People leave notes of support at Avner’s Bakery after the owner decided to close the store in the wake of the Bondi mass shooting.
‘Our world has changed’: Sydney Jewish bakery closes after Bondi beach terror attack. By Nick Vissery, The Guardian
A Jewish bakery in Sydney has closed – apparently for good – after the Bondi beach terror attack, with a message posted on the shop’s window saying it can no longer ensure the safety of its staff and customers.
Avner’s Bakery in Surry Hills, which is run by celebrity chef Ed Halmagyi, closed after Sunday’s massacre at a gathering to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukah.
Statement on UNHCR’s 75th Anniversary: Kaldor Centre and RCOA
…UNHCR’s legal mandate is now also complemented by its operational role in a range of displacement contexts, delivering life-saving assistance including shelter, food, water and basic household items, as well as support to access education and medical care. UNHCR works to ensure that sustainable, longer-term planning is embedded from the start of any emergency, while always ensuring that protection remains at the heart of its humanitarian response….
..On UNHCR’s 75th anniversary, the challenges are profound. One in every 70 people on Earth is displaced. Conflict, persecution, human rights abuses and the impacts of climate change and disasters are contributing to displacement at near-record levels. At the same time, some States are adopting ever-restrictive policies and processes to block access to their territory and undermine refugee rights.
Statement on UNHCR’s 75th Anniversary: Kaldor Centre and RCOA
How 'snakeheads' are redirecting illegal migration from China toward Australia. By Kai Feng and Bang Xiao, ABC News
Australia is emerging as an alternative destination in global people smuggling routes involving Chinese nationals, as tougher US border controls push smuggling networks to test new maritime pathways through South-East Asia.
Last week six Chinese nationals who arrived in Australia by sea were found in a remote Indigenous community in Western Australia and detained by border authorities.
Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, told the ABC that many people are unaware of the scale of Operation Sovereign Borders, the policy introduced in 2013 to prevent maritime arrivals of asylum seekers.
"I think some people still believe that there is a general humanitarian reputation in Australia," he said.
The religious minority worried by Victoria Police's expanded search without warrant powers. By Shyna Kalra, SBS News
Fearing that the new police powers could make Sikhs feel uncomfortable travelling to the Melbourne CBD, the community is calling for campaigns to increase awareness about the kirpan.
"Historically, we know that if a person looks different, they have a higher chance of being singled out by the police," Singh said. "We need to educate people about different cultures and identities to ensure better social cohesion and rule out any prejudice."
In response to more recent questions from SBS News, Victoria Police said: "Members of the Sikh community can be assured that carrying a kirpan for religious purposes is exempt under the Control of Weapons Act."
Refugees aren’t politically progressive by default – and policy needs to catch up. By Ko Ko Aung, P & I
Australian settlement policy often assumes refugees will embrace progressive politics. Research and community experience show refugee political identities are far more diverse – with important implications for law and policy.
Nauru truth bomb, Government lies. Playing with money, power and refugee lives. By Janet Pelly, Michael West Media
With a Senate inquiry into the latest chapter of multi-billion-dollar business (2022-25) going live, NJP case studies and findings from the UN through to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre provide a window into what could be exposed:
Twenty years on from the Cronulla riots, how have racial tensions in Australia changed? By Edwina Guinan, SBS
Sutherland Shire Mayor Jack Boyd — who witnessed the riots as a 13-year-old — said the events weren't representative of the Cronulla community back then, or now, but acknowledged that the sentiment on display needed to be addressed.
"Council has done a lot of work in trying to make sure that we support a lot of initiatives that make it really clear to people, whether it's through Harmony Week, Refugee Week, we partner with a lot of multicultural organisations, to really drive home that safety of access, as well for surf education."
Coalition urged to ignore ‘opinions of Pauline Hanson’ as it weighs hardline approach to immigration. By Dan Jervis-Bardy and Sarah Basford Canales, The Guardian
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is expected to next week unveil the “principles” of the Coalition’s approach to immigration, which will commit to lower net overseas migration without setting a number of its own
As part of the wider strategy, the opposition is exploring options to force visa holders to adhere to “Australian values” and to crackdown on universities with high proportions of international students.
An internal documents suggests it is also mulling new restrictions on foreigners purchasing properties, after a two-year freeze on existing dwellings was imposed in April.
Immigration panic comes in waves. Data shows who worries most, and when. By Joel Carrett, The Conversation
There are predictable cycles in public concerns about the level of migrants accepted into Australia.
Australia’s history with anti-immigration fears goes back as far as the Lambing Flat riots in New South Wales in 1860, when white miners attacked and drove off about 2,000 Chinese miners.
Federal government deal sending non-citizens to Nauru faces critical High Court challenge. By Elizabeth Byrne, ABC News
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.