Australia's agreement to send non-citizens to Nauru under an "interim arrangement" faces a High Court challenge.
The case has been brought by an Iranian man whose lawyers say he is being unlawfully deported despite having health risks.
'I wish I was a dog in Australia': Ex-immigration detainee speaks out as scheme investigated. By Gabrielle Katanasho, SBS News
This week, the UN working group on arbitrary detention has started a 12-day mission to assess Australia's detention practices. This includes assessments of prisons, police stations and institutions for juveniles, migrants and people with psychosocial disabilities.
The alleged mistreatment at detention facilities has sparked renewed calls from a national coalition of legal, academic and advocacy organisations for Australia to overhaul its detention scheme. The issue has been well documented by UN bodies and human rights organisations in Australia and overseas.
Australia’s immigration 'debate' is rhetoric, not policy. By Peter Hughes, Pearls & Irritations
Australia is awash with immigration rhetoric, but little of it is grounded in evidence, clear definitions or serious policy alternatives. Rather than an informed public debate, Australians are being offered slogans, blame and ambiguity.
Australia’s immigration 'debate' is rhetoric, not policy. By Peter Hughes, Pearls & Irritations
‘Day by day I lose weight’: asylum seekers on Nauru get $115 a week, but a bag of grapes costs $20. By Ben Doherty and Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian
Asylum seekers sent to Nauru by Australia say they are going hungry on the island, prohibited from working to support themselves and given insufficient money to buy enough food.
Others say they fear the Nauru government will deport them to their home countries, from where they say they have fled persecution and violence.
More than 160 people have been sent to Nauru by the Australian government since the offshore processing regime restarted on the Pacific island in 2023.
The scramble to save a deal: How a security giant fought to stay in Nauru. By Nick McKenzie & Cameron Houston, SMH
Labor is pumping millions of dollars into Nauru each year – up to $2.5 billion over 30 years – to resolve a political nightmare involving about 300 former immigration detainees released into the community after a High Court ruling, but deemed too dangerous to remain in Australia. Solving that political problem created another.
Australia's PALM workers are leaving their employers, becoming 'extremely vulnerable' in visa limbo. By Doug Dingwall, Cath McAloon and Lucy Cooper, ABC News
The PALM scheme, which aims to address labour shortages in rural and regional Australia, is often described by the Australian government as a "win-win" that fills jobs in industries such as agriculture, meat processing and aged care, and provides income for Pacific Island and Timorese workers to send home.
It is regarded as one of Australia's flagship development programs for the Pacific, but the scheme has come under significant criticism for putting its participants in danger of exploitation.
News video: Visa limbo for a group of asylum seekers who arrived in Australia over a decade ago. SBS News
A group of around 900 asylum seekers who came to Australia by boat nearly 13 years ago remain stuck in visa limbo, fighting for permanency. Despite living and working in Australia for nearly a decade, they have no pathway to permanent residency thanks to a hardline 2013 immigration policy on boat arrivals. They are pleading with the Australian government to grant them leniency, as a last hope. A warning this story contains descriptions of self-harm that some may find distressing.
Asylum Insight (Facts & Analysis) Monthly Wrap December 2025
SRSS: The gutted lifeline, Asylum Seeker Centre
In Australia today, people seeking asylum are locked out of the mainstream systems most of us rely on in times of crisis. They cannot access Centrelink, public housing, or the NDIS. This is on top of fluctuating access to Medicare and restrictions on their right to work.
For those in crisis, one program – Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) – was meant to be their only safety net.
But that lifeline has been quietly, steadily disappearing.
Assad's toppling a year ago changed Syria. But for Australians stuck there, life is the same. By Colin Cosier, SBS
This Kurdish-controlled detention camp is for people with perceived or real links to IS group members.
It’s a place where Australian kids play on barren rocky ground, don’t receive proper education and are unable to leave.
"I'm trying as hard as I can to make things normal for them," Zahra told Dateline in 2024.
"But how hard can you try in a place like this?"
Originally from suburban Melbourne, the circumstances of how Zahra’s extended family came to be in Syria are contested. Some male members of her family reportedly joined the IS group, but Zahra maintains the women had no choice but to follow.
At the camp, she and her kids and 12 other Australian mothers sleep in tents next to an oilfield.
A new values test for temporary visa holders 'won't hurt', David Littleproud says. By Rashida Yosufzai, SBS News
Opposition leader Sussan Ley says the Coalition's forthcoming immigration policy will include "issues around language and values", as her Nationals colleague signalled a values test for temporary visa holders from "challenged parts of the world" will ensure they live up to Australian values.
Explainer: Do as I say, not as I do: why Labor and the Coalition are both conflicted on migration policy. By Patrick Commins Economics editor, The Guardian
The Coalition is expected in coming weeks to reveal the broad outlines of a policy platform centred around deep cuts to migrant numbers.
But which numbers are they talking about? Are they talking about net overseas migration? Or are they worried about the visa programs? If so, is it the permanent stream or the temporary?
Do they even know?
And is Labor really a party of “mass migration”?
In a debate that too often veers into emotive language and threatens to explode into outright racism, it’s worth getting the facts straight.
Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy. By Abul Rizvi, Pearls & Irritations
There is only so long that Burke can continue to avoid addressing the issues confronting the immigration system. Either the data, the politics or the law will force him to act on developing a long-term immigration plan.
Our politicians continue to fail us on immigration policy. By Abul Rizvi, Pearls & Irritations
Opinion: Australia doesn’t need another migration ‘debate’. We need leaders brave enough to tackle inequality for all. By Giridharan Sivaraman, The Guardian
Racism and economic insecurity can have a close relationship in this country. That is most apparent when Australia finds itself pulled into another so-called “debate” about migration. This is usually sparked by populism or attempts to blame complex issues like housing affordability on our annual migrant intake.
Albanese defends $2.5bn Nauru deal as transparency advocates warn taxpayer dollars could fuel ‘kleptocracy’. By Sarah Basford Canales and Ben Doherty, The Guardian
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 president floats returning NZYQ refugees to home countries. By Ben Doherty and Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian
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 shadow of the Tampa. By Julie Macken, Pearls & Irritations
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
The Refugee Convention is under threat, but it is not the problem. By Daniel Ghezelbash, 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.
From survival to sourdough: the refugee journey behind Australia’s first social enterprise. Presented by Sirine Demachkie bakery, ABC News
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.
First Hike Project helps refugees experience hiking in Australia's bushland for the first time. By James Tugwell, ABC News
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.