The struggle of a Thai migrant in a remote Western Australian mining town to pass Australia's citizenship test has sparked claims the exam is too hard.
Since the test's English standards were raised in 2020, the first-time pass rate has fallen by around 10 per cent, and it is taking people more attempts to pass.
I am one of the organisers of the 100-day refugee encampment in front of the Department of Home Affairs office in Melbourne. I am a refugee from Sri Lanka, a mother of two, a disability support worker and a proud union member. My family and I are part of the community in every way, except for our visa status.
Our protest was to demand justice for the 8,500 people who, like us, have been failed by the former Coalition government’s “fast track” asylum process. We have suffered 12 years of uncertainty because of an unfair system that has now been abolished. As victims of that system, we deserve justice and visa equality.
Last Tuesday night, we packed up our encampment and held a final, peaceful rally through the streets of Melbourne. There were about 700 of us, our families, our friends and supporters.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected accusations from Beijing that his country is “plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes.”
Beijing spoke out after an Australian diplomat led a group of Western nations in making unsubstantiated claims about human rights violations in China.
Australian PM Albanese rejects Chinese claim his country is ‘plagued’ by racism. Morning Star
With asylum systems around the world facing ever-increasing backlogs and delays, it’s time for governments to rethink how they approach processing claims of people seeking safety.
Victorian police say they were forced to use capsicum spray on white supremacists after they gatecrashed a refugee rally. Organisers say the neo-Nazis chanted racist slogans, leaving many traumatised by the experience.
Neo-Nazis crash Melbourne refugee rally. SBS News (2.05 min video)
I am a lawyer and an international law scholar researching refugee cultural heritage protection. If people are forced to migrate or flee as refugees, I want to find a way for them to take their cultural objects along. I was drawn to international law because of its values. That we are all born with equal rights to life and freedom. Until I realised, we are not.
Neo-Nazis tried to disrupt refugee protesters’ 100th night demonstrating outside the Department of Home Affairs in Docklands but were pushed back by police who doused them with pepper spray. Police dispersed a black-clothed and balaclava-clad group near a refugee encampment on Tuesday night, sending them running as demonstrators cheered.
Neo-Nazis pepper-sprayed after attempting to disrupt refugee rally. By Cassandra Morgan, WA Today
The world is witnessing some of the highest levels of conflict in decades, with more than 110 armed conflicts occurring across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
The impact of these wars on children is vast and multifaceted. The trauma inflicted is enduring and will shape the rest of their lives — and by extension, the societies in which they, and we live.
As researchers who study how public policies can intervene to reduce adverse outcomes for children, we contend that wars are not bound by geography. Airstrikes terrorize children in conflict zones, while those living in the nations involved in these conflicts also experience trauma in the form of poverty, neglect, and discrimination.
With the latest escalation of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, history is again repeating itself. Lebanese citizens, primarily from Hezbollah strongholds in South Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley, are seeking refuge in Syria, a country still grappling with its own economic collapse, violence and internal strife.
While the conflict on Lebanese territory has gone on for more than a year, movements into Syria only picked up in late September 2024 as people have become more desperate to flee.
As the Year 12 final exams get underway across the country, the pressure is on for all students to perform well. But, as advocacy groups explains, the challenge is greater for refugee teenagers, who are already grappling with a new life and a new language.
Year 12 exam pressure greater for refugees (4 min audio) By Phoebe Deas & Ciara Hain, SBS News
ASRC caseworkers can confirm the majority of people held in closed detention on Nauru have recently been moved into the community, with many now struggling to afford three meals a day, clothes, drinking water and basic necessities.
Since arriving alone as an asylum seeker in Australia in 2018, Aheda Amro has been on a mission to bring the flavours of her homeland of Palestine to Melbourne. The launch of her food van 'Aheda’s Kitchen' is the result of years of determination and hard work – not just Amro’s, but that of the vast network of volunteers she has galvanised to help make her dream a reality.
Controversial Australian government contractor Paladin is suspected of abusing taxpayer funds to bribe then-Papua New Guinea police minister Jelta Wong to enable the firm to run the federal government’s offshore detention regime……….
………….The federal police are also investigating Paladin for dishonestly obtaining millions of dollars from Australian taxpayers via the Home Affairs offshore detention budget to fund suspected bribery.
The Department of Home Affairs quietly published details about its temporary humanitarian stay visas last Thursday, which offer newly arrived Palestinians the possibility of a three-year visa with access to Medicare, benefit payments and working and studying rights.
The Albanese government’s new temporary humanitarian visa pathway for Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Gaza is a welcome first step, advocates say, but they warn the three-year option to stay is not good enough for those who have no home to return to.
Asylum seekers are still calling on Labor to fulfil its election pledge and end their visa uncertainty. After thousands of refugee claims were rejected under a Coalition-era assessment scheme, a new tribunal to process appeals has opened.
Asylum seekers demand an end to over a decade of visa limbo. SBS News (Video 2:16)
Ten months ago, Ms Maraviglia moved to Cooma, in the Snowy Mountains, with her husband and two children to support his work on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project.
Seventy years after Cooma became "the home of multiculturalism in Australia", the Maraviglias are among an influx of hundreds of migrant worker families again transforming the town.
“We’re losing faith that we’re going to be rescued.”
Between May 2018 and October 2019, Paladin was penalised 5,484 times by the department, largely for failures to meet deadlines and keep records.
Brereton said sustained public interest in the Paladin saga had prompted the NACC to publish the report.
“Home Affairs’ engagement of Paladin Holdings has been the subject of media attention and this public report will assist in ‘clearing the air’ in relation to this aspect of the engagement,” he said.
NACC finds no corruption in Paladin investigation. By Dan Holmes, The Mandarin
A growing number of international students are seeking asylum each month and thousands are challenging their visa refusals in a sign the federal government’s crackdown on foreign student numbers will create trouble for other parts of the migration system.
More than 500 international students applied for asylum in August, the largest number for one month in at least six years, as a squeeze on visas drives people towards other options for staying in Australia.
Student visa desperation: Appeals blow out, asylum claims climb. By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH
But, for many of the 6,000-plus Lhotshampa refugees in Australia, the royal visit holds different significance compared to others in the Bhutanese community who are studying here or have migrated under the Skilled-Visa scheme.
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