017

Manus Island detainees reported that the PNG Defence Force fired approximately 100 rounds of bullets into the detention centre on 14 April in response to an alleged fight between detainees and PNG Defence Force personnel. The Australian immigration department confirmed that one detainee was injured by a thrown rock; however, the numbers and seriousness of injuries vary in other reports. In response to this incident, churches and refugee advocates called for the evacuation of asylum seekers on Manus Island to Australia while the resettlement deal with the US progresses.

According to the Fifth National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey, pro bono legal services increased by almost 10% from 2014 to 2016. Heightened demand from asylum seekers and refugees is cited as a key reason for this increase. 

Weekly media wrap - 10 April 2017

Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security visited Manus Island to fingerprint and photograph refugees for potential resettlement under the US-Australia refugee deal. Details of the deal, including what the ‘extreme vetting’ promised by President Donald Trump entails, remain unclear.

On an official visit to Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull endorsed the Manus Island detention centre closing by the end of the year. Neither he nor PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill gave further information on the process for the closure. Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton later clarified that refugees not accepted by the US would be settled in PNG and non-refugees would be returned to their home countries.

Amnesty International released a report accusing Spanish company Ferrovial and its Australian subsidiary Broadspectrum of failing to meet human rights obligations in running Australia’s offshore processing centres. Broadspectrum’s $2.5 billion contract with the Australian government ends in October.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled against fully disclosing many documents on Australia’s asylum seeker boat turnback operations, sought by The Guardian under freedom of information laws. Some previously classified documents were released during the legal proceedings.