The mass data breach, discovered by Guardian Australia in 2014, resulted in information being used, in some cases, to allegedly threaten asylum seekers, or persecute and even jail their family members.
Of the nearly 10,000 asylum seekers whose privacy was breached nearly a decade ago, those who suffered “extreme loss and damage” will each be eligible for more than $20,000 in compensation after a decision from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The people of Ballarat generously pay the family’s bills and rent. In return, Neil is a tireless volunteer for the SES and leads a crew, while Sugaa volunteers in aged care and the Ballarat Visitor Information Centre. Both are also actively involved in community committees.
Government has opened door to more permanent migrants to ease labour shortages, but campaigners say more needs to be done to protect workers on temporary visas.
The Australian government is facing renewed calls to strengthen protections for migrant workers against exploitation and abuse, after announcing it will increase permanent migration places to address ongoing skills and labour shortages across the country.
Australia told more migrants no ‘silver bullet’ for broken system. By Max Walden, Aljazeera
Zahra Joya’s moving piece reminds us that our interventions in Afghanistan created an expectation, and obligation, to support those who share our values (Women in Afghanistan are fighting an unequal war. We need your support, 6 September).
We have an obligation to Afghan women and girls. A letter from Simon Diggins in The Guardian, UK
Nearly four in five Australians (79%) would support a Royal Commission into Australia’s offshore detention policy. Less than one in 10 (9%) oppose.
Side stepping the politics of cruelty. By Julie Macken, Pearls & Irritations
A manufacturing company in Melbourne's south-east is giving migrant and refugee women a fair go, getting them on the books and helping them develop skills and a work history.
VIDEO: Manufacturer helping migrant and refugee women. ABC News
Your chest tightens, like an elephant is sitting on it. Pain streaks down your arm and you break out in a cold sweat. You feel light-headed and you're pretty sure you're having a heart attack. So when do you call an ambulance?
You might think the answer is easy: straight away, right? It's well known getting the right medical help early when you're having a heart attack can be a life or death decision.
For many people from CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) communities, however, the answer might be: hours and hours after the first symptoms strike. Our research has shown many migrants don't seek help straight away. Why do so many migrants wait so long to seek help or go to hospital after chest pains? And what can we do about it?
Nishadh Rego is on a mission to create safe spaces for his community to talk about what he calls an “important moment for Australia”.
Over the past two months, he and Khushaal Vyas have been organising information sessions and holding Instagram chats over cups of chai about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The two Sydneysiders are co-convenors of Desis for Yes, a volunteer collective of South Asian Australians supporting the Voice. Their aim? To educate their community in the lead-up to the 14 October referendum.
"We look forward to working not walking. My kids can follow their dreams," he said.
Neil's daughter Nivash was proud of the achievement.
"I realised how many children aren't with their parents because of similar situations or situations far worse than ours," she told SBS News.
"I just wish those thousands of people out there can get a happy ending like we did."
Professor Betina Szkudlarek from the University of Sydney says research shows employers don’t know what support is available if they’d like to hire refugees, or even where to find refugee candidates.
“Many employers also wrongly assume that the process will be too costly or time-consuming. They are unaware of the work of numerous support organisations that could advance their recruitment strategy, helping the company achieve its strategic objectives while supporting refugees in finding meaningful employment,” Szkudlarek says.
“Refugees bring an abundance of skills, experience and resilience, but most of all a positive attitude to make the most of the opportunity to restart their lives in Australia.” Community Corporate CEO Carmen Garcia
“Stop the Boats!” is arguably the Abbott government’s most significant and enduring legacy. A decade on, the Albanese government has abolished Temporary Protection Visas but remains committed to turn-backs, offshore processing, and mandatory detention. The website of Operation Sovereign Borders features an arrow that is turned back and around a boat, accompanied by the words “Zero Chance”.
While the boats have been stopped, the debate over the legacy and legitimacy of Australia’s deterrence measures continues. Reports that millions of dollars were paid to politicians in PNG and Nauru have renewed calls by refugee advocates for a Royal Commission into offshore processing.
So, ten years on, it’s worth revisiting the question: “Should we still stop the boats?”
The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, has accused the Morrison government of having “sat” on an explosive review of immigration detention and doing “very limited work” on alternatives, despite the review’s conclusion that detention was “failing”.
But advocates have responded to the report by the former secretary of the attorney general’s department Robert Cornall by accusing Labor of not having done enough to cut the time spent in detention.
As he neared the end of his 1,000-kilometre walk to Sydney to raise awareness for thousands of families living in limbo as they seek permanent residency, asylum seeker Neil Para and his family have been granted theirs.
The question of how to address the issue of Australian-Chinese communities is an integral component of the multicultural framework review. A number of factors – a large number of recent arrivals from the PRC, a fast-changing geopolitical dynamics featuring growing tension and hostility between the US and China, and Australia’s increasing tendency in its foreign policy to imagine China as our biggest military threat – come to bear on the current review of the multicultural framework. Much work – overall reconceptualisation, governing structure, a rethinking of policy, and the design of practical strategies – remains to be done. The government will benefit enormously by actively seeking the views of scholars, multicultural agencies and community stakeholders in updating its framework.
The report by the former secretary of the attorney general’s department, Robert Cornall, was completed in March 2020, while Dutton was still minister, and sent to the home affairs secretary, Michael Pezzullo, and Australian Border Force commissioner, Michael Outram, who both still serve in those roles.
The report found that “the immigration detention system as a whole is failing” to meet two “key principles”: to resolve people’s immigration status as quickly as possible and manage them in the community unless they pose a risk to others.
Cornall said the “generally accepted view is that long term immigration detention is damaging to the detainees’ mental health”, meaning that health services provided in detention “may be treating the symptom and not the cause”.
Stateless
A funding arrangement means that Netflix ends up taking the ABC’s scripted shows to the world, while providing a valuable second chance locally. It means you can rediscover this coruscating 2020 drama about Australia’s refugee detention regime, with co-creator Cate Blanchett in a supporting role. The multiple storylines deliver startling detail and unadorned empathy.
STATELESS: The 20 best shows to stream on Netflix right now. Craig Mathieson, The Age
Ned Kelly Emeralds, an Iranian man who has been detained for over a decade while seeking asylum, has won his appeal in the High Court of Australia, leaving open the possibility that courts could end indefinite detention by making ‘home detention’ orders. Despite this victory however, Ned’s detention continues – now in its eleventh year.
Despite High Court win for Ned Kelly Emeralds, he remains detained - Human Rights Law Centre
Refugees have certain rights under international law, but whether they can enjoy them depends on the asylum system they encounter. Too often, national systems are failing. They are inefficient for governments, which waste resources without resolving asylum claims, and they are ineffective for refugees, who are left without rights or protection.
That’s where a vital, emerging area of policy and practice comes into play: asylum capacity development. It’s about strengthening the legal, institutional and social arrangements that are put in place to meet the needs of refugees.
A new Kaldor Centre Policy Brief sheds light on what asylum capacity development is, how it should be understood and put into practice, and spells out the best-practice standards for measuring success.
PEOPLE IN ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE DETENTION
REFUGEES & PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY
BOAT TURNBACKS BY AUSTRALIA
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Migrants on work sponsorships cannot apply for permanent residence without their employer, which experts say leaves room for exploitation.
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