Refugee Update
Let's have some good news!
Landmark win on citizenship provides hope for many thousands of former refugees (Refugee Council of Australia press release, 16 December 2016): "The Minister of Immigration... was found to have unreasonably delayed in making decisions on citizenship applications... The case... provides hope for 10,231 people that the department confirmed were in similar situations... For people who are recognised as refugees, it is extremely difficult to bring family members to safety in Australia without citizenship. As such, delays in processing citizenship applications have left many in prolonged situations of danger and persecution, despite having a parent, sibling or other close relative who has been recognised as a refugee in Australia." | Immigration authorities unreasonably delayed refugees' citizenship bids, court rules (GA, 16 December 2016) | 'Social time bomb': UNHCR's warning on the plight of 30,000 asylum seekers already living in Australia (SMH, 23 November 2016): "Australia faces a "social time bomb" over the failure to process and integrate around 30,000 asylum seekers who are in the community on bridging visas after arriving by boat during the term of the former Labor government."
Melbourne suburb Eltham welcomes refugees (The Saturday Paper, 3 December 2016) Good on them for standing up to the bigots who descended on their community. | Syria war: Peter Dutton open to expanding one-off refugee intake beyond 12,000 (ABC, 21 November 2016). Christians, obviously.
Well, that was nice. Now back to the usual:
Offshore detention report says half of child abuse cases receive inadequate response (GA, 16 December 2016) "Child Protection Board says less than 1% of cases result in criminal convictions and immigration department cannot be sure of number of incidents." This is the context in which Nauru charging a male refugee with sexually assaulting a Nauruan girl under 16 has to be seen: of the numerous reports of abuse of refugee children on Nauru, "Only one case at the Nauru detention centre was referred to the Nauru public prosecutor and the case did not proceed." Nauru's Deputy Police Commissioner, Kalinda Blake, said that reports of assaults against refugees were usually "fabrications", an attitude wearyingly familiar from many years of reading about police and sexual assault.
Offshore detainees' mental illness among highest of any surveyed population: UNHCR study (SMH, 21 Novembr 2016) | A glimmer of hope for damaged detainees on Manus Island (SMH, 21 November 2016)
Photographer Ashley Gilbertson writes in the New York Times: "I Am Ashamed to Be Australian" (12 December 2016). "I've seen people displaced by sub-Saharan African wars that dragged on for so long that their children and grandchildren were born in enormous, forgotten refugee camps. I've photographed the Kurds, who have known only persecution - an entire ethnic group that remains stateless. I've followed Syrian refugee families into the tumultuous Aegean Sea. I've witnessed people trapped at borders and beaten by the police; children separated from their parents, wandering on busy, unfamiliar roads; families literally running for their lives. Sometimes, when they were not fast enough, I've seen people murdered. And yet, in all that time, I have not seen the level of cruelty toward these vulnerable people that the Australian government is perpetrating against the refugees on Manus Island."
Where does Australia rank on its refugee intake? (ABC, 21 September 2016) SPOILER: 32nd.
Fake fishing boats used in asylum seeker turnbacks spotted off Cocos Islands (GA, 28 November 2016) | Vietnamese boats 'unseaworthy', government sources say (SMH, 12 March 2015)
Australian government concedes evidence against asylum seeker was obtained by torture (GA, 26 November 2016): "Sayed Abdellatif is still held in detention in Sydney even though immigration minister Peter Dutton was briefed 18 months ago that evidence used in Egypt to convict him was discredited."
Landmark win on citizenship provides hope for many thousands of former refugees (Refugee Council of Australia press release, 16 December 2016): "The Minister of Immigration... was found to have unreasonably delayed in making decisions on citizenship applications... The case... provides hope for 10,231 people that the department confirmed were in similar situations... For people who are recognised as refugees, it is extremely difficult to bring family members to safety in Australia without citizenship. As such, delays in processing citizenship applications have left many in prolonged situations of danger and persecution, despite having a parent, sibling or other close relative who has been recognised as a refugee in Australia." | Immigration authorities unreasonably delayed refugees' citizenship bids, court rules (GA, 16 December 2016) | 'Social time bomb': UNHCR's warning on the plight of 30,000 asylum seekers already living in Australia (SMH, 23 November 2016): "Australia faces a "social time bomb" over the failure to process and integrate around 30,000 asylum seekers who are in the community on bridging visas after arriving by boat during the term of the former Labor government."
Melbourne suburb Eltham welcomes refugees (The Saturday Paper, 3 December 2016) Good on them for standing up to the bigots who descended on their community. | Syria war: Peter Dutton open to expanding one-off refugee intake beyond 12,000 (ABC, 21 November 2016). Christians, obviously.
Well, that was nice. Now back to the usual:
Offshore detention report says half of child abuse cases receive inadequate response (GA, 16 December 2016) "Child Protection Board says less than 1% of cases result in criminal convictions and immigration department cannot be sure of number of incidents." This is the context in which Nauru charging a male refugee with sexually assaulting a Nauruan girl under 16 has to be seen: of the numerous reports of abuse of refugee children on Nauru, "Only one case at the Nauru detention centre was referred to the Nauru public prosecutor and the case did not proceed." Nauru's Deputy Police Commissioner, Kalinda Blake, said that reports of assaults against refugees were usually "fabrications", an attitude wearyingly familiar from many years of reading about police and sexual assault.
Offshore detainees' mental illness among highest of any surveyed population: UNHCR study (SMH, 21 Novembr 2016) | A glimmer of hope for damaged detainees on Manus Island (SMH, 21 November 2016)
Photographer Ashley Gilbertson writes in the New York Times: "I Am Ashamed to Be Australian" (12 December 2016). "I've seen people displaced by sub-Saharan African wars that dragged on for so long that their children and grandchildren were born in enormous, forgotten refugee camps. I've photographed the Kurds, who have known only persecution - an entire ethnic group that remains stateless. I've followed Syrian refugee families into the tumultuous Aegean Sea. I've witnessed people trapped at borders and beaten by the police; children separated from their parents, wandering on busy, unfamiliar roads; families literally running for their lives. Sometimes, when they were not fast enough, I've seen people murdered. And yet, in all that time, I have not seen the level of cruelty toward these vulnerable people that the Australian government is perpetrating against the refugees on Manus Island."
Where does Australia rank on its refugee intake? (ABC, 21 September 2016) SPOILER: 32nd.
Fake fishing boats used in asylum seeker turnbacks spotted off Cocos Islands (GA, 28 November 2016) | Vietnamese boats 'unseaworthy', government sources say (SMH, 12 March 2015)
Australian government concedes evidence against asylum seeker was obtained by torture (GA, 26 November 2016): "Sayed Abdellatif is still held in detention in Sydney even though immigration minister Peter Dutton was briefed 18 months ago that evidence used in Egypt to convict him was discredited."