'Grave fears': Albanese government faces legal action over Australians detained in Syria. By Jessica Bahr, SBS News

International aid organisation Save the Children is acting as a litigation guardian for Australians detained in Syria, describing the camps as the "worst place in the world to be a child".

Legal action has been launched against the federal government in a "last resort" effort to repatriate Australian women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps.
Mat Tinkler, CEO of international aid organisation Save the Children, said the legal proceedings would seek to repatriate around 40 children and their mothers from Syrian camps to Australia.

'Grave fears': Albanese government faces legal action over Australians detained in Syria. By Jessica Bahr, SBS News

Immigration detention and human rights, Australian Human Rights Commission

As of 31 January 2023, there were 1061 people in immigration detention facilities. A further 516 people, 146 of whom are children, were living in the community after being approved for residence determination. 10, 728 Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals, 1334 of whom are children, were living in the community after being granted a Bridging Visa E.

Immigration detention and human rights, Australian Human Rights Commission

UN refugee chief condemns Australia’s offshore detention regime and slogans like ‘stop the boats’, The Guardian by Ben Doherty

Speaking at the University of Melbourne’s Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Grandi said: “Far too often, rich countries have a myopic approach to global forced displacement and population movements, focusing overwhelmingly on border controls.”

Grandi said governments rarely responded strategically to the arrival of significant numbers of people forced to move.

“They are seen as either someone else’s problem, or something unmanageable to deal with when it reaches domestic borders or shores. The reality is that simple slogans like ‘stop the boats’ are no more effective a solution to this challenge than those that say ‘let them all in’.”

UN refugee chief condemns Australia’s offshore detention regime and slogans like ‘stop the boats’, The Guardian by Ben Doherty

How to go about achieving better immigration policy and decision-making By Peter Hughes, Pearls & Irritations

The construction of the Department of Immigration and Border protection (2014-2017) and Department of Home Affairs (2017-) and Australian Border Force (2015) was based on the explicit message that immigration was no longer a nation-building operation, but a junior part of a threat mitigation organisation. The cult of the border and Operation Sovereign Borders ruled supreme. There was more talk about the importance of guns for Australian Border Force members than client service.

How to go about achieving better immigration policy and decision-making By Peter Hughes, Pearls & Irritations

Thousands of Australian visa decisions may be affected by high court ruling, experts warn. By Paul Karp, The Guardian

A majority of judges of the high court found that home affairs department decisions in line with the 2016 instruction not to send cases to the minister unless they met subjective criteria were not consistent with the Migration Act, which gives the power to intervene to the minister “personally”.

Thousands of Australian visa decisions may be affected by high court ruling, experts warn. By Paul Karp, The Guardian

We provided health care for children in immigration detention. This is what we found, The Conversation

While the last children were released from locked detention at the end of 2018, Australian law and policy still mandate detention for children arriving without visas. While the government refers to “held” or “locked” “detention”, to be plain, these children were imprisoned for seeking asylum.

We have just published a study describing the health of asylum-seeker children who experienced detention attending our Refugee Health Clinic over the past ten years.

Our team has been seeing refugee children for more than 20 years. We have extensive experience in refugee health, forensic medicine and child development, but nothing prepared us for the complexity of looking after these children.

We provided health care for children in immigration detention. This is what we found, The Conversation

Female judges in Afghanistan seek resettlement, Patricia Karvelas & Dr Elizabeth Biok, ABC RN Breakfast

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, hundreds of men were released from prison

Many had been sentenced by women judges, who worried about their safety applied for resettlement overseas. A number of women and their families have made it to Australia but many are still waiting to hear if they will be allowed to come here.

Guest:Dr Elizabeth Biok, Secretary General, International Commission of Jurists - Australia 

Female judges in Afghanistan seek resettlement, Patricia Karvelas & Dr Elizabeth Biok, ABC RN Breakfast

Almost 90% of children brought from Nauru suffered physical health problem – study, by Ben Doherty, The Guardian

Nearly nine in 10 children brought from offshore processing on Nauru to Australia were suffering physical health conditions, including malnutrition and dental disease, while almost 80% reported one or more mental health symptoms, new research has revealed.

Nearly half – 45% – had reported suicidal ideation, a suicide attempt, or self-harm.

Almost 90% of children brought from Nauru suffered physical health problem – study, by Ben Doherty, The Guardian

It’s time Labor ended cruel refugee visa ‘limbo’, By Prof John Minns, City News Canberra

“I didn’t think anything could be worse than the five long years on Nauru, but honestly, the life in Australia where we have no hope of a future is killing us, slowly,” a refugee mother tells John Minns.

This time last year, Sahar Ghasemi was a happy young woman. Like thousands of others around Australia she was starting university. 

She had won a scholarship to pay her fees for an arts/law degree. Seven weeks into her first semester, she turned 18. Then she was disenrolled – her visa doesn’t allow her to study in Australia after that age. 

It’s time Labor ended cruel refugee visa ‘limbo’, By Prof John Minns, City News Canberra

‘Stop the boats’: Sunak’s anti-asylum slogan echoes Australia’s harsh policy. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian

“Stop the boats.” The white-on-red slogan on Rishi Sunak’s podium on Tuesday was – word for word – the slogan used by Tony Abbott to win the Australian prime ministership a decade ago.

To Australian audiences, so much of the rhetoric emerging from the UK over its small boats policy is reminiscent of two decades of a toxic domestic debate.

’Stop the boats’: Sunak’s anti-asylum slogan echoes Australia’s harsh policy. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian

Morrison’s boat turnback blitz on election day was his final act of political bastardry: Crikey. By Michael Bradley

It’s perfectly fitting that Scott Morrison’s final official act as prime minister should have been one of pure self-interested political bastardry at the expense of vulnerable people. Stick that on his headstone — it’s all he deserves.

Instructing Border Force to publicise the turnback of an asylum seeker boat from Sri Lanka was transparently revolting, but will there be consequences? ……………

Morrison’s boat turnback blitz on election day was his final act of political bastardry: Crikey. By Michael Bradley

Refugees resettled in New Zealand from Australia to be permanently banned from returning: The Guardian Paul Karp and Tess McClure

The home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, revealed on Tuesday that Australia will prevent the resettlement deal for 450 refugees from becoming a “back door” by stopping would-be travellers at the border.

In an interview with Radio National Andrews struggled to explain how such a ban would be enforced, after home affairs department officials warned in March legislation would probably be required.

Refugees resettled in New Zealand from Australia to be permanently banned from returning: The Guardian Paul Karp and Tess McClure

Australia to take in 16,500 more refugees from Afghanistan at cost of $666 million. By Stephen Dziedzic and Annika Burgess, ABC News

It's the most significant, one-off increase to Australia's humanitarian program since Tony Abbott offered an additional 12,000 places to Syrian and Iraqi refugees over two years in 2015, after catastrophic conflict in the region.

However, it will still not bring the annual humanitarian uptake to the same level it was before the pandemic, in 2018-19, when the government had a target of 18,750 places.

Australia to take in 16,500 more refugees from Afghanistan at cost of $666 million. By Stephen Dziedzic and Annika Burgess, ABC News

The government’s nine-year wait to accept New Zealand’s offer of refugee resettlement is yet another stain on Australia’s soul. By Rachel Withers, The Monthly

The Morrison government has finally accepted New Zealand’s offer to resettle some of the refugees stuck in Australia’s torturous immigration system – nine long, cruel and pointless years after it was first made. Under the three-year agreement, announced by the two governments today, 450 refugees (150 per year) will be settled in New Zealand, with priority given to about 100 people still on Nauru. This deal is objectively good news (a “blessed, belated relief” as Greens immigration spokesperson Nick McKim put it), although, as Asylum Seeker Resource Centre advocacy director Jana Favero notes, there are still more than 500 other detainees left in limbo. But several questions must be asked here. Why did it take so many years for the government to take up this simple, humanitarian, moral option? Why is it happening now? And who will be held accountable for the needless suffering, the years lost, the lives destroyed, and the billions in wasted costs that occurred thanks to the government’s cynical delay? When it comes to Australia’s offshore detention regime, it’s long been difficult to shake the feeling that the cruelty is the point.

The government’s nine-year wait to accept New Zealand’s offer of refugee resettlement is yet another stain on Australia’s soul. By Rachel Withers, The Monthly

Morrison government finally accepts deal with New Zealand to resettle refugees. By Michelle Grattan, The Conversation

Andrews was anxious to stress the government’s tough border policy had not changed. No one who came illegally by boat would ever be allowed to settle here, she said.

“This arrangement does not apply to anyone who attempts an illegal maritime journey to Australia in the future,” she said.

“Anyone who attempts to breach our borders will be turned back or sent to Nauru.”

Morrison government finally accepts deal with New Zealand to resettle refugees. By Michelle Grattan, The Conversation