Refugee Update

At the last minute, the Migration and Maritime Powers Bill passed the Senate last week. It gives Immigration Minister Scott Morrison "unprecedented, unchallengeable, and secret powers to control the lives of asylum seekers".

• Asylum seekers arriving by boat will no longer have access to the Refugee Review Tribunal.
  
• All references to the Refugee Convention have been removed from Australian law.
  
• So has our non-refoulement obligation (ie the requirement not to send people back to be persecuted or tortured).
  
• Three-year Temporary Protection Visas have returned.
  
• A Special Humanitarian Enterprise Visa will be introduced to encourage refugees to work in rural areas with labour shortages.
  

Not included in the Bill, but used as bribes or blackmail to get the necessary votes to pass it, are promises to:

• increase the overall humanitarian intake to nearly 18,750 (it was originally decreased to 13,750 from 20,000)
  
• to release by Christmas all children from detention, including the 108 on Christmas Island
  
• except for 44 children including 25 Australian-born babies, due to be sent to Nauru. (The Minister has given an undertaking this won't happen before 30 January. The group includes baby Ferouz.)
  
• give 25,000 people currently on bridging visas the right to work.
  

The SMH's Sunday Explainer goes over the unprecedented immigration powers awarded to Scott Morrison.

I'm still trying to nail down all the facts and figures and details from numerous news reports, so if there are any errors in or additions to the above, I'll note them below.

ETA: New law gives Morrison unprecedented control over asylum seekers explains some of the Minister's new personal powers.

Almost no silver lining in new TPV cloud: more details on the TPV and SHEV.

ETA: In its November report, United Nations Committee Against Torture said "the Australian Government should guarantee that all asylum claims were thoroughly examined and that asylum seekers had access to independent, qualified and free legal assistance throughout the entire asylum procedure." So much for that idea.

Also from November, robust and detailed critique of the Bill by former PM Malcolm Fraser and former Minister Barry Jones.

Refugees: Nauru

As you'll remember, when Save the Children workers reported physical and sexual abuse at the detention centre on Nauru, some of it aimed at children, the government accused the workers of inventing the reports and coaching children in self-harm. The counter-accusation came from a report by Transfield - "the very outfit whose employees were accused of molestation." ETA: Immigration Minister Scott Morrison referred the Save the Children workers to the Federal Police under Section 70 of the Crimes Act, which prohibits government employees releasing information to non-government employees. Splendidly, the Greens referred him for leaking the details of the Transfield report to the Daily Telegaph.

At the same time, 29 unaccompanied kids aged 15-17, who had been found to be refugees, were removed from detention because of the danger to them. In the Nauruan community they have been threatened with violence and some have been severely beaten. (ETA: Nauru plans to allow detainees the freedom of the island during the day. I hope "the help of police" will mean protection from violence.)

A female asylum seeker reported in November that she was raped twice in Nauru's family compound. She states the alleged rapist was given a visa immediately after her complaint in an attempt to cover up the incidents.

(In an unrelated case in Australia, an asylum seeker accused of rape was almost deported without trial. In this case, the Minister's use of his arbitrary powers would have denied the basic process of justice to both the alleged rapist and his alleged victim.)

ETA:

Open letter from a detainee: Living in the hell called Nauru

Presumably in response to allegations from both Nauru and Manus, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison announced the formation of the Detention Assurance Team. As this will be part of the Immigration Department tbh I don't have high hopes for it.

Two heavily pregnant refugee women, flown to Darwin to give birth, staged a three-day protest aboard a bus against their being returned to Nauru.

ETA:

From August: refugees resettled on Nauru describe themselves as having been "abandoned to live like animals in the jungle" without clean water, food, or other basic necessities.

Refugee Update: Manus Island

After 17 months with no hope in sight and after enduring sickness and violence, over 250 asylum seekers in the Manus Island detention facility are currently engaging in a hunger strike.

Thankfully, there are some signs of progress: in November, 10 detainees were determined to be refugees, and were released into the community on a one-year visa. Refugees will receive assistance but are fearful of violence from locals. PNG hopes to release 10 more each week.

Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside alleged in November that asylum seekers were offered relocation to Australia if they would withdraw their witness statements regarding the death of Reza Berati. Some witnesses allege they were tortured and threatened with rape in an attempt to make them withdraw their evidence.

Refugee Update

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 got reports in from surveillance aircraft that that vessel had sunk 13 hours ago. All we found was probably a line about 70 miles long of bodies. We fished them out for as long as we could, 'til we were full. And that wasn't uncommon."

These incidents have been keep secret as part of Operation Sovereign Borders. When I said I believed that boats were still leaving Indonesia and that lives were still being lost, it seemed so abstract.

In September, the SBS news program Dateline reported on the torture and rape of asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka. In late November, an asylum boat from Sri Lanka was intercepted near the Indonesian coastline and 37 asylum seekers were handed over to the Sri Lankan navy and arrested. At least one, Indika Mendis, had previously been tortured by Sri Lankan police, and has reportedly been tortured again by Sri Lankan authorities after his arrest.

Another involuntary returnee, Zainullah Naseri, states he was abducted and tortured by the Taliban after being sent to Afghanistan. However, the High Court prevented the deportation of a second Afghani who had been told he could avoid persecution if he changed jobs.

Cambodia says it will only take "20 or 10 or 50 or 100 [refugees from Australia] or something like this. Not 1000 as people have said", in exchange for an additional $40 million in aid (to one of the world's most corrupt governments). Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the program will start with "four or five" refugees and build up from there. The UNHCR and Amnesty have condemned the deal and a coalition of human rights lawyers and groups have expressed particular concern for children. Cambodians have protested the deal: sex worker and advocate Sou Sotheavy points out that the country can barely take care of its own people, and says she doesn't expect the refugees will survive for long after they arrive. "Australia has abundant resources while we have few... this is difficult for me to understand."

ETA: This one dates all the way back to August: "While Syrian authorities are committing crimes against humanity including systematic killings and torture, Australia is doing the unthinkable – trying to send Syrians back home."

Forgive me for the great lump of terrible refugee news...

... I simply haven't been able to get anywhere the links for weeks on end. It's been harrowing today trying to compile months' worth of news items. I know how depressing and disheartening it all is, especially in such quantity, so I'll wait a few days at least before posting more.