The government continues to try to get a lifetime ban on refugees arriving by boat through:

Senator Nick Xenophon said this am he may support the government's proposed lifetime ban. Contact him!

Senate looks for compromise on legislation to ban refugees from ever entering Australia (ABC, 9 November 2016) "Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said he ( Read more... )

Iranian refugee tried to burn herself to death from despair over indefinite detention on Nauru, husband says (ABC, 31 March 2016) This is Fatima, a mentally ill refugee who locked herself inside her family's accommodation and set it alight. She has now "been placed under the care of the Immigration Department controlled mental health unit on Nauru ( Read more... )

Hazara asylum seeker says he is being sent back to Afghanistan (GA, 23 April 2016)

Desperate refugees arrested trying to return to Manus Island centre (SMH, 22 April 2016) "Three refugees who have left Manus Island to try and rebuild their lives in Lae after being granted refugee status have returned to the island, saying they feel safer in the ( Read more... )

Remaining two refugees in Cambodia rue leaving Nauru (SMH, 13 March 2016) | Tracking down two refugees in Cambodia (SMH, 19 March 2016) | Greens refer $55 million refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia to the Auditor General (SMH, 13 March 2016). Sickness, poverty, misery - and Australian lies.

Asylum seeker who suffered heart attack on Manus to ( Read more... )

Iranian refugee couple returns home after being transferred from Nauru to Cambodia (ABC, 8 March 2016) Gods help them. Depending on who you believe, only one or two refugees remains in Cambodia after being transferred from Nauru. We paid Cambodia $40 million in "aid money" for this deal, and promised the International Organisation for Migration $15 ( Read more... )

No doubt to the government's delight, a guard claimed that Baby Asha's mother deliberately burned her. Police (rightly) investigated; they have closed their investigation without laying charges. Hospital records are a reminder of the conditions in which detainees live on Nauru: "The injury occurred when [the child] pulled a bowl containing recently ( Read more... )

Royal Australian Navy personnel open up about trauma of seeing asylum seekers die at sea. Officers state that Navy vessels are being told not to board asylum seeker vessels until they reach Australian waters, and that one vessel sank as a result, with loss of life. One says that "Our vessel was delayed 15 hours for a boarding on one occasion and we ( Read more... )

Christmas Island:

ETA: Babies 'secretly moved' to Christmas Island detention centre

ETA: Christmas Island detainees, including children, suffering life-threatening conditions and mental health problems, doctors say

Asylum seekers injured as Christmas Island staff shut down protest over Reza Berati's death, dozens of detainees moved to 'red block ( Read more... )