Suspected boat arrivals from China discovered in Arnhem Land. By Erin Parke & Andrew Greene, ABC News

The ABC has been told local workers near the Arnhem Land township of Maningrida found a group of people on Tuesday. Another two people were found the following day, who are all understood to be in custody.

Newly appointed Shadow Home Affairs Minster Andrew Hastie says if confirmed, the arrival of Chinese nationals was a demonstration of the Albanese government's "underinvestment in our border security and defence capabilities".

While not confirming or denying the latest boat arrival, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has strongly criticised the response from his opposition counterpart.

Suspected boat arrivals from China discovered in Arnhem Land. By Erin Parke & Andrew Greene, ABC News

Voters reject fear and division, now it’s time to get to work. Asylum Seeker Centre, Sydney

The Asylum Seekers Centre is calling on the Albanese government to deliver on fairness and justice for people seeking asylum by:

  • Providing access to a more meaningful safety net for people while they undergo the protection visa application process, from expanding the financial support program to ensuring all people seeking asylum have the right to work and consistent Medicare access

  • Resolving protracted protection cases and repairing fundamental flaws in the asylum system, including by offering people failed by the ‘fast track’ system a pathway to permanency

  • Increasing Australia’s humanitarian intake

  • Ending the cruel offshore detention regime for good and ensuring human rights are upheld for all

    Voters reject fear and division, now it’s time to get to work. Asylum Seeker Centre, Sydney

'The Staging Post : The Refugee Education Revolution' (A film directed by Jolyon Hoff)

This 2017 film is available to watch on Kanopy (a free on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries).

‘The Staging Post’ is a story of hope, courage and connection. Against the backdrop of the ongoing refugee crisis, this powerful, emotional and uplifting story proves that refugees are not just the problem, but can be a part of the solution as well.

The film follows Afghan Hazara refugees, Muzafar, Khadim and Tahira. Stranded in Indonesia after Australia 'stopped the boats' and facing many years in limbo, they build a community and start a school in Cisarua which inspires a refugee education revolution.

THE STAGING POST is a real-time, real-life multi-platform documentary. After watching you can follow their story on social media.

'The Staging Post : The Refugee Education Revolution' (A film directed by Jolyon Hoff)

Centre offers homeless Kiwis in Australia one-way flights home. By Danielle Mahe, ABC News

A Gold Coast charity is helping New Zealanders who find themselves homeless fly home. The charity says repatriation can be easier than finding them shelter during a housing crisis.

The New Zealand government says it is aware of the arrangements in place and is encouraging its citizens to reach out to the consulate in Sydney if they need help.

Centre offers homeless Kiwis in Australia one-way flights home. By Danielle Mahe, ABC News

Migrants learn English and find new friends at outback sewing classes. By Maddie Nixon, ABC News

Sewing and language classes are helping new immigrants learn English and find friends in Mount Isa. About 14 per cent of people living in the city speak a language other than English at home.

Organisers say language skills empower class participants with "social and economic inclusion".

Migrants learn English and find new friends at outback sewing classes. By Maddie Nixon, ABC News

‘They first come for great acts of culture’: Cate Blanchett sets up grant for displaced film-makers. By Nadia Komami, The Guardian

Authoritarian regimes “first come for great acts of culture” when they start to curtail civil liberties, Cate Blanchett warned as she launched a new grant for displaced film-makers.

The two-time Oscar winner and goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), has teamed up with the international film festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) Hubert Bals Fund to set up the Displacement Film Fund, which will support displaced film-makers or those with experience in refugee storytelling.

’They first come for great acts of culture’: Cate Blanchett sets up grant for displaced film-makers. By Nadia Komami, The Guardian

They were flown to Australia from war-torn Vietnam. Now they're back, racing against time. By Alexandra Jones, SBS News

They left Vietnam as babies. Fifty years later, they returned to search for their biological parents.

In a journey more than a decade in the making, thirteen adoptees — most from Australia — and their families cycled 284km over four days in April from the capital Ho Chi Minh City to Sóc Trăng in the far south.

Organiser Sue-Yen Luiten said: "Since 2015 — the 40th year of the end of the Vietnam War — it became evident that we as adoptees or children separated from our birth families due to the war, were running out of time to look for our families."

They were flown to Australia from war-torn Vietnam. Now they're back, racing against time. By Alexandra Jones, SBS News

Is the India-Pakistan conflict spilling over to Australia and could it get worse? By Niv Sadrolodabaee, SBS News

Given the multicultural makeup of Australia, war and conflicts overseas may impact the index.
"Different groups here, obviously still have some kind of intergenerational understanding of their identity and also the conflict in their origin country and in their homeland," Afrouz explained.
"What's going on in their homeland will definitely impact how they will react to that context, and also how they will react to their intergenerational understanding of conflict .. Obviously, all of those will impact the sense of community, trusting each other."

Is the India-Pakistan conflict spilling over to Australia and could it get worse? By Niv Sadrolodabaee, SBS News

Labor now has the political clout to reset Australia’s refugee policy. Here’s where to start. By Mary Ann Kenny, The Conversation

The new Labor government could use its strength in parliament to initiate a principled and evidence-based reset. This could include:

Foregrounding Displacement in the Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the event of Disasters. By UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

In 2027, governments are expected to adopt the world’s first-ever global treaty on the Protection of Persons in the event of Disasters — a landmark step toward strengthening international responses in a time of intensifying climate risks. Yet, the current draft of the treaty barely mentions displacement at all. Our latest Policy Brief explains why that must change — and how.

Here, co-authors UNSW Kaldor Centre's Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO and Dr Thomas Mulder discuss 'Foregrounding Displacement and Evacuations in the Proposed Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the event of Disasters'.

Foregrounding Displacement in the Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the event of Disasters. By UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

Afghan Refugees In Indonesia Protest UN, Australian Embassy Over Resettlement Delays, Afghanistan International

Hundreds of Afghan refugees staged protests on Wednesday, 14 May, in multiple Indonesian cities particularly in Jakarta gathering outside the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Australian Embassy.

They demanded urgent action on their resettlement cases. The demonstrations took place ahead of the Australian Prime Minister’s official visit to Indonesia, with protesters calling on Australia and other resettlement countries to accelerate the processing of refugee claims.

Many of the protesters, including women, men, and children, held signs and chanted slogans urging the international community to address their plight. The refugees say they have been living in limbo for more than a decade, facing prolonged uncertainty and hardship.

“We have waited over ten years for resettlement. We are living without basic rights and with no future,” said one protestor.

The refugees expressed hope that their peaceful protest would attract the attention of Australian officials and lead to tangible progress in their cases.

Afghan refugees in Indonesia have previously staged similar demonstrations, criticising the UNHCR for what they describe as neglect and a lack of transparency in the resettlement process.

Indonesia, which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, hosts thousands of asylum seekers, many of them Afghans, who await third-country resettlement with limited rights and access to services.

Afghan Refugees In Indonesia Protest UN, Australian Embassy Over Resettlement Delays, Afghanistan International

Dr Nilanthy Vigneswaran – on behalf of the ASRC

If you were seriously ill, who would you trust to make decisions about your healthcare – a doctor or a politician?

Doctors and healthcare professionals are trained to make critical decisions grounded in evidence, experience, and care for human life. Yet right now, more than 100 people held offshore in Papua New Guinea and Nauru are being denied that same standard of care — because politicians, not doctors, are determining whether they can access life-saving treatment.

For twelve years, the Australian Government has been subjecting people to an offshore detention regime so inhumane that the United Nations has called it "degrading" and "akin to torture”.1  I’ve heard directly from refugees and people seeking asylum about what they’ve endured: overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, physical and sexual assault — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Right now, one in five people in offshore detention are so unwell their lives are in immediate danger. Fourteen people have already died — not from complex illnesses, but from conditions that should have been easily treated. How many more lives will be lost before this Government puts people’s health above politics?

This isn’t just a crisis — it’s a complete failure by the Australian Government to protect basic human rights and help people whose lives are at serious risk.

We now have a newly elected Labor Government with a clear and expanded mandate. That gives us a powerful opportunity — and a responsibility — to push them to act. They can and must end this shameful policy and evacuate the people still stranded offshore, some for over a decade already. Together, we can make sure they use that mandate to save lives without further delay.

That’s why I — along with fellow doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals — am demanding the immediate evacuation of everyone still trapped in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. They must be brought to Australia to receive the urgent medical care they have been shamefully denied for far too long.

WATCH: Healthcare professionals across Australia call on the Australian Government to medically evacuate people from Nauru and PNG now.

Countering misinformation about refugees and migrants. By Saul Wodak, Minjin Erdene-Ochir, Bowen Fung, Daniel Ghezelbash, Lauren Martin and Frances Voon , Kaldor Centre, UNSW

Using strategies rooted in evidence and in behavioural science, the Kaldor Centre and the highly regarded Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) developed a practical framework to guide when and how to tackle migration misinformation.

 Countering misinformation about refugees and migrants. By Saul Wodak, Minjin Erdene-Ochir, Bowen Fung, Daniel Ghezelbash, Lauren Martin and Frances Voon , Kaldor Centre, UNSW

'Unique opportunity': Inside the push for an Australian-backed children's hospital in Gaza. By Christopher Tan, SBS

Mustafa recently had a private meeting with Foreign Minister Penny Wong which he said was constructive.

"It was a very positive meeting. I thank the foreign minister for her commitment and the acknowledgement of the difficult circumstances," he said. "She understood the gravity of the situation."

In a statement, Wong confirmed the meeting took place and paid tribute to Mustafa's "selflessness" and said she looks forward "to continuing to work with him".

"I deeply appreciated meeting Dr Mustafa and the president of PANZMA and hearing their insights into the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza," the statement said.

"It has been weeks since aid entered Gaza, and we know the operating conditions for aid workers are unacceptable.

"We are pressing Israel to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, in line with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice."

'Unique opportunity': Inside the push for an Australian-backed children's hospital in Gaza. By Christopher Tan, SBS

The Racial Discrimination Act at 50. By David Lee, Pearls & Irritations

The passage 50 years ago of the Racial Discrimination Act, Australia’s first substantial piece of human rights legislation, laid the basis for the recognition of native title in the common law in the 1990s.

But for Whitlam’s use of the external affairs power, there would have been no Racial Discrimination Act and without this Act, the Mabo judgment of 1992 would have been impossible. The RDA thus remains, at 51, one of the most consequential legislative achievements of the Whitlam Government.

The Racial Discrimination Act at 50. By David Lee, Pearls & Irritations

Iranian refugee loses court battle against government over mental injuries caused by immigration detention, ABC News

Payam Saadat was held in immigration detention in Western Australia and then South Australia after arriving on Ashmore Reef in 2000.

The trial heard Mr Saadat fled Iran where he had been detained, tortured and physically abused before seeking asylum in Australia.

His lawyer argued during the trial that the government knew, or should have known, that he was suffering from or vulnerable to a psychiatric illness either caused or made worse by his immigration detention.

Iranian refugee loses court battle against government over mental injuries caused by immigration detention, ABC News