Australia is seeking to deport three people released under the NZYQ decision to the tiny Pacific nation in exchange for an undisclosed payment but their removal has been stalled since February due to court challenges.
In Memoriam: Professor David Isaacs. From World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID)
He was a leader in education at the hospital and also through the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). He received the RACP John Sands Medal in 2015, and the Howard Williams Medal in 2023. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health from 2009-2021. Prof. Isaacs was a leader in paediatric clinical ethics and established and led the Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical Ethics Service until his retirement in 2021. He was profoundly respected for his clinical work and advocacy in refugee and asylum seeker child health.
He established and led the Health Assessment for Refugee Kids (HARK) clinic in Sydney and was a leading voice in witnessing to the trauma imposed on children through immigration detention. After consulting on children being held in immigration detention in Nauru, he was prominent in the Kids off Nauru campaign.
In Memoriam: Professor David Isaacs. From World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID)
VIDEO: Refugees forced back to Afghanistan by Iran. By Meghna Bali, ABC News
Nearly two million Afghan refugees and migrants have been forced to leave Iran in the last three months, as Tehran stated it can no longer support them.
VIDEO: Refugees forced back to Afghanistan by Iran. By Meghna Bali, ABC News
‘What choice have I got?’: Lana built a life in Australia after years on Nauru – but now faces returning to the Iran she fled to keep it. By Daisy Dumas, The Guardian
Lana, now 34, had fled family violence in Iran, risking her life to travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia in 2013. After her vessel was intercepted by Australian authorities, she was detained on Christmas Island then moved to an open detention centre on Nauru, where she stayed for almost four years. In 2017, married to Scott and four months pregnant, she was flown to Brisbane’s immigration detention centre for medical reasons, where she spent the remainder of her pregnancy.
The pair have a seven-year-old son and live in regional Queensland. Lana took her husband’s surname and now works, when her limited immigration status allows, in disability support.
But with no possibility of acquiring permanent residency while in Australia, Lana is about to take what may seem an unthinkable step – returning to Iran to wait up to two years while an offshore application is processed.
Asylum seekers on Nauru contract dengue as advocates call on Australia to take responsibility. By Nick Visser, The Guardian
At least nine asylum seekers on Nauru have contracted dengue fever amid an outbreak on the island, including one man who was medically evacuated to Australia for treatment and then returned this week, according to a legal aid group and an asylum seeker there…
..There are approximately 93 asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru, who mostly live in the community on a stipend of $230 a fortnight from the Australian government. They have been there between two and 22 months, and will never be settled in Australia under government policies. Those with refugee status currently have no resettlement options.
“Many of the men have pre-existing health conditions, which mean that the illness that they have with dengue is just compounding,” Abdel-Raouf said.
Has high immigration fallen out of favour in Australia? By Gareth Hutchens, ABC News
If you've spent any time on social media in recent years, you would have seen people criticising Australia's high levels of immigration, for various reasons.
But in recent months, we've seen some of the most severe criticisms of high immigration coming from people who work for the exact organisations that have been among the biggest supporters of high immigration for the past few decades.
Have the political winds suddenly shifted? It raises many interesting questions.
Has high immigration fallen out of favour in Australia? By Gareth Hutchens, ABC News
Palestinian-Australian MP says his people are always made to be ‘strangers in their own homes’. By Josh Butler, The Guardian
The newly elected MP Basem Abdo has told parliament in his first speech the government should make a “historic commitment” to international law, human rights and peace, saying Palestinians are always “made to be strangers in their own homes”.
Abdo, who is of Palestinian background, has spoken of his family’s journey from Kuwait to Jordan during the first Gulf war before settling in Australia, telling parliament of the “intergenerational dispossession” of Palestinians.
Coming soon after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had told parliament of his distress at seeing images from Gaza, Abdo’s speech did not explicitly mention Israel’s military campaign in the occupied territory, but it carried unmistakeable references to the growing humanitarian crisis.
“International law matters. The international rules-based order matters,” Abdo said on Monday night.
“Human rights matter. The right to peace, justice and recognition matters. Deserving of an historic commitment.”
Bateteba left what once felt like ‘the safest place in the world’ to build a life in Australia. Thousands hope to follow. By James Norman, The Guardian
Bateteba Aselu describes her former life in Tuvalu as like living in the “safest place in the world” where the community looked out for each other, there was no homelessness and you rarely heard the sirens of police or ambulances.
But rising sea levels and extreme weather have created such an immediate existential threat to the tiny South Pacific island nation that when a new visa lottery to migrate to Australia closed last Friday, 8,750 people in 2,474 family groups – more than 80% of Tuvalu’s population of 11,000 residents – had applied for the world’s first “climate visas”.
Britain encouraged to look to Australia's 'tough' border policies. By Elias Clure and Adrian Wilson in Calais, and Syan Vallance in London, ABC News
For asylum seekers, reaching the UK puts them in a ferocious political storm.
Just before sunrise, about 50 people, including young children, hurry along a boardwalk towards the beach. People smugglers have arranged an inflatable dinghy that's moored about 20 metres offshore.
These refugees are trying to reach it before police spot them. Most in this group have made a long and dangerous journey from the African nations of South Sudan and Eritrea to France's northern coast.
The looming 30-kilometre water crossing to the United Kingdom they're trying to make is the final leg, but it's also the trickiest.
'Australia's worst policy': Refugees plead with government to resolve 13-year limbo. By Tys Occhiuzzi : SBS News
A group of refugees who say they've been living in limbo in Australia for 13 years have taken their fight for permanent residency to federal parliament in Canberra.
They are part of a group of more than 8,000 people who had their refugee protection claims rejected under a now-abolished visa system.
The delegation of four refugees from Sri Lanka and Iran are representing a group of thousands of people in Australia who've had visa claims rejected under a now-defunct system.
Refugees in backlog limbo seek answers in Canberra. SBS News
Refugees who say they've been living in 13 years of limbo in Australia have taken their plight to Federal Parliament. They're part of a cohort of more than 8,000 people who had their refugee protection claims rejected, under a now-abolished visa system
Refugees in backlog limbo seek answers in Canberra. SBS News
Israel has succeeded in starvation, and the global moral edifice has collapsed sharply, By Refaat Ibrahim, Pearls & Irritations
This hunger is not a natural consequence of war. It is a calculated tool within a military framework. Food is deliberately blocked. Water is cut off. Electricity is denied. Aid trucks are bombed. Bakeries are targeted. Those approaching aid convoys are shot at.
This famine is not a side effect. It is a direct objective, the quietest and deadliest of weapons.
Refaat Ibrahim is the editor and creator of The Resistant Palestinian Pens website, https://resistant.blog/ where you can find all his articles. He is a Palestinian writer living in Gaza, where he studied English Language and Literature at the Islamic University.
Ceasefire talks collapse – what does that mean for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza? By Mohammed Saber/AAP, The Conversation
The failure to reach a truce means there is no end in sight to the Israeli siege of Gaza which has devastated the territory for more than 21 months.
Amid mounting fears of mass starvation, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Gaza is in the grip of a “humanitarian catastrophe”. He is urging Israel to comply immediately with its obligations under international law:
Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored.
According to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, more than 100 people – most of them children – have died of hunger. One in five children in Gaza City is malnourished, with the number of cases rising every day.
Swim programs helping new Australians feel confident in the water. ABC News
Community groups say swim programs designed to address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities are gaining popularity. Teachers hope to bring down the drowning death toll during Australia's Summer months.
Swim programs helping new Australians feel confident in the water. ABC News
The penalty for being late is to be doomed forever. By Duncan Graham, Pearls & Irritations
Ponder this fact: One in every 67 people on the planet has been forcibly displaced, a victim of war and political policies imposed by crazed psychopaths, usually old men. That’s the equivalent of Canada’s population - desperately unhappy, homeless humans going mad as they seek escape from intolerable situations rarely of their making. Asylum seekers who arrived in Indonesia after 1 July 2014 hoping to reach Australia are now detained in the Republic, stateless and seemingly unwanted. Under the warped policy, asylum seekers “who arrive by plane are generally not subject to mandatory detention.” Australia does give refugee and humanitarian visas – 20,000 last year – but not to boat asylum seekers without a visa held in Indonesia who came after the cut-off date.
The penalty for being late is to be doomed forever. By Duncan Graham, Pearls & Irritations
Bibi’s father sold everything to save his daughter. He died before he could see her live. By Zach Hope, SMH
It’s not often enough in journalism that you can follow up a heartbreaking story with a positive outcome. This is one of those times. Reality, though, is never far behind.
Bibi Rahimi is the exception – one of the fortunate few who qualified for resettlement in Australia.
Only the day before she left (a coincidence), more than 200 of the 5000-plus refugees stuck indefinitely in Indonesia demonstrated peacefully outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
How Australia became home to a million refugees. By Brittany Busch, The Age
Faqihi continues to advocate for the almost 12,000 displaced people in limbo in Indonesia.
“There is a lot Australia can do as a leader in the region,” she said. “Australia can respond by expanding resettlement visas, especially for those who are stuck in the region and our neighbourhood regions.”
Tran said: “I just hope that Australians continue to take refugees, not because we might add value or anything, but ... because it’s the right thing to do, and the best thing you can offer someone is a chance to be Australian.”
How Australia became home to a million refugees. By Brittany Busch, The Age
Starved, Ruined, and Displaced: What’s Next for Gaza? By Mohammed Samhouri, Arab Center Washington D.C.
In a post on social media, the country director of American Near East Refugee Aid described GHF’s distribution method as follows: “Place the food in an open space and then let the starving masses come and fight for some rations. Those who are strong enough, determined enough, and able enough will get the prize. This is not some scene from a movie. This is Gaza.” A more detailed and even more horrific account, with graphic photos, from inside one of the GHF sites was reported by National Public Radio’s producer living in the Gaza Strip.
Displaced: What’s Next for Gaza? By Mohammed Samhouri, Arab Center Washington D.C.
12 years on, are we not yet tired of cruel policies towards asylum-seekers? By Sophie Singh, Pearls & Irritations
This failure to confront the damaging impact of our policies is again evident as we mark 12 years since Kevin Rudd’s 2013 avowal that asylum-seekers who arrived by boat would never settle in Australia. We urgently need an honest assessment of the devastating impact that Rudd’s policy has had. Far from the kindness and compassion that Albanese spoke of on election night 2023, for those who risked all to come by boat seeking safety in Australia the reality is vastly different.
Strong demand from Tuvalu for Australian residency as visa lottery closes. By Sara Tomevska, SBS News
Some have speculated the entire population of the Pacific Island of Tuvalu could live in Australia within forty years if demand for a new visa lottery holds - but Pacific Minister Pat Conroy says unlike a lot of permanent resident visas, Tuvalans have a lot of freedom of movement back to Tuvalu.