In the media
In Nauru and Papua New Guinea
A review into how offshore contracts were awarded found that inadequate due diligence resulted in large contracts being awarded to people involved in crime and corruption. The approximately 40 people who arrived by boat in Beagle Bay, Western Australia, were transferred to Nauru. Residents of Beagle Bay spoke of their dehydration and the frequency with which they see foreign fishing boats at sea. The Border Force Commissioner issued a statement on the level of funding for Operation Sovereign Borders after Peter Dutton claimed that their budget had been cut.
Rwandan Genocidaires in Australia
The Guardian published a number of stories on the Rwandan genocidaires living in Australia, and an apparent lack of action by Australian governments to deport them.
Overseas
The ABC published a pictorial of the fire that destroyed more than 7,000 informal homes in Cox’s Bazar. A Sudanese refugee tested Spain’s assertion that people could apply for asylum at a Spanish embassy rather than trying to enter Spain without a visa. A former Russian commander of the Wagner paramilitary group was refused asylum in Norway. ABC’s Religion and Ethics report discussed the allegation that asylum seekers in the UK were falsely converting to Christianity in order to boost their refugee application.
In policy
The commonwealth ombudsman issued a scathing assessment of Australian Border Force’s deportation procedures, including an apparent lack of procedural response to the recent High Court ruling. The Attorney General asked the High Court to rule on the lawfulness of detention in situations where the individual refuses to cooperate in the deportation process. Legal experts warned that the new preventative detention powers could be unlawful on the basis of contravening human rights obligations. The University sector is lobbying for a program that would enable refugees to apply to come to Australia for study.
In research
Researchers considered the situation of refugees who remain in situ after the UNHCR has withdrawn from a refugee camp, and the extent to which those communities can access the safeguards under the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A collective of NGOs and scholars published guidelines on the how to co-design research with refugees and displaced people. The UNSW Kaldor Centre mapped the use of hotels as places of detention in Australia.
New releases
Damage: a story of refugees and refuge, a film by Madeleine Blackwell, starring Ali Al Jenabi (who was convicted of people smuggling in 2004).