Weekly media wrap - 13 January 2018

A refugee on Nauru has been waiting for over a year to be transferred from Australia’s offshore immigration centre on Nauru for medical treatment. Doctors have warned that the refugee presents a ‘medical emergency’, but are concerned that he has now become ‘too sick to transfer’ because he may never be well enough to return to Nauru. The Australian Border Force has not made a decision on the refugee’s transfer despite Nauruan authorities twice approving his transfer.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spent $100,000 to host a tour for six European journalists and a think tank researcher to showcase Australia's approach to immigration policy. The tour focused on multiculturalism and refugee policy in Australia, and included briefings with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to discuss Operation Sovereign Borders.

Israel announced that people predominantly from Eritrea and Sudan whose applications for asylum fail must leave the state within three months with a lump sum cash payment or they could be imprisoned. Under this program, thousands of people are reportedly being offered nearly $4,500 and a plane ticket if they leave the country by March. The UNHCR appealed to Israel to halt this policy of relocating Eritreans and Sudanese to sub-Saharan Africa.

Japan is limiting asylum seekers’ right to work in an effort to respond to a system of ‘back-door immigration’. These changes to Japan’s refugee system are reportedly likely to increase the numbers of those in detention centres.

Weekly media wrap - 10 January 2018

The Australian Treasury reported that border policies cost $4 billion in 2016–17. The Australian Financial Review reported that this figure comprised $1.57 billion for detention within Australia, $1.08 billion for offshore centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and $1.06bn on border enforcement. As a result, the yearly cost of holding one person in onshore detention in 2017-18 was $346,178.

At end 2017, according to the new home affairs department, there were 1301 people in onshore detention facilities, including 988 in detention on the mainland and 313 on Christmas Island. There are a further 339 people on Nauru and 801 people in Papua New Guinea (of which 616 have been recognised as refugees).

In 2017, 171,802 people arrived in Europe by sea, around half the number of 2016. The International Organization for Migration reported 3116 people dead or missing in the Mediterranean, the fourth consecutive year of over three thousand deaths.

Weekly media wrap - 26 December 2017

Australia forcibly returned a Tamil asylum seeker, known as Rajah, to Sri Lanka without his protection claim being considered. This was a result of not meeting the government's October deadline to apply for refugee status. Rajah is the first asylum seeker to be returned by Australia under this new rule, which was announced by immigration minister Peter Dutton in May. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned Australia’s decision to forcibly return asylum seekers to their homelands without assessing their protection claims.

Tensions remain high on Manus Island as locals protested the new Australian-built refugee accommodation facilities near Lorengau. Local landowners, angry about the facilities being built on their customary land, blocked the gates of refugee accommodation, cutting off food supplies and medical facilities while also preventing refugees from leaving and staff from entering the facility. Two refugees were attacked, and others have been threatened with violence if they leave the facility. The refugees were forcibly moved to the new facilities near Lorengau following the closure of the previous decommissioned detention centre in November.

The first tranche of Central American refugees arrived in Australia as part of the refugee deal swap with the United States. The 30 refugees, consisting of seven families, are understood to have fled gang-related violence in El Salvador. They underwent several months of assessment by the immigration department prior to arriving in Australia. Under the deal, Australia agreed to take Central American refugees currently located in US-run refugee camps in Costa Rica in exchange for the US taking refugees from Australian offshore detention centres.

Ali Dorani, an Iranian cartoonist also known as Eaten Fish, who was detained on Manus Island for over four years, was offered refuge in Northern Europe. Through his cartoons, Dorani has been instrumental in alerting the world to the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in detention on Manus Island.

Refugee activists blocked and interrupted operations at Melbourne’s container port, protesting against Australia’s refugee detention regime. Protesters, some of whom suspended themselves over the port’s entries, carried banners reading ‘SOS Manus’ and ‘All refugees in detention are political prisoners’. Traffic was suspended and some of the protesters are expected to be charged with transport offences.

Weekly media wrap - 16 December 2017

Nearly 200 refugees on Nauru and Manus Island were accepted for resettlement in the USA.  The refugees, mainly from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, form the second cohort to gain resettlement under the US deal. Refugee advocates expect the group to fly out in early 2018. Iranians, who form the largest number of refugees on both Nauru and Manus, have been suspended from entering the US following the reinstatement of Donald Trump’s travel ban. The ban excludes entry into the US by nationals from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton refuted claims by refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island of threats by locals. Dutton described the claims as ‘complete nonsense’, despite a video showing one local wielding a metal implement and shouting ‘I will kill you’ outside a transit centre in Lorengau.

Following the release of this video footage, the presidents of Australia’s top medical colleges sent a letter to Peter Dutton, expressing their concern for the health of asylum seekers and refugees on the island. The letter, which represents the concerns of 61,500 doctors, called for improved transparency on health care services, provision of medication, and creation of a mental health service.

Australia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), thereby consenting to be legally bound to the treaty. Under OPCAT, which advances the 1985 United Nations Convention against Torture, Australia is obliged to allow independent inspections of all places of detention onshore. Inspection of Australia’s offshore detention centres is not an obligation.

Weekly media wrap - 11 December 2017

On Manus Island, 60 refugees are being transferred to the Papua New Guinea capital, Port Moresby, for interviews with United States officials as part of the Australia–United States resettlement deal. None of those slated for interview originate from countries banned from the United States by President Trump’s executive order.

In Nauru, refugees seeking to benefit from the Australia–United States resettlement deal have been told that they must separate permanently from partners and children, according to The Guardian. As the United States prefers to accept single refugees rather than families for resettlement, a number of refugees are forced to choose between resettlement and being with their families.

The High Court of Australia heard arguments that fast-track procedures for asylum claims in country are incompatible with asylum seekers’ procedural fairness. The fast-track process, introduced in 2014, includes a review by the immigration assessment authority (IAA), instead of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

In Geneva, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination released it periodic report on Australia, criticising the ‘desperate and dangerous conditions’ in offshore centres producing ‘severe human rights violations’. The Committee further found that Australia exercises effective control over the centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, and is thus bound by international human rights law.

The United States withdrew from the compact on migration, a process which aims to improve ways of handling global flows of migrants. Citing national sovereignty, the Trump Administration withdrew from discussions on the Global Compact on Migration, to be held next week.

Weekly media wrap - 1 December 2017

The situation on Manus Island for asylum seekers who were removed from the decommissioned detention centre continues in Australian media and has been reported on in international media. In an open letter signed by 18 current and former heads of peak medical bodies and royal colleges of medicine, clinicians said they were ‘deeply concerned’ about the ongoing physical and mental health of the men removed from the detention centre on Manus Island. The group have offered to provide health checks to men in need of medical care, and called on the Australian Government to facilitate their travel to Papua New Guinea.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton reportedly did not accept requests from Australia's peak medical body, the Australian Medical Association, to send a team to assess the health of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island.  Médecins Sans Frontières was also not permitted to access to the accommodation and medical clinic, despite having been approved entry by PNG’s immigration department.  

Christian leaders demonstrated in Sydney to protest against Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island. This protest follows a day after thousands of people gathered across Australia to call for the Australian Government to end offshore detention.

Around 10 case management staff from the company JDA Wokman who were contracted to work with refugees on Manus Island were told to leave the island after a protest at one of the refugee accommodation centres. Manus Province’s police commander said the protest was by landowners linked to the company Peren Investments.

Around 70 refugees currently on Nauru, mainly single men from Pakistan and Afghanistan and some single women, were reportedly accepted for resettlement in the United States. Up to 90 refugees are expected to be accepted in this round of resettlement offers.

This week the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination undertook a two-day review of Australia, asking government representatives to explain progress in promoting racial equality and tackling racism, which included the situation of asylum seekers and refugees amongst other topics.

In international news, Pope Francis visited Myanmar and Bangladesh this week. Pope Francis acknowledged Bangladesh in extending humanitarian care to more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees who have crossed the border in recent months, but he was criticised for not adequately raise awareness of the crisis while in Myanmar. Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding for the return home of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh.

Weekly media wrap - 25 November 2017

Papua New Guinea police and immigration authorities removed by force all asylum seekers and refugees from the decommissioned Manus Island detention centre. Video footage showed immigration officials using long metal poles to threaten and hit the men, who had refused to leave the facility due to safety concerns. Many of the men reported that officials had intentionally damaged their belongings during the removal. Papua New Guinea police said all men were cleared from the camp without violence. The Guardian reported that up to 60 men were left without a place to stay, because new accommodation in the three alternative centres that refugees and asylum seekers were sent to is either not ready or full.

Some asylum seekers and refugees were arrested during the removal, including Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, who had regularly reported from the camp. Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance Chief Executive Paul Murphy called the arrest an ‘egregious attack on press freedom’. The men were later released. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was ‘pleased ... that busloads of people [were] leaving Manus and complying with the directions of the PNG authorities’. Immigration minister Peter Dutton stated that the men on Manus ‘[had] trashed the facility’ and that ‘under no circumstance will these people be coming to Australia’.

Earlier in the week, UNHCR said the situation on Manus was a ‘man-made and entirely preventable humanitarian crisis’ and described it as a ‘damning indictment’ of Australia's offshore detention policy. Twelve former Australians of the Year called for the Prime Minister to allow medical professionals access to Manus, after the Australian Medical Association voted unanimously that access to independent doctors should be granted. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that New Zealand and Australian officials had started discussions on screening processes for refugees on Manus, but Prime Minister Turnbull maintained that his priority was the existing US resettlement deal.

On Nauru, a Rohingya refugee living in offshore detention was seriously injured in a motorbike crash, suffering life-threatening head injuries. Dr Barri Phatarfod, from Doctors for Refugees, said that he needed an immediate medical evacuation out of Nauru. Australia's immigration department was deciding whether or not to grant the evacuation.

The Australian Government's contract with Canstruct – a Queensland construction firm replacing Broadspectrum to provide garrison and welfare services on Nauru – was updated on the government's Austender website, revealing taxpayers will pay $385 million over the next 12 months to maintain offshore processing on the island.

Australian Border Force officials confirmed that the Christmas Island detention centre will shut down within seven months. The centre’s closure was flagged in the 2015 federal budget papers.

Weekly media wrap - 18 November 2017

Over a fortnight since the closure of Australia’s Manus Island detention centre, more than 300 men remain in the facility, refusing to move to Lorengau due to safety concerns. Although threats to use force were retracted, immigration officials continued a push to remove the men, with water supplies destroyed and makeshift shelters torn down. 

In response to New Zealand’s offer to resettle 150 refugees from Manus Island, immigration minister Peter Dutton indicated the move could harm Australia-New Zealand relations. In a shift in position, a spokesperson for New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern replied that the move would only happen with the cooperation of the Australian government. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the deal as a ‘marketing opportunity’ for people smugglers, but said his government may consider it once the US resettlement deal is complete. Refugee supporters in New Zealand advocated for their government to skip talks with Australia and complete the deal, while UNHCR urged Australia to take up the offer.  

Jacinta Ardern announced that the New Zealand government would spend $2.7 million on essential services for refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. Peter Dutton criticised the move, arguing that the money would be better spent elsewhere.     

Protests against the situation on Manus Island continued, with members of the Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance barricading the entrance to Peter Dutton’s Brisbane office. Additionally, two men were charged with malicious damage and hindering police following a protest outside a Liberal Party fundraising event. 

Weekly media wrap - 15 November 2017

Approximately 600 men remain without power or running water in the now-closed Manus Island detention centre, refusing to relocate to alternative accommodation due to safety concerns. In an interview with 3AW radio, Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton alluded to the possibility of a conflict between these men and Papua New Guinea police, stating that he was discussing with authorities how to proceed if the men stayed on. Meanwhile, PNG’s Supreme Court dismissed an application to restore key services to the detention centre.

UNHCR’s head of protection, Volker Turk, expressed concerns about the closure of the Manus Island centre. At a press briefing in Geneva, Turk called on Australia and PNG to ‘find ways and means to resolve the current tensions peacefully’. Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the UNHCR stated from Manus Island that the alternative accommodation provided for refugees was inadequate, with insufficient healthcare, running water and electricity. In related news, the UN Human Rights Committee published a report urging the Australian government to immediately bring the detainees in its offshore processing facilities to safety.

Protests against the situation on Manus Island took place across the country. Five people from the activist group Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance were charged with trespassing after climbing the Sydney Opera House to display pro-refugee banners on Thursday. In Melbourne, a large pro-refugee protest blocked the intersection on Spring Street at Bourke Street on Friday. 

Weekly media wrap - 6 November 2017

This week, Australian media focused heavily on the closure of immigration detention facilities on Manus Island. Essential services including electricity, food and water were cut off and the centre staff, including service provider personnel, have reportedly left the facilities.

More than 600 asylum seekers and refugees are remaining in the former detention facilities, refusing to move to accommodation in Lorengau because of safety concerns. UNHCR inspected two of the alternate accommodation facilities, and reported that one – West Lorengau Haus – is not ready for detainees to transition.

The United Nations human rights commission denounced the Australian Government for withdrawing support to former Manus Island detainees, and criticised Australia’s offshore refugee processing as ‘unsustainable, inhumane and contrary to its human rights obligations’. The commission called on the Australian Government to immediately provide protection, food, water and other basic services. Meanwhile, rallies in support of the detainees on Manus Island were held in Canberra and Brisbane on Friday and in Melbourne and Sydney on Saturday.

On Friday, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection released a statement addressing what they described as ‘significant misreporting’ on the situation on Manus Island, saying that the department’s staff no longer had authority to remain on the PNG Naval Base. The department said it had assisted its PNG counterpart for seven months to decommission the centre and to provide detainees with information about their options.

This week, New Zealand reiterated an offer to the Australian Government to settle 150 refugees from the immigration detention centres on Nauru and PNG, as a one-off intake that would be within New Zealand’s refugee quota.

A report presented to the UN general assembly identified that Australia’s ‘push-backs’ of asylum seeker boats are illegal under international law and ‘may intentionally put lives at risk’. The report focuses on government responses to worldwide flows of migrants across borders.

Weekly media wrap - 3 November 2017

In the lead-up to the closure of the Manus Island Processing Centre on 31 October, the Australian Government issued notices to asylum seekers detained there warning that water, food and power would soon be cut. The government has offered certified refugees accommodation in Lorengau or a transfer to Nauru while they wait for the outcomes of their resettlement applications to the USA. However, detained asylum seeker and journalist Behrouz Boochani stated that many asylum seekers fear for their safety at Lorengau. Meanwhile, a total of 606 asylum seekers are refusing to move from the Manus Island Processing Centre and lawyers including Ben Lomai are planning to ask the PNG Supreme Court to intervene in the closure and stop food and water services being cut off. 

Law firm Maurice Blackburn will file a new class action against Peter Dutton on grounds of unlawful detention with the lead plaintiff being a boy who was born in Darwin and detained on Christmas Island with his asylum seeker parents. Lawyers estimate that thousands of asylum seekers are eligible to join the lawsuit. This comes after the Turnbull Government settled a $70 million payout to 2000 asylum seekers detained on Manus Island last month.

Weekly media wrap - 25 October 2017

Refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island were notified that all services – including food, sanitation and water – would be cut off after 31 October when the Manus Island detention centre closes. Papua New Guinea Immigration and Citizenship Service has found alternative accommodation in Manus Province for the detainees, but refugees fear clashes with locals.

As Australian Government contractors prepare to leave Manus Island, the Papua New Guinean government contracted IHMS – the healthcare provider for Australia’s offshore processing regime – to remain beyond the 31 October deadline. As services will no longer be provided at the detention centre, asylum seekers and refugees were being assisted to self-manage their medications during the transition – a move some health professionals labelled risky given the high prevalence of mental health issues.

The UNHCR urged Australia to take responsibility for the situation in Papua New Guinea, which it labelled an ‘imminent humanitarian crisis’. The refugee agency expressed serious concerns about detainee health, welfare and security, following visits to the island last month.

The federal government awarded an Australian civil engineering firm a six-month contract worth more than $8 million to provide welfare and garrison services to the Nauru detention centre. Canstruct International Pty Ltd will take on the role next week from Broadspectrum, who announced last year it was abandoning its work in offshore detention. Human rights groups accused Canstruct – which has no experience in refugee services – of profiting from the suffering of people fleeing persecution.

Australian Government officials appearing before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva were questioned about Australia's human rights record. One committee member described Operation Sovereign Borders and Australia’s offshore processing of asylum seekers as ‘shocking’. Australia was elected unopposed to the UN Human Rights Council earlier in the week.

Weekly media wrap - 17 October 2017

Immigration minister Peter Dutton told 2GB radio that the government had cut off welfare payments to 71 asylum seekers after they failed to lodge claims for Australian protection by 1 October. Asylum Seeker Resource Centre CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis said that the centre’s lawyers would challenge the legality of the move. He added that he was worried that due to the deadline, claims had been rushed and might therefore be rejected by the government. 

Asylum seekers held on Manus Island sent a letter to PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neil asking PNG authorities to oppose Australia’s plans to resettle them in surrounding PNG communities and instead help them relocate to ‘safe’ countries. This comes after a note allegedly appeared in the Manus Island Processing Centre stating that asylum seekers in the US resettlement process were able to apply for transfer to Nauru, which was taken as a sign by Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul that Australia had no faith in the US deal. The Manus Island Processing Centre is due to close on 31 October. 

Weekly media wrap - 9 October 2017

Immigration minister Peter Dutton reiterated his description of the first tranche of refugees to be transferred from Manus Island to the United States as ‘economic refugees’. On Sydney radio, Dutton claimed that many of those who ended up in the island camps had not come from war-ravaged areas but were instead seeking economic advantage.

US President Trump’s administration will accept 45,000 refugees in the next financial year, down from almost 85,000 in FY2016. Refugee advocates say that this lower limit ignores growing humanitarian crises around the world that are causing people to flee their countries in greater numbers, and represents a departure from US global leadership.

The Rohingya crisis continues as the UN warns of cholera risk. A boat carrying Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh capsized and at least 12 people, most of them children, drowned. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that people smugglers have begun targeting distressed Rohingya Muslims fleeing what the UN describes as a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

Weekly media wrap - 6 October 2017

A 32-year-old Sri Lankan asylum seeker who was detained on Manus Island was found dead in the grounds of Lorengau Hospital on 2 October. Manus Island Police Commander David Yapu has called it a suicide. Shamindan Kanapadhi, another detainee and a friend of the man, said that his friend had not been given adequate care after cutting his own neck three days before. The death is the second on Manus Island in the past two months.

The Australian Government will cut off the welfare payments of hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived by boat between 2008 and 2013. These asylum seekers may also be deported now that 1 October, the cut-off date to apply for protection visas, has passed. The immigration department website now reads that those who did not apply are ‘expected to depart Australia’ and risk being detained and removed from Australia if they do not comply. As of 29 September, about 500 asylum seekers still had not applied for protection.

Fifty-four refugees left Manus Island and Nauru for the USA, under the resettlement deal agreed upon by the Obama administration and the Turnbull Government. The US government will resettle the refugees across the country in states including Texas, Georgia and Oregon.

Weekly media wrap - 25 September 2017

Fifty-four men, refugees currently on Manus Island and Nauru are to be permanently resettled in the United States, as part of the Australian government’s deal with the United States struck in November 2016. The refugees on Manus Island, who come from Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, are expected to fly to the United States this week.

More than 2000 people remain in Manus Island and Nauru and 1783 of those have been found to be refugees.  In both islands, refugees who applied for resettlement in the United States remain uncertain of their prospects. Daily protests are continuing on Manus Island.

Liberal MP, Russell Broadbent, has publicly criticised the government’s asylum seeker policies. Mr Broadbent delivered a critical assessment of successive governments' detention of refugees offshore, predicting an imminent ‘tipping point’ in what the public would accept.

The Australian government has faced criticism over settlement packages offering thousands of dollars to Rohingya refugees in offshore detention centres as inducements to return to Myanmar. Guardian Australia reported that up to seven Rohingya return to Myanmar from Manus Island.

Australia has been urged to pressure Cambodia, a regional refugee resettlement partner, to halt the ‘imminent return’ of 29 Montagnard refugees to Vietnam where they could face persecution. The Montagnards are part of the hundreds that fled Vietnam in 2014 and 2015. 

An asylum seeker will stand trial at the County Court of Victoria after he allegedly set fire to a Melbourne bank.

Weekly media wrap - 20 September 2017

Immigration minister Peter Dutton stated that approximately 200 asylum seekers held at the Manus Island detention centre will be moved to an ‘alternative place of detention’ in Papua New Guinea after 31 October. This will include those whose refugee status applications have been denied, and those from countries to which they cannot be forcefully deported.

Dutton also introduced a bill to Parliament on Wednesday that would see phones and other items deemed to pose a ‘risk’ prohibited inside detention centres. This comes after a February Federal Court injunction that stopped immigration officers confiscating detainees’ mobile phones.

An Afghan asylum seeker will have his case reviewed after the full Federal Court found that the Refugee Review Tribunal (now known as the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) had denied the man a protection visa on the basis of incorrect facts. The Court heard evidence that the tribunal used templates, or cut and pasted paragraphs from other asylum seeker applications, in its determination of the man’s case. It is believed that this practice has occurred on several occasions.

The NSW Supreme Court rejected the legal case filed by eight families of asylum seekers who were killed and injured when their boat smashed into Christmas Island in December 2010. The families had argued that the government failed to fulfil its duty of care by intercepting arrivals.

Weekly media wrap - 11 September 2017

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced a $600,000 package to support asylum seekers in the state who have been moved to a final departure Bridging E Visa. The package will provide accommodation and basic living costs for more than 100 asylum seekers who will lose federal income and housing support under the new visa.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Cameron Macaulay approved a $70 million compensation settlement to be paid to current and former detainees of Manus Island for their illegal detention in dangerous conditions. The law firm that ran the class action, Slater and Gordon, aims to have compensation paid before the detention centre closes at the end of October. Immigration minister Peter Dutton admitted no culpability, stating that ‘settlement is not an admission of liability in any regard’.

In Myanmar, Rohingya insurgents declared a month-long ceasefire, urging the government to reciprocate. The ceasefire comes after weeks of violence which has caused more than 270,000 refugees from the Rohingya Muslim community to flee to Bangladesh. 

Weekly media wrap - 4 September 2017

In a radio interview with Alan Jones on 2GB, immigration minister Peter Dutton defended the introduction of ‘final departure Bridging E Visa’, claiming that people were ‘ripping the system off’. Meanwhile, Australian Greens senator Nick McKim stated that his party was looking into how to reverse the decision to create the new visa in the Senate.  

Dutton also reported to the Nine Network this week that Indonesian authorities had found a vessel holding 33 asylum seekers en route to Australia or New Zealand. He labelled the finding a ‘really significant wake-up call’ that showed that Australia had to remain vigilant.

Over 100 asylum seekers were moved from the Manus Island Detention Centre to Port Moresby. They were told that the move was so that they could receive specialist treatment for medical conditions, but some are worried that it is part of the government’s efforts to close the centre by 31 October. Ben Moghimi, a moved Iranian refugee, fears that he and the other patients will be left in Port Moresby if the centre closes.

A Rohingya insurgency continues in Rakhine state, in Myanmar’s west. Since 25 August , tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have attempted to cross into Bangladesh, as Myanmar troops have fired upon them and Bangladeshi authorities have turned them away. 

Weekly media wrap - 28 August 2017

Leaked government documents revealed the Department of Immigration and Border Protection will move up to 100 Australia-based asylum seekers onto a new visa – a final departure Bridging E Visa – that removes their income and housing support. The changes affect asylum seekers who were transferred to Australia from offshore detention for medical treatment. Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said the move was ‘consistent with the principle that anybody who arrives by boat to our shores won’t be settled in Australia’. Greens Leader Richard Di Natale said the party was seeking advice about whether the decision could be overturned when the Senate returns in a week's time, while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten labelled the move a ‘new low’.

Papua New Guinea's new government told the Australian Government it will not be able to walk away from asylum seekers currently held at Manus Island at the end of October. Newly sworn-in PNG Attorney-General Davis Steven broke the news to Australia’s High Commissioner, explaining that his government had not agreed to a 31 October closure.

Also on Manus Island, doubts emerged about who will replace International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) – the international medical company contracted to look after refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island – when their contract ends on 31 October. Senior staff at IHMS are allegedly concerned that no handover process has commenced.

The president of the Australian Medical Association said Australia has an ethical and legal obligation to bring three pregnant refugees being refused terminations on Nauru to Australia. The comments came after The Guardian Australia revealed that more than 50 people currently held on Nauru – including the three pregnant women – are being denied overseas medical transfers despite doctors’ recommendations.