Yes, multiculturalism in Australia is visible, celebrated, and often delicious. But sometimes it feels like it lives mostly on the surface – in food stalls, colourful festivals and speeches on special days. When it comes to shaping narratives, policies or power structures, diversity tends to fade from the frame.
West Bank: Israeli state-backed settler violence drives mass displacement of Palestinian communities, Norwegian Refugee Council
“We are watching Israel annex the West Bank, as entire Palestinian communities are driven from their land through violence, intimidation, and an environment deliberately shaped to force people out,” said Angelita Caredda, NRC Middle East and North Africa Regional Director. “This cannot continue. The international community must act to stop displacement and support the safe, dignified return of those already forced to flee.”
After 'merciless' torture, Ahmad now lives in a hideout — waiting on a call from Australia. By Sam Dover, SBS News
Nearly four years after being captured and tortured by the Taliban, Ahmad can still vividly recall the cell he was held in.
The 31-year-old Hazara refugee is speaking with SBS News from a hideout in Pakistan, where he and his family have been living in secret for the past three and a half years, awaiting approval for humanitarian visas from the Australian government.
Before fleeing Afghanistan, Ahmad had been living a fulfilling life fighting for social justice.
Calls for Australian government to fast-track visas as Afghan refugees ordered out of Iran. Watch SBS News
As the Iranian government orders millions of refugees to return back to Afghanistan, their families in Australia have raised concerns about what fate awaits them under the Taliban regime. Amnesty International is calling on the Australian government to fast-track the visas of those affiliated with the previous Afghan government, before it's too late.
UN highlights humanitarian and human rights crises in Afghanistan. By Essam Al-Ghalib, SBS News
At the UN headquarters in New York, 116 countries voted in favour of a resolution introduced by Germany, expressing grave concern about Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation, particularly the rights of women and girls under Taliban rule.
The United States and Israel voted against, while a dozen countries, including China and Pakistan, abstained.
UN highlights humanitarian and human rights crises in Afghanistan. By Essam Al-Ghalib, SBS News
Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service reports rising number of LGBTQIA+ clients who 'fear for their life' if returned home. By Bec Pridham, ABC News
Nearly 70 countries criminalise people for being gay, with some even using the death penalty.
The Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service (TRLS) is representing a growing number of onshore LGBTQIA+ clients seeking asylum who fear persecution in their home country.
This Melbourne school is one of the best in the world for overcoming adversity. By Nicole Precel, SMH
“I think that having had education removed from you for some block of time, which is true for all of our young women, makes them their own advocates for school in really different ways, based on their lives and their family situations,” Hertzog said.
“But it does create this kind of shared camaraderie and gratitude that crosses over those country lines and experiences.”
Fifteen years of UN Women: A call to action, not complacency. By Simone Clarke, Pearls & Irritations
Fifteen years ago, UN Women was established with a bold mission: to drive real and lasting change for all women and girls.
In that time, the world has seen undeniable change. More girls are in school. More women sit at decision-making tables. Gender equality has been written into more laws, policies and constitutions that ever before.
But today, as UN Women marks its 15th anniversary, we are also facing an uncomfortable truth: the push for equality is losing ground.
Fifteen years of UN Women: A call to action, not complacency. By Simone Clarke, Pearls & Irritations
'Save us from this hopeless situation': Afghan refugee calls on Australia to protect his family. By Sam Dover, SBS News
Ahmad and his family have spent the past three and a half years living in limbo after fleeing the Taliban for Pakistan. He has now waited more than 42 months to hear a response to his Refugee and Humanitarian visa application from the Australian government. As Pakistani authorities boost efforts to deport migrants like Ahmad's family back to Afghanistan, he is fearing persecution and even death at the hands of the Taliban.
Opinion : The Green Hell. By Zohal Azra, Right Now (Human Rights in Australia)
Indonesia – a land of beautiful beaches, dense jungles and green mountains – is anything but paradise for the thousands of refugees trapped within its borders. Known among refugees as “The Green Hell,” it is a prison without walls, a place where beauty conceals a reality of despair.
Opinion : The Green Hell. By Zohal Azra, Right Now (Human Rights in Australia)
One in three Tuvaluans apply to relocate to Australia under climate visa scheme just 10 days after opening. By Demi Huang and Ben McKay, 7 News
Nearly a third of the population of Pacific island nation Tuvalu has applied for a new visa scheme that would allow them to relocate to Australia.
Australia is offering 280 visas annually to Tuvaluan citizens under the Falepili Union treaty — a landmark agreement billed as the world’s first climate migration deal.
Citizens of the climate change-threatened Polynesian nation are being encouraged to apply as rising seas threaten to engulf the tiny Pacific nation.
Minister reveals Kanye West was denied entry to Australia after releasing antisemitic song. By Tom Crowley, ABC News
Rapper Kanye West was denied entry to Australia over antisemitic song lyrics, Immigration Minister Tony Burke has revealed.
Mr Burke told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing the musician, who goes by Ye, had a valid visa cancelled by officials in his department after releasing a song titled Heil Hitler.
Mr Burke did not say there was a permanent ban on the rapper, pointing out visa applications were reassessed each time in accordance with the law.
State Department shifts $250 million from refugee aid to 'self-deportations' By Jonathan Landay, Reuters
The U.S. State Department has moved $250 million to the Department of Homeland Security for voluntary deportations by migrants without legal status, a spokesperson said, an unprecedented repurposing of funds that have been used to aid refugees uprooted by war and natural disasters.
‘Real people, real families’: Coalition signals dramatic shift away from anti-immigration rhetoric of Dutton era. By Dan Jervis-Bardy and Krishani Dhanji, The Guardian
The federal opposition will adopt a more empathetic approach to migrants that seeks to emphasise people’s positive contribution to Australia, says the new shadow immigration minister, Paul Scarr, drawing a line under the harsh anti-immigration rhetoric deployed under Peter Dutton.
Australians with family stuck in Iran are living a nightmare. Trauma stalks those who escaped. By Max Walden and Gillian Aeria, ABC News
Azar has not slept properly in days.
In May, her 70-year-old mother Frances went to Iran to see her sisters — her first visit to the country in roughly a decade.
Frances is now one of around 3,000 Australians and their families registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for assistance to leave — almost two weeks after Israeli bombs started falling on the capital Tehran.
Preventative detention laws for migrants have failed, Tony Burke concedes. By Tom Crowley, ABC News
Laws designed to put certain migrants behind bars if they are deemed to threaten community safety have effectively failed, the immigration minister has conceded.
Tony Burke said the bar in the legislation, which was altered after a High Court case, was too high for anybody to have met.
What's next?
The government passed another law last year allowing Australia to pay other countries to take members of the NZYQ cohort, a law the High Court is now testing after the government paid Nauru to accept three of them.
Preventative detention laws for migrants have failed, Tony Burke concedes. By Tom Crowley, ABC News
Friday essay: ‘the magnitude of their love was extraordinary’ – how an elderly couple showed Alice Pung the power of a good story. By Alice Pung, The Conversation
When my parents first arrived in Australia, they thought the government had put them in a five-star hotel. The Midway Migrant Hostel was just a group of sturdy brick buildings that looked like brown slab cakes – but compared to the cardboard and plastic tents in the camp at the Thai–Cambodian border where they’d been staying only a month before, these buildings were evidence of a life after death: the death of half of our family in the Killing Fields.
In this glorious afterlife, the residents of the Midway Migrant Hostel even had visitors, souls so pure and kind that they could only be sent from God. And indeed they were.
Women choosing abortions to keep work visas, slavery inquiry told. By Emily Doak and Jess Scully, ABC News
A regional GP tells a parliamentary committee that 95 per cent of women she sees for reproductive care are choosing abortions so they don't breach visa conditions.
The inquiry hears that many PALM scheme workers live in substandard housing.
Israel, please let aid organisations do our jobs in Gaza. By James Elder, Unicef, The Guardian
And while it’s critical that there is a focus on this lethal lack of aid for Palestinians, the daily killing and maiming of children has become an afterthought. This is my fifth mission to Gaza since the horrors of 7 October, and in all that time almost nothing has been done to stop the world’s deadliest conflict for children in recent memory. There have been more than 50,000 children reported killed or injured in 20 months. Fifty thousand.
Israel, please let aid organisations do our jobs in Gaza. By James Elder, Unicef, The Guardian
The Sydney program taking Roua closer to her dream of being a nurse. By Ellie Busby, SMH
Created in 2024, the People Fleeing Conflict Program from Western Sydney University was designed to support Palestinian, Lebanese and other people seeking refuge in Australia by providing a safe environment where students can work towards achieving their academic and personal goals.
The Sydney program taking Roua closer to her dream of being a nurse. By Ellie Busby, SMH