A joint operation between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) — Operation AEGIS — will receive millions in funding, with the government claiming it will provide safety in the community.
The funding will include $150 million for the ABF to provide additional staff in "compliance, investigations, removal and surveillance functions", and $88 million for the AFP that will include funding to investigate breaches of visa conditions.
The government will introduce laws into parliament this week which will give courts the power to strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if convicted of terrorism offences.
Dutton has made immigration and border security two of the biggest political issues since the high court decision was handed down this month, and has kept the government on the back foot with accusations it was unprepared for the ruling.
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, accused Dutton of politicising national security for his own benefit.
Alison Battisson, the director of Human Rights For All, said that “given the law says these people must be released, all the money [the government is] spending on extra-judicial monitoring would be better spent supporting them … to become functioning members of the community and overcoming the trauma of indefinite detention”.
On Wednesday, the ABC revealed that 860 visas have been approved for Palestinians with connections to Australia, and 1,739 for Israelis since October 7.
So, what do we know about the visas and is this something that's happened before?
Has Australia always given visas to people in war zones? By Georgia Roberts, ABC News
Authorities are investigating how a group of 12 people landed on a remote part of the West Australian coast after travelling by boat from Indonesia.
The ABC has confirmed Australian Border Force is yet to establish how the group got to the north-west of the Australian mainland without detection.
A group of people was detected at an isolated section of the northern Western Australian coast on Wednesday after arriving by boat, prompting Coalition accusations about resumption of dangerous boat journeys.
Guardian Australia has independently confirmed the group’s arrival, that they are now at Truscott airbase, and that ABF is planning to transfer them to Nauru. Truscott airbase in located on the Anjo Peninsula in the Kimberley.
Clare O’Neil and Anthony Albanese have spent days having to explain decisions they made.
ABC News video 2:28
Government considered releasing immigrant to end legal bid. ABC News
Numerous lawyers warned in the aftermath of the Albanese government legislation imposing conditions on the bridging visas of those released as a result of the high court’s NZYQ decision, that a challenge along those grounds was inevitable.
Australia’s political leaders need to rebuild the way we think about refugees, around the world and here at home.
As Fraser’s former minister for immigration and ethnic affairs, Ian McPhee has watched with dismay the shift in Australian public attitudes to refugees over the past two decades.
It’s not just in offshore detention centres that Australia’s cruelty to asylum seekers has been laid bare. It’s seen across the country’s immigration detention system, which is built around punishment and exploiting unfounded fears in the community. And this has been illustrated in recent revelations of police interference in the deportation decisions of the government, and in the knee-jerk reaction last week to the High Court’s decision on indefinite detention.
Behrouz joined Jo Trilling on Drive to talk about the continuing plight of refugees and the High Court ruling last week which found it was unlawful to indefinitely detain people in immigration detention.
"We should recognise that this system, that I call a dictatorship system towards refugees, damaged many people for many years."
The Home Affairs Department paid $80 million to Papua New Guinea’s government to look after the refugees left there when Australia’s offshore processing regime ended, but less than two years later that money has been spent.
Seven service providers to about 60 former Manus Island detainees are now threatening to stop looking after the men entirely, including the Pacific International Hospital, which provides mental and physical health services.
A letter from the service providers to PNG’s Chief Immigration Officer, Stanis Hulahau, threatens to stop all accommodation, transport, security, food vouchers and immigration advice to the men from November 23 if the PNG government does not pay outstanding invoices.
The letter says the providers have “grave concerns regarding the ongoing viability” of the country’s refugee humanitarian program.
“We regret the necessity of such action,” says the letter, which was dated last week but only made public on Thursday, “but the many assurances we have received of payment being imminent has not yielded any result.”
The threat comes amid a dispute between Australia’s Home Affairs Department and the PNG government over who is responsible for funding the ongoing needs of the former Manus Island refugees.
The amount paid by Australia has never previously been disclosed, but sources who have knowledge of the details but are not authorised to speak publicly confirmed it was $80 million.
The money is part of hundreds of millions of dollars questionably distributed as part of Australia’s offshore detention program, and the revelation will put more pressure on the Albanese government as it digests a scathing secret report by ex-spy chief Dennis Richardson into the Home Affairs Department’s large-scale mishandling of contracts.
This masthead [The Age/SMH] has already reported extensively on allegations of corruption in the offshore processing system, including that offshore processing contractor Paladin paid millions of dollars to a businessman who was associated with allegedly corrupt PNG officials as well as the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang.
In a statement, the Home Affairs Department said the Australian taxpayers’ money had been paid out in full by June 2022 to deal with what it called the “residual caseload” of refugees after the decade-long regional resettlement arrangement with Papua New Guinea formally ended on December 31, 2021.
The amount, which was part of a confidential agreement between the two countries, was enough to manage all the individuals in PNG to “self-sufficiency” and the “arrangement does not envisage ongoing funding”, the Home Affairs statement said.
The arrangement, made under former home affairs minister Karen Andrews, allowed “flexible budget management by PNG”, the statement said.
It was sufficient to settle people who wanted to live permanently in PNG or send others to third countries, it said.
A refugee who spent much of the past decade on Manus Island and is now living in Port Moresby said, “I think things will get much worse” if the service providers made good on their threats.
“It is getting very stressful in here,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about his situation.
“Some people are not feeling well. There are people here who are totally out of their mind, mental issues, and if they kick them out from the accommodation I don’t know where they will end up.”
Asked about Australia’s role he said: “I like Liberal because they’re not hypocrites – we know they hate us and do not want to help us. Labor is full of hypocrites. They say ‘we’re humanitarian’, but it’s been a year and we’ve got almost nothing.”
PNG official Hulahau has previously said the money from Australia had run out.
“If Australia wants the refugees to continue to remain in Papua New Guinea, then they have to fund the program, or we will shut the program and send the refugees back to Australia to manage,” he told The Guardian last month.
He has also previously denied there was any corruption in the government program. Hulahau was approached for comment about the latest threat from the service providers.
The Home Affairs statement said Australian and PNG officials were in discussions about the issue.
The hospital alone claims to be owed almost $40 million, and the seven service providers say in their letter they had not been paid since November 2022, only months after Australia says the final tranche of the funds was paid.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said it was Labor’s responsibility to fix the issue.
“Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil must act to provide the funds needed to support Australia’s refugees, even if she has to fund the service providers directly.”
A whistleblower within the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority recently claimed the residual program, the PNG Humanitarian Program, had been corrupted, prompting the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Immigration Minister, John Rosso, to order an audit of the authority’s spending.
In the space of 12 hours on Thursday, the Australian Parliament passed legislation about what remains, to the public, a largely ill-defined and unknown group of people — but variously described by some of our MPs as "hardened criminals" and "absolute animals" — in a legislative exercise alarming in its chaos and deeply concerning in its origins.
Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) is concerned about the human rights ramifications of provisions in the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) Act 2023 (the Act), which was rushed through Federal Parliament on Thursday. Several of the measures introduced by the Act are draconian and significantly encroach on people’s right to liberty.
A legal challenge to emergency legislation responding to the high court’s decision on indefinite detention is likely, with advocates warning the Albanese government the changes may be unconstitutional.
Alison Battisson, the director of Human Rights For All, and David Manne, the executive director of Refugee Legal, have both warned the changes may amount to “extrajudicial” punishment.
You have to ask whether this country will have a collective moral injury about the perpetual demonising, stigmatising and politicising of asylum seekers.
It’s gone on for decades. The often-successful exploitation of this vulnerable group for political purposes has led to ignorant claims that only Greens and crossbenchers care about human rights.
If we’re willing to imprison outsiders for life, we must ask: Who are we? Julia Baird, SMH
The Australian government claims it funded the humanitarian program in full to finalise the resettlement of all refugees in PNG or in third countries, and that those remaining are now the responsibility of the PNG government.
But PNG’s immigration authority said the resettlement of refugees has been much slower than forecast, largely delayed by Covid border closures. As a result, more refugees and asylum seekers remain dependent on Australian-funded support.
The 64 refugees and asylum seekers still held in Port Moresby are the final cohort remaining from Australia’s unlawful offshore processing regime in PNG.
“The PNG farce has gone on too long. The assurances from PNG CMO Stanis Hulahau that the interruptions to services ‘will be resolved in the very near future’ are worse than a joke. Refugees cannot live on empty promises.” Ian Rintoul
PNG refugees face eviction as all services cut. By Ian Rintoul, Refugee Action Coalition
Britain's Supreme Court has ruled that the government's scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful, dealing a crushing blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before an election expected next year.
Court rules UK government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is illegal. Reuters, ABC News
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