Weekly Refugee Posting

"The immigration department has provided an undertaking not to send 26 Australian-born babies or their immediate family members to offshore detention, pending the outcome of a court case to determine their legal status."

Labor and the Greens have called on the government to release the interim report on Reza Berati's death and the other violence on Manus Island in February. (Disturbing footage and photos of the violence and its aftermath have come to light. The alleged murder scene was cleared up before it could be examined for evidence.) Security guards claim that staff training and equipment at the centre were seriously inadequate, contributing to the chaos on the night, and also that self-harm and suicide attempts are commonplace. A legal expert argues that greater oversight and accountability for "outsourced" detention are essential. Australian soldiers, with or without permission, are working as guards at the centre.

I'm currently reading The Undesirables by Mark Isaacs, an account of the detention centre on Nauru. In his foreword, Julian Burnside gave a compact answer to the question "They're safe in Indonesia - why don't they stay there?":

"... they come from countries that make it difficult or impossible for them to get travel documents [and] practically impossible for them to get a visa to enter Australia...Typically, these people travel to Malaysia or Indonesia on forged papers... their position is very precarious when their people smuggler takes back the dodgy travel papers. From that time, they are liable to be jailed, or sent back to the country that has been persecuting them, if they are found. Asylum seekers who get to Indonesia live in perpetual fear of detection. In Indonesia, asylum seekers who are assessed as refugees may wait 10 or 20 years before they are offered a place in a safe country. In the meantime they cannot get jobs and their kids cannot go to school, for fear of detection."

As a resettlement deal with corrupt Cambodia looms, The UNHCR has reminded Mr Morrison that we haven't just promised to provide refugees with basic safety, but also with education, access to health care, and the chance to work - "a standard of treatment that is adequate and dignified to the human being". The Commission has also asked the guvmint for proof it isn't violating the Convention by turning back boats. (Meanwhile, senior Naval officers have been punished for their incursions into Indonesian waters. Scapegoats. Rather more justly, the sailors who FBed racist postings have also been punished.) The government has refused to provide information to the UN inquiry into the alleged deliberate burning of asylum seeker's hands aboard a Navy vessel.

Nauru, which ratified the UN Convention against Torture in 2012, is now in breach of that convention through "failing to establish an independent body to investigate torture and human rights abuses" in the detention centre it hosts. Nauru has refused UN inspectors permission to visit the camp twice in the last month (Australia claims not to have had a hand in it). Three people (two detainees and a staff member) have contracted dengue fever at the detention centre. In rather better news, the Minister states that about 60 refugee applications will be completed shortly and those successful will be able to temporarily settle on the island.

The latest government update states that "there are now 1281 in the processing centre on Manus Island and 1177 on Nauru, making a total of 2458... Since Operation Sovereign Borders started on September 18, 220 asylum seekers have voluntarily returned to their home countries."

The government's monitoring of social media for criticism by public service employees, including negative comments about the treatment of refugees, has prompted much commentary, including this passionate interview with George Georgiadis.