In the media
A refugee failed to secure, what would have been, a landmark court ruling that his detention compounded his mental ill-health. The Saturday Paper published a feature on the breadth of Australia’s people smuggling laws and how they affect people who assist others to come to Australia. Guardian Australia published a feature on the work of the Adira Centre, a specialist domestic violence centre in Sydney for women from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
International
The UN expressed alarm at allegations that Indian authorities had forced a boatload of Rohingya people back out to sea, and reported that around 427 Rohingya people drowned when two other boats capsized. The American government removed the protection status of Afghan refugees already in the USA, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. As the first lot of white South African farmers left for the USA, President Trump presented documentation that he claimed showed the persecution of Afrikaner farmers. The documentation included images from the Democratic Republic of Congo and other misrepresentations. The World Food Program cut food aid to Uganda, which is Africa’s largest host of refugees, citing a funding shortfall due to budget cuts in the USA and Europe.
In policy
The Conversation published an explainer on the mental health supports available to asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. The UNSW Kaldor Centre published a Policy Brief on the need to ensure that the new Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters specifically includes the obligation upon states to uphold the human rights of displaced people.
New releases
Belonging Nowhere, a podcast series published by SBS News.
Visas Now! Aotearoa’s response to global refugee emergencies, published by Left of the Equator.