Monthly Wrap May 2026

In the community

An asylum seeker, who had waited 13 years for an invitation to apply for permanent residence, was killed in Sydney on the same day that his visa invitation was issued. Doctors in Sydney have expressed alarm at the number of asylum seekers who are ineligible for Medicare, causing health complications that could have been avoided with early access to a GP.

In detention

Due to the number of escapes under MTC’s management, the contractor introduced a new policy that all detainees will be handcuffed while off site. The Saturday Paper published an account of the worsening conditions in detention under MTC.

In PNG

The owner of a PNG hotel that houses refugees who were sent there under Australia’s offshore system, claims his business is owed $11 million in unpaid rent.

International

As the war in Sudan enters its third year, Al Jazeera published an account of the situation people there are experiencing. More than 250 Rohingya refugees were feared drowned after a boat sank in the Andaman sea. The UNHCR estimates around 900 Rohingya people drowned at sea during 2025, totalling around 5,000 drownings in the past decade. FIFA announced that an exiled Afghanistan women’s football team will be permitted to play in official international tournaments.

In policy

SBS World News published a long-form interview with The Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. The UNSW Kaldor Centre published its submission to Home Affairs discussion paper on the 2026-2027 humanitarian program.

New releases and events

We will Decide, Episode 3 of the new ABC series Judgment: Cases that changed Australia, available on ABC iview  

Monthly Wrap Feb 2025

In the media

Onshore detention

The Human Rights Commissioner detailed the serious consequences for women from a detention system that was designed for men. Staff at Serco, who recently lost the onshore detention contract, were advised that they would not be eligible for redundancy payments if they took up jobs at the new detention contractor, Secure Journeys. The ACCC brought price-fixing proceedings against one of the subcontractors to the new detention contractor.

Boat interceptions and offshore processing

News Corp reported that over 21,581 partner visas were issued to spouses of people who arrived by boat, when the actual figure was over 2,158. The incorrect information was repeated by other news outlets and politicians. A group of Bangladeshi men on Indonesia’s southern-most island claimed that ABF intercepted them at sea and held them on a ship for two weeks before sending them back to Indonesia. A person who previously worked on people smuggling boats explained the journey people took from China to Australia.  

International

Over 500,000 people have returned to Syria since September 2024, prompting the UN to call for states to assist the country’s rebuilding effort. Following the collapse of the Assad regime, some European countries suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians. On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, survivors urged younger generations to be alert to the dangers of intolerant attitudes to people who are different. Bulgarian border police have been accused of blocking assistance to 3 teenage asylum seekers who had become lost, and subsequently died in the winter cold. The Trump administration cancelled the Afghan resettlement program, which has left around 10,000 people in limbo even though they were already approved for resettlement due to their work with US forces. The UK government’s efforts to clear the asylum processing backlog has inadvertently contributed to a rise in homelessness as people lose their eligibility for state-supported accommodation when their asylum application has been decided.   

In policy

The UN Human Rights Committee concluded that Australia contravened its human rights obligations when it detained teenagers on Nauru. The implications of the case were detailed by Associate Professor Sarah Moulds.  

In research

The Scanlon Foundation Research Institute is calling for people with refugee experience to contribute to their study on settling in Australia.