Dreamer Easy

Our government argues that it cannot be legally compelled to save children's lives by evacuating them from Nauru. This came up in the case of an eleven year old in danger of "imminent death". Look, is it going too far to say this is a deliberate attempt to kill her, and other children?

Urgent hearings over sick refugee children thrown into doubt (SMH, 24 October 2018)

Dutton's department challenges federal court's authority to order Nauru transfers (GA, 26 October 2018)

I've been very unwell for a couple of months. I'm so far behind on posting refugee updates that it's hard to imagine catching up completely. But let's see if I can't start with some of the more positive news.

Offshore detention case to be brought to UN against Australian Government as families hope for reunion (ABC, 216 October 2018) The Human Rights Law Centre argues that separating families is illegal under international law.

Manus Island refugees and asylum seekers petition PNG chief justice over 'unfair' delay (GA, 3 October 2018). "Crucial judgment could allow group to seek compensation and the chance to be resettled in other countries."

'The sky doesn't fall in': refugees integrate well in Australia, survey finds (GA, 14 August 2018). "Contrary to recent comments from the multicultural affairs minister, Alan Tudge, that migrants who reside together “largely communicate in their mother tongue [and] are slower integrating”, the research found that refugees were welcomed by their new communities, found it “easy” to get along, and felt a strong sense of belonging to their new homes."

The project Pauline Hanson called a ‘disgrace’ just proved her wrong (GA, 3 August 2018). "Extremists claimed that Syrian refugees would increase crime and fear in Eltham. The opposite happened."

Meanwhile Up Over: Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees (New York Times, 18 September 2018). "[A] study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost."

It's been five years since offshore detention was revived. An opinion piece in the SMH lauds the resilience of asylum seekers in the face of everything. The Refugee Council of Australia has a snapshot of the current numbers.

Call for doctors to help looming asylum seeker mental health crisis (SMH, 22 July 2018). Up to 7000 asylum seekers living in Australia will lose income support in August. Many are too ill to work. The Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub assists people facing serious mental health issues, chronic pain, and homelessness, amongst other issues. Donations are tax-deductible.

The Asylum Seeker Resources Centre is helping asylum seekers denied access to Medicare get up to date on their vaccinations. Donations to the ASRC are tax-deductible too.

1600 asylum claims could be reopened due to poorly drafted regulation (GA, 21 July 2018). The Ashmore Reef was incorrectly excised from Australia's "migration zone" sixteen years ago. That means that asylum seekers who arrived there and were denied the right to apply for refugee status might now be able to do so, as well as suing the government for unlawful detention. Give 'em hell, folks.

In family separation news, a Tamil asylum seeker, Thileepan Gnaneswaran, has been deported back to Sri Lanka, leaving his wife and daughter in Australia. Bureaucratic rules make it unlikely they'll be able to see each other again. Thileepan was arrested on his arrival in Sri Lanka but was subsequently released on bailed. He was charged with illegally leaving the country.

Aussie expats join forces in Ads Up group to help refugees find their feet in the US (ABC, 19 July 2018). I'd like to think this is who we really are.

Good news, sort of! Australia agrees to take seriously ill refugee girl from Nauru as case reaches court (GA, 5 July 2018) | Court orders Nauru refugee and son, both ill, to be flown to Australia (GA, 13 July 2017). The judge ordered they not be separated and not be returned to Nauru. As columnist Ben Doherty reminds us: Each time Australia delays bringing a sick child from Nauru, the stakes get higher (GA, 11 July 2018). Crikey argues that Australia has weaponised suicide and Peter Dutton just admitted it (25 June 2018).

Unsurprising news from the US: Detaining Immigrant Kids Is Now a Billion-Dollar Industry (Snopes.com / AP, 12 July 2018). As Down Under, so Up Over.

Definitely good news: Brisbane mum granted 12-month extension from deportation (SBS, 27 June 2018). "A ministerial intervention has stopped the deportation of a Brisbane-based Filipino mother who was facing separation from her eight year-old son." This isn't a refugee story, but in a world full of cruelty, every small kindness is to be celebrated.

Manus Island: I found a horrific 'living graveyard' (news.com.au, 9 July 2018). An extract from Asylum Seeker Resource Centre founder Kon Karapanagiotidis's book The Power of Hope.

'They are breaking him': the stateless refugee Australia may never release (GA, 4 July 2018). A Kurdish refugee from Iran arrived in 2013 at the age of 16 and is still in detention.

Asylum seeker detainees can keep mobile phones, federal court rules (ABC, 22 July 2018)

'I didn’t know how to survive': the refugees and asylum seekers hit by Coalition cuts (GA, 12 June 2018)

That poor devil with terminal lung cancer on Nauru has been transferred to a Queensland hospital, where at least he can die in peace.

First thing we do, let's thank all the lawyers: another child held on Nauru has been brought from PNG to Australia, where she can receive vital medical treatment, thanks to another successful court battle against our government by law firm Maurice Blackburn. And the National Justice Project won a court case to have a suicidal woman brought to Australia for an abortion -- she had been genitally mutilated, and Taiwan could not have provided the care she needed.

Nauru asylum seekers flown to Taiwan for medical care complain of language barriers (GA, 23 June 2018). "Some say that despite the high healthcare standards, they are sometimes unable to give informed consent."

From earlier this year: "The court heard from the government’s own health contractor, International Health and Medical Services, that the Nauru hospital was unsafe for surgery and that patients had died during routine operations." (Hence the government's secret deal with Taiwan, a country which doesn't accept refugees, to provide medical services.)

In The Nauru Diaries (Meanjin, autumn 2018), a former IHMS doctor gives a detailed account of the hopelessness of medical treatment on the island, for refugees and islanders both. To pick one example, he describes the needless death of a local ten-year-old girl: "The number of things that were done incorrectly, ignored, just plain screwed up, due to incompetence and ignorance, wilful or otherwise, was astounding. It painted a picture of a hospital utterly ill-equipped to deal with what should have been a fairly straightforward emergency presentation."

In pain and in limbo: the Nauru refugee denied an interview for US resettlement (GA, 30 May 2018). This article quickly becomes a litany of  horrific medical problems, suffered by women refugees on Nauru and left untreated.

Fears for asylum seekers as Nauru moves to cut ties to Australia's high court (GA, 2 April 2018) | Justice in Nauru curtailed as Government abolishes appeal system (ABC, 2 April 2018).

Australia props up Nauru’s ‘out of control’ president (The Saturday Paper, 7 April 2018).

Nauru blocks ABC from Pacific forum over 'bias and false reporting' (GA, 2 July 2018)

Neither Australian Or PNG Gov’t Informed Family Of Man Who Died On Manus Island (Pedestrian, 23 May 2018). Good gods, they can't even bureaucrat properly.

Doctors beg Australian Border Force to move terminally ill refugee off Nauru (GA, 23 May 2018). I thought perhaps the problem was that the dying man has family in Afghanistan and could apply to bring them to Australia, but apparently they won't even send him to Taiwan, which doesn't accept refugees. (The former head of the ABF has admitted that it has a history of blocking medically necessary transfers.)

White South African farmers won't get special treatment, despite Peter Dutton's earlier claims (ABC, 22 May 2018). I wonder if this was ever a serious proposal, or just dog-whistling.

Combined Refugee Action Group reports that there was a fire in the Hillside detention centre on Manus. No-one was hurt, but the men have been left without beds or food.

Asylum seekers 'face destitution' as income support and housing cut off (GA, 17 May 2018). "The federal government is taking away income support and housing from up to 100 refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru who are currently in Australia for medical treatment. The group... includes families, elderly people and pregnant women..." Vinnies characterises this cut as part of a general move by the government to divest itself of its legal responsibility to care for refugees, outsourcing that responsibility to charities and community groups. "Most of those targeted this week were families with young children, who were given six weeks to find new accommodation and a source of income."

Australia's cut to healthcare on Manus Island 'inexplicable', Amnesty says (GA, 18 May 2018). "Group criticises counselling services cut when Manus refugees have one of highest mental illness rates in world." Refugees with physical medical problems needing urgent attention have been left waiting for months or years. IMHO all this is entirely explicable: our government hopes the sick men will either die on Manus, or return to their home countries and die there, out of sight.

As others see us: There's No Escape From Australia's Refugee Gulag (Foreign Policy, 30 April 2018).

Following up on the lies about "African gangs": The truth about crime and ethnicity (The Age, 28 April 2018).

The gay, transgender and bisexual men on Manus are forced into silence (GA, 16 May 2018). "No one knows how many gay, transgender or bisexual refugees live on Manus, but what is clear is that the suffering they experienced in their countries has been repeated on Manus in a disastrous way."

Children with gender dysphoria no longer have to seek court approval to undergo surgery (ABC, March 16 2018). "The Family Court has decided it will no longer intervene in cases where children with gender dysphoria have the permission of their parents and treating doctors to undergo surgery."

The hidden $100,000 price tag on being transgender (ABC, 2 March 2018). Transitioning ain't cheap.

On Liking Women (N+1 Magazine 30, winter 2018). Long, entertaining and insightful look at transphobia and feminism, often very funny. Includes a quote from Robin Morgan I've long puzzled over: "... thirty-two years of suffering in this androcentric society, and of surviving, have earned me the title 'woman'". I myself didn't have to do anything to earn the title; it was assigned to me by "this androcentric society". OTOH, there's this quote from transphobe Sheila Jeffreys - "Transgenderism on the part of men can be seen as a ruthless appropriation of women's experience and existence." Not this little black gender non-conforming duck.

The Politics of Your Piffling Little Planet (The Caretaker)
Ms Elizabeth Sandifer destroys Gareth Roberts.

Due to illness, I missed the refugee march today. Here is Manus detainee Mohammad Imran's letter to be read on Palm Sunday.(Here's an interview with Imran, about the Rohingy a, from earlier this year.)

Another suicidal child, this time a ten-year-old boy, has been removed from Nauru despite our government's best legal efforts to keep him there.

Peter Dutton is pressing ahead with humanitarian visas for white South African farmers, commenting: "I'm completely blind as to somebody's skin colour, it makes no difference to me" and borrowing a leaf from President Trump's playbook by declaring media criticism "fake news".

Papua New Guinea has demanded to know when Australia will remove the refugees who remain on Manus Island. So far, 84 of about 600 men have escaped to the United States thanks to the refugee swap deal.

'It’s freedom': Rohingya refugee reaches Florida after horror of Australian detention (GA, 23 February 2018)

Swapped from Manus to Missouri (SBS, 20 February 2018)

'Negative status' asylum seekers on Manus Island left hanging in legal limbo, unable to leave or stay (ABC, 7 March 2018)
Paging Mr. Kafka.

Australia to train Myanmar military despite ethnic cleansing accusations (GA, 6 March 2018). "Defence department spend continues despite claims treatment of Rohingya bears 'hallmarks of a genocide'".

Scathing UN migration report mars Australia's first week on human rights council (GA, 2 March 2018)
Australia's refugee policies are part of a worldwide problem, as the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer makes clear: "The primary cause for the massive abuse suffered by migrants in all regions of the world, including torture, rape, enslavement, trafficking and murder, is neither migration itself, nor organised crime, or the corruption of individual officials, but the growing tendency of states to base their official migration policies and practices on deterrence, criminalisation and discrimination, rather than protection, human rights and non-discrimination. States have initiated an escalating cycle of repression and deterrence designed to discourage new arrivals, and involving measures such as the criminalisation and detention of irregular migrants, the separation of family members, inadequate reception conditions and medical care, and the denial or excessive prolongation of status determination or habeas corpus proceedings, including expedited returns in the absence of such proceedings." (See also Why we all need to read ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ (Medium.com, 13 February 2017)).

Refugee visas a 'lower priority' not 'slowed down', ASIO boss says (ABC, 28 February 2018)
Paging Mr. Kafka again.

Great news! Tamil asylum seeker family remains in Australia after last-minute reprieve (GA, 14 March 2018)
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/14/tamil-asylum-seeker-family-remains-in-australia-after-last-minute-reprieve
Priya and family were literally taken off the plane to Sri Lanka. Their local community in Bileola deserve credit for rallying around the family.

Good news, sort of! Judge orders Nauru refugee girl's transfer to Australia over suicide risk (GA, 10 February 2018)
The judge: “The injury or damage the applicant may suffer if an injunction is refused – death or a further serious deterioration in her health – carries far more weight in the balance than the wasted expenditure the commonwealth may suffer if an injunction is granted.”

Cuts leave asylum seekers in Australia at risk of destitution, say advocates (GA, 9 March 2018)
"Some of those who have had their status resolution support service (SRSS) cut arrived in Australia as unaccompanied minors, have since graduated from high school here and won scholarships to university. With the withdrawal of financial support, some have since withdrawn from university because they can not survive while studying." These are future Australians - it's in our own interest to see that they have the best possible education.

More on the mould: Home Affairs spent $50,000 on 'dangerous' mould cleaner to combat Nauru infestation (SBS, 27 February 2018)
The steam cleaner, a "giant water blaster", was unsuitable for cleaning tents.