In the media
In Nauru, PNG and Christmas Island
Eleven people were sent to Nauru after their boat was intercepted en route to Australia. Background Briefing presented an in-depth account of the whistleblower who leaked the Nauru files to the media. An immigration official in PNG alleged that Australian funds sent for the offshore program were misappropriated. This comes as the men who remain there face further uncertainty over their accommodation and supports. The detention centre on Christmas Island is once again empty as detainees have been deported or returned to the mainland.
In Gaza
Thirty people were killed by an Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp. The Associated Press published an explainer on Egypt and Jordan’s refusal to allow Palestinians to enter their countries. The United Nations Relief Works Agency UNRWA called for an immediate ceasefire. Republicans called for Gazans to be banned from entering America.
In Court
In November the High Court will hear a challenge to indefinite detention. The case is brought by a Rohingya man and will seek to overturn the 2004 Al Kateb ruling that found a person can be indefinitely detained even when they cannot be removed from the country. Refugees who were detained by the Howard government have experienced lengthy delays in getting their compensation claims heard in court. Some have died while waiting for a hearing.
International
More than 4,000 people have been killed in Darfur amid the intensifying conflict in Sudan. The UN stated that refugees and displaced people were targeted based on their ethnicities. Meanwhile youth groups have mobilised to assist people who fled the fighting in Khartoum. The Republic of Congo was congratulated for signing up to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions aimed at ending statelessness. Canada granted protection to a Chinese activist who had spent two weeks in a Taiwanese airport transit lounge. The UK commenced flights to evacuate Afghans who had worked for the UK and then fled to Pakistan after the Taliban take-over. The German government drafted legislation to make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers and to extend the permitted detention timeframe prior to their deportation.
In policy
A review into Australia’s visa system detailed widespread exploitation by bad faith actors, which was aided by the lengthy processing times for visa classes such as protection visas. The report found that a preoccupation with the risk of people arriving by boat diverted attention away from vulnerabilities elsewhere in the visa system. The government announced an overhaul of the protection visa processing approach so as to clear the backlog. Crikey fact checked Peter Dutton’s claim that 105,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Australia since Labor came to power. The Saturday Paper published a feature on how people within the same family have different visa statuses due to Australian policy whereby people’s rights are based on the manner in which they arrived in the country, rather than the circumstances that they fled.
In research
Melbourne University’s Social Equity Institute opened bookings for their 2023 Migration, Refugees and Statelessness Interdisciplinary conference. They also hosted a webinar on how to use the Australian Research on Refugee Integration Database (ARRID) database.
New releases
Home to Biloela, a book by Priya Nadesalingham with Rebekah Holt, published by Allen and Unwin.