Anthony Albanese has defended the government’s new $2.5bn resettlement deal with Nauru as “entirely appropriate” after allegations against the country’s president of “money laundering and corruption” aired in parliament this week.
Transparency advocates have warned Australian taxpayers could be fuelling a “kleptocracy” on Nauru amid the allegations against some of its senior politicians, calling for a royal commission into Australia’s offshore processing regime.
Nauru may seek to return refugees from the NZYQ cohort to their home countries, the Nauruan president has said in a new translation of a February interview that has been the subject of months-long controversy.
David Adeang’s interview erroneously claimed those being sent to Nauru were not refugees and said Nauru may seek to return them to their countries of origin where possible.
Guardian Australia has confirmed members of the NZYQ group have had refugee protection claims recognised by Australia. It is understood some of the men already transferred to Nauru are among those who are refugees.
The Tampa affair and the events that followed changed Australian policy towards refugees forever. The iconic image of Australia’s most elite soldiers boarding a cargo ship to hold guns to the terrified people on board marks the inflection point in Australia’s immigration policy and indeed its soul.
We have never been the same nation since that week.
The shadow of the Tampa. By Julie Macken, Pearls & Irritations
Because the path forward is not rewriting the Refugee Convention, but rebuilding the trust, co-operation, and fairness on which it depends.
Building bridges requires more honest and effective communication – addressing the real challenges facing asylum systems and the refugee protection regime, while simultaneously countering exaggerations and misinformation.
It means focusing our collective effort on implementation rather than abandoning principles: developing fair and fast procedures, while fostering greater solidarity and responsibility sharing.
Twelve years on from its humble beginnings, The Bread & Butter Project is still transforming lives through the power of baking. Australia’s first social enterprise bakery has now trained 120 refugee bakers, opening doors to security, confidence and community.
Among them is Hellen, a mother of five who arrived in Australia seeking safety and a new start. After graduating from the program, she found work in the in-store bakery at Harris Farm in inner west Sydney, and today she’s sharing how the project helped her build her new life.
They are part of a bushwalk organised by the not-for-profit First Hike Project (FHP), which was founded in 2015 with the goal of helping welcome refugees to Australia through an experience in the bush.
FHP now operates in five capital cities and has taken hundreds of young migrants on their first bushwalks in Australia.
As thousands of international students prepare to take summer holiday jobs, Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum, an expert on migrants' rights from the University of New South Wales, warns that more is needed to protect students from wage theft and abuse. She says Australia has a ‘pervasive problem’ with workplace exploitation of international students and those on temporary visas.
It was Fraser who was responsible for accepting many Indo-Chinese refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Those refugees, supported by the generous Australian community response, were the decisive turning point in moving Australia away from White Australia…..
……The Fraser Government extended ethnic radio and established SBS television. Petro Georgiou and Brian Johns, who remained a senior officer in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Fraser, were the key drivers for SBS. Fraser got on well with Brian Johns. He saw him as professional and straight. Years later, Johns was to head SBS and the ABC.
Fraser encountered a lot of opposition from within the Liberal Party and the ABC and its supporters over the establishment of SBS, but he believed, correctly in my view, that the elitist ABC should have better served the non-English-speaking section of the Australian community. What was required was a specialist, more focused broadcasting service to meet the needs of those who were being neglected by mainstream media. The Broadcasting and Television Act of 1977 provided for the establishment of SBS to provide multicultural radio and TV services. SBS was an important achievement of the Fraser Government.
Working with PM Fraser - burying White Australia - Part 4. By John Menadue, P&I
A top secret translation of the Nauruan president’s public commentary on the NZYQ deal will remain suppressed for a decade after the Albanese government considered its release “inappropriate”.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, explained this week that the translation notes had been “taken hastily” by an official who was not an accredited translator and were “for internal purposes only”.
“The translation of Nauruan to English is the source of much debate in Nauru. As the government of Nauru has not provided its own translation, nor endorsed the above-mentioned notes as a true and accurate reflection of the interview, it would not be appropriate to release them and doing so would damage our bilateral relationship.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed concerns a secret operation using fishing boats to remove people from Australia's northern waters is subsidising illegal fishers and people smugglers.
Last week an Australian Border Force (ABF) vessel docked in Broome carrying four modified fishing boats, giving locals a firsthand look at an ongoing Commonwealth program of buying fishing boats from across Australia.
Multiple sources say the boats are given to illegal fishers and asylum seekers found in Australia's waters as a safe way to return home.
Liberal MPs say skilled migration and international student numbers must be cut to reduce overseas arrivals into Australia, but have warned colleagues against demonising multicultural communities ahead of the next election.
An Afghan man who worked as a tradie for the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan has had a humanitarian visa revoked without explanation, just weeks after it was granted.
Juma Gul Gul, also known as Jumaghul, was granted an in-country special humanitarian visa on November 3, almost two years after first applying.
It was then revoked less than two weeks later without explanation, Home Affairs documents seen by AAP show.
Visa granted then revoked for Afghan who helped ADF. By Dominic Giannini, Canberra Times
The Minns Labor Government has today announced the inaugural members of the NSW Settlement Advisory Council, a new expert body that will provide advice to the Minister for Multiculturalism and Multicultural NSW on refugee settlement policy.
The establishment of the council, the first of its kind in NSW, is a continuation of the Minns Labor Government’s focus to improve the process of refugees settling in the state and illustrates its commitment to ensure NSW is a home to all.
Inaugural NSW Settlement Advisory Council members announced. NSW Government
Denmark once prided itself on its liberal welfare state and human rights commitments. But it has spent the past decade turning itself into one of Europe’s toughest destinations for refugees.
Indeed, it is the only country in Europe to have revoked refugee protection on a large scale. And the first to reorient its laws away from integration and towards return.
Think twice before copying Denmark’s asylum policies. By Michelle Pace, The Conversation
Britain is launching the largest overhaul of policy on asylum seekers in modern times, drawing inspiration from Denmark's approach, one of the toughest in Europe.
The Labour government has been hardening its immigration policies, particularly on illegal small-boat crossings from France, as it seeks to stem the surging popularity of the populist Reform UK party, led by MP Nigel Farage, which has driven the immigration agenda and forced Labour to adopt a tougher line.
As part of the changes, the statutory duty to provide support to certain asylum seekers, including housing and weekly allowances, will be revoked, the Home Office said in a statement on Saturday.
A spokesperson said the Australian government was committed to "generous and flexible humanitarian and settlement programs that meet Australia's international protection obligations".
"As refugee situations around the world increase in scope, scale and complexity, Australia is committed to finding sustainable global solutions for refugees," they said.
One millionth refugee milestone in Australia on horizon By Danuta Kozaki, ABC News
From 1947-1954, prime minister Ben Chifley welcomed 170,000 displaced people to Australia from the camps of Europe. This was roughly three times more refugees per capita than we admit today………
……In the 1970s, when boats of Vietnamese asylum seekers began arriving in Australia’s north, prime minister Malcolm Fraser actively encouraged ordinary Australians to understand they deserved protection, humane treatment and fair processes. The future governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le, arrived by boat in Darwin Harbour in 1977…
..There are no easy solutions to this issue. Refugee movements are complex by nature and people in desperate need will resort to desperate measures.
Trying to deter people in need of protection leads not to sustainable solutions, but rather to expensive, chaotic and damaging measures with intergenerational consequences.
The only people who benefit from the arrangement are Nauruan politicians and the Australian Government, which has effectively shut down migration and refugee matters as an election issue by banishing vulnerable people who can’t vote to a remote Pacific Island.
The exclusive footage, captured by a 9News Perth drone, shows the Australian Border Force’s 110-metre Ocean Shield sailing out of the port on Wednesday evening, carrying the four fishing boats which had their identification numbers removed.
As Australia approaches issuing its one millionth permanent visa through its refugee and humanitarian program, advocates are calling for celebration over the contribution refugees have made to Australia's national story.
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