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Last Updated: Friday 28 October 2019
Australia's immigration detention system is cruel and damaging by its very nature
28 October 2019
Yet another report has shown our system causes deep and irreparable harm, often to people who have suffered significant trauma
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The Australian Human Rights Commission’s report on the use of force in immigration detention is the latest chapter in a now familiar story of excessively harsh, punitive and degrading conditions in Australian immigration detention centres.
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Once again, we see a disregard for the rights and basic dignity of people who have sought our protection and committed no crime.
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The report lays bare the unnecessary handcuffing of women, children, people in wheelchairs, people with mental illness and no history of violent behaviour, and other people needing medical care. It confirms what our clients have been telling us: that handcuffing has become a routine practice for transfers between centres and, alarmingly, for off-site medical appointments. This includes transfers for torture and trauma counselling, in private doctors’ waiting rooms and at consultations where the very purpose of the appointment is to investigate issues such as wrist and arm injuries.
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17 October 2019
Dutton pressures the senator and former soldier whose vote he needs to repeal bill but cites no source for claim
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Peter Dutton has upped the pressure on Jacqui Lambie to pass the Coalition’s repeal of provisions facilitating medical transfers from offshore detention, claiming veterans would support the move.
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The independent senator, a former soldier in the Australian defence force and a fierce advocate for veterans, has the casting vote on the controversial legislation which is opposed by medical practitioners and human rights groups.
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On Thursday the home affairs minister said he had put a “compelling case” to Lambie on the bill but noted she wanted to wait for a Senate inquiry report due on Friday before deciding her vote.
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Peter Dutton tells Lambie that war veterans want medevac laws scrapped
17 October 2019
The 32-year-old Hazara doctor Sayed Mirwais Rohani is the 13th person to die after being transferred to Australia
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An Afghan doctor who was transferred to Australia from Manus Island for medical care has died in Brisbane.
Sayed Mirwais Rohani had been in Australia for around two years, after more than four years on Manus Island.
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The 32-year-old Hazara man is believed to have taken his own life, and is the 13th death of a person sent to Manus Island or Nauru by Australia under its offshore immigration system.
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Rohani’s father is a refugee living in the UK with his wife, and he travelled to Manus Island in 2016 seeking his son’s release to join him in the UK. The spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul, said that request was denied because Rohani was not a minor.
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Afghan man dies in Brisbane two years after medical transfer from Manus Island
Asylum seekers approved for medevac transfers detained in Port Moresby
10 October 2019
More than 50 men, including Benham Satah, who witnessed murder of Reza Barati, have been held for two months
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Asylum seekers who have been approved for medevac transfers to Australia are among 52 men who have been locked up in Port Moresby detention without access to phones or lawyers for the past two months.
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Among those detained is Benham Satah, the Kurdish Iranian man who witnessed the murder of Reza Barati in 2014, and who was allegedly about to be transferred to Australia for care.
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Two months ago Papua New Guinean authorities arrested dozens of men who had been sent by Australia for refugee detention and processing, and confiscated phones and medication.
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3 October 2019
An advocacy group claims the 'living conditions and safety' of asylum seekers in Port Moresby 'are now under threat'.
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Asylum seekers who were transferred from Manus Island to Port Moresby are being "forced into poverty", according to an advocacy group.
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Asylum seekers transferred from Manus to Port Moresby 'forced into poverty'
In recent months, dozens of asylum seekers on the island took up an offer from Papua New Guinea authorities to move to the capital, with the promise they would "continue to receive services like those currently available to them".
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But on Wednesday, the Refugee Action Coalition claimed their "living conditions and safety are now under threat".
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2 October 2019
Family who lived in town of Biloela should be released into community detention, the United Nations says
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The Tamil family fighting deportation from Australia should be released from detention on Christmas Island, the United Nations has told the federal government.
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The UN-issued interim measures say the Sri Lankan couple and their daughters should be “released into community setting arrangements or [the immigration department should] find another way to release them from detention within 30 days”, according to the family’s lawyer, Carina Ford.
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They are non-compellable but Ford said she hoped they would be “persuasive” to the immigration department and the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton.
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UN calls for Tamil family held on Christmas Island to be released
Refugee groups ‘deeply concerned’ by ‘secret report’ on resettlement of humanitarian migrants
1 October 2019
Refugee advocacy groups have reacted to the leaked findings of a ‘secret’ government report reviewing resettlement programs for humanitarian migrants in Australia with mixed emotions
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Refugee support groups are urging the Morrison government to heed the findings of a ‘secret’ government report on resettlement programs for humanitarian migrants in Australia.
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The major review exploring refugee resettlement has been kept under wraps since being commissioned last year with the Federal government refusing to release it.
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SBS News has not seen the report – but leaked details in the Sydney Morning Herald have detailed its calls to create a “more positive narrative” around refugees.
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