Category Archives: Migration

Siev X: man denies involvement in 2001 people-smuggling operation that ended in significant deaths

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Maythem Kamil Radhi pleads not guilty facilitating the proposed entry of non-citizens into Australia

More than 20 years after the asylum seeker boat known as the Siev X sank, causing a “significant number” of deaths, a man has denied involvement in an alleged people-smuggling operation in an Australian court.

Appearing in the Brisbane supreme court on Monday, Maythem Kamil Radhi pleaded not guilty to facilitating the proposed entry of at least five non-citizens into Australia between 1 July and 19 October 2001.

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Home Office threatens to send heavily pregnant rape survivor to Rwanda

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Eritrean woman, 28, in acute distress having spent most of her life in search of safety

A heavily pregnant rape survivor from Eritrea has been threatened with forced removal to Rwanda by the Home Office.

Human rights campaigners say it is the “most egregious” case they have come across so far in the government’s scheme to outsource the processing of UK asylum claims to the east African country.

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First British woman and her child repatriated to UK from Syrian camp

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Woman, said to have been trafficked, is only adult allowed back since end of Islamic State ground war

A British woman and her child have been repatriated from a Syrian camp, the first time an adult has been allowed to come back to the UK from detention since the end of the ground war against Islamic State.

The Foreign Office said that British policy to those held in Syria remained unchanged, and that it considered requests for help on “a case by case basis”, but campaigners said it was a significant first step.

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Record numbers of people risking lives to cross Darién Gap to US

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More than 150,000 fleeing poverty have reached Panama so far this year in pursuit of American dream

The humanitarian crisis in Darién Gap has reached new heights as medical NGOs are overwhelmed by the record numbers of people risking their lives to cross the lawless strip of jungle in Latin America en route to the US.

An exodus of Venezuelans fleeing socioeconomic collapse has led to more people embarking on the perilous journey across the only land bridge connecting South and North America so far this year than in the entirety of 2021, Panamanian authorities say.

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Many dead in two separate boat disasters off Greek coast

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At least 22 people dead, with many more missing, in two separate incidents hundreds of miles apart

Search and rescue operations are under way in the west and east of Greece after refugees desperate to reach Europe were involved in two separate maritime disasters in less than a day, the country’s coastguard said.

Almost 12 hours after two vessels sank in the Aegean sea, rescue workers hampered by inclement weather were in a race against the clock on Thursday to find survivors as authorities reported that at least 16 women and a boy had died when an overloaded boat capsized east of the island of Lesbos.

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Young and sick children to be first Australians repatriated from Syrian detention camps

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About 60 wives, sons and daughters of slain or jailed IS combatants to be rescued from Roj camp, but some women face arrest upon return to Australia

The youngest, most unwell and most vulnerable of the Australian children currently held in squalid Syrian detention camps will be the first ones repatriated to Australia. But some of their mothers could face arrest – and potential charges – upon return to the country.

The Australian government is currently implementing plans to repatriate about 60 Australian women and children – wives, sons and daughters of slain or jailed Islamic State combatants – who have been held for more than three years in the dangerous detention camps in north-east Syria.

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Australia-New Zealand refugee deal: UN blames mental health toll after just 36 people take up offer

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UN refugee agency says many refugees have been traumatised by years in Australian detention camps, hampering uptake of the offer

In nearly six months, just 36 people have taken up New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees held in Australian detention camps such as Nauru, with UN’s refugee agency saying the brutality of Australia’s immigration regime is partly to blame.

In March 2022, Australia’s government accepted a longstanding offer from New Zealand to resettle up to 450 refugees from Australia’s regional processing centres over the next three years, at a rate of up to 150 per year. But after nearly six months, uptake has been slow – stymied by the dire mental health of prospective applicants.

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Indonesians wait for UK farm jobs after paying deposits of up to £2,500

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Exclusive: Workers say they have been charged to guarantee a job – which may be illegal – and have not yet had an interview

Indonesians dreaming of working in Britain are understood to have paid deposits of up to £2,500 to a Jakarta agency to “guarantee” jobs on UK farms that have not yet materialised.

Labour experts say a deposit is considered a work-finding fee, which is illegal in the UK and Indonesia.

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Death toll from sinking of Lebanon boat rises to 94

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Survivors say boat that sank off Syrian coast had between 120 and 150 people onboard

The death toll from a boat that sank off the Syrian coast after sailing from Lebanon earlier this week has risen to 94, Syrian state TV said on Saturday.

The country’s transport ministry has quoted survivors as saying the boat left Lebanon’s northern Minyeh region on Tuesday bound for Europe with between 120 and 150 people onboard.

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Scores dead in worst sinking of migrant boat from Lebanon in recent years

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At least 77 people drowned and many still missing after shipwreck off coast of Syria

At least 77 people have drowned after the migrant boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria’s coast, the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years, amid fears the death toll could be far higher.

The country, which has been mired since 2019 in a financial crisis the World Bank has described as one of the worst in modern times, has become a launchpad for migration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamouring to leave the country.

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Advocates for migrants who were sent to Martha’s Vineyard sue Ron DeSantis

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Suit says Venezuelans were ‘used as political pawns’ in a ‘fraudulent and discriminatory’ scheme

Attorneys representing the Venezuelan migrants and refugees allegedly duped into flying to the wealthy island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts have filed a class-action civil rights lawsuit against the Florida governor and other state officials.

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), a Boston-based legal advocacy group, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday challenging what it called the “fraudulent and discriminatory” scheme to charter private planes to transport almost 50 vulnerable people, including children as young as two, from San Antonio, Texas, via Florida, to Martha’s Vineyard last week without liaising to arrange shelter and other resources.

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Texas sends another busload of migrants to Kamala Harris’s home

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About 50 mainly Venezuelan migrants including a baby deposited unannounced at Naval Observatory in Washington

About 50 migrants, including a one-month-old baby, have been sent in a bus from Texas to the Washington DC residence of Vice-President Kamala Harris, in the latest move by Republican-led states to transfer migrants unannounced across the country.

The bus let off the migrants, who are believed to be mostly Venezuelan, outside the Naval Observatory, the traditional home of US vice-presidents, on Saturday morning.

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Revealed: Suella Braverman sets Home Office ‘No boats crossing the Channel’ target

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UK’s new home secretary upsets civil servants with speech on migrants, trashy TV and back-to-office call

The new home secretary has already prompted consternation among Home Office officials after telling them she wants to ban all small boats crossing the Channel, the Observer has learned.

During her inaugural address to departmental staff last Wednesday, Suella Braverman said a top priority would be stopping all Channel crossings. She has also asked all staff to watch “trashy TV” to help their “mental wellbeing”, a source said, specifically citing Channel 4’s Married at First Sight and First Dates as well as Love Island.

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How red flags were brushed aside to push through Rwanda deal

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Documents disclosed to high court case show repeated warnings about asylum processing plan

Until the then home secretary Priti Patel and Rwanda’s foreign minister, Vincent Biruta, sat together at a table in Kigali on 14 April and signed a deal to send asylum seekers to the east African country, few thought the agreement would actually happen.

Rumours had swirled for months about the controversial plans but nothing had come of previous Home Office ideas, both confirmed and unconfirmed, to halt the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats, including wave machines in the Channel and a policy to turn around dinghies.

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The ‘egregious’ history of likely new Nauru operator includes allegations of gang rape and murder in its US prisons

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A Guardian investigation reveals the firm has been accused of ‘gross negligence’ that allegedly led to gang rape, murder and mistaken solitary confinement in its US facilities

The US private prisons operator likely to take over Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru has previously been accused of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures that allegedly led to the gang-rape of a woman in detention, the murder of two retirees by escaped prisoners, and the months-long solitary confinement of a US citizen wrongfully held in immigration detention.

The Department of Home Affairs is finalising negotiations with the US-based Management and Training Corporation, which the department has announced as its preferred tenderer to provide “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” for Australia’s offshore regime on Nauru from next month. No contracts have yet been signed.

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Eight killed and dozens rescued from river at hazardous US-Mexico border crossing

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Days of heavy rain caused dangerous currents in the Rio Grande in an area where people frequently cross into Texas

At least eight people were found dead in the Rio Grande while attempting a hazardous crossing in Texas, officials said on Friday.

The discovery was made by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Mexican officials on Thursday while responding to a large number of people attempting to migrate across the river near the city of Eagle Pass.

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Increased migration must come with planning and expanded services, councils say

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Fairfield mayor says ‘people are suffering’ due to lack of affordable housing in migrant communities as PM pledges $575m investment

Increasing Australia’s migration intake without improving key services will increase the strain on housing, hospitals and schools as well as inflation, councils in migrant communities have said.

The Albanese government on Friday announced at its jobs and skills summit it would lifting the migrant intake to 195,000 in 2022-23, from the current 160,000 cap, addressing calls from businesses for more skilled workers to be brought in to Australia to meet shortages. A review planned for next February would set intake levels for coming years.

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Labor to relax work tests for pensioners following jobs and skills summit – as it happened

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the policy change will cost around $55m, and the government will do further costs. This blog is now closed

Tasmanian Tafe needs to be fit for purpose before additional places can make a difference, Lambie says

The government yesterday kicked off the jobs and skills summit with the announcement of 180,000 more free Tafe places.

We certainly would like to do more, but some of these issues, of course, are within the budget constraints, which are there … we have inherited $1tn of debt. Yes, it is a worthy idea and worthy of consideration.

No, that’s not on the agenda. But it is a good thing that people are able to put forward ideas.

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First refugee families welcomed to Australia under new community sponsorship program

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Shadi Al Daoud says chance for family to restart their lives on NSW Central Coast with support of local church is a dream come true

Ten-year-old George Al Daoud arrives in Australia with a declaration. “My English is … medium,” he announces, smiling broadly.

George and his family are among the fortunate first to be resettled in Australia under the new Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot, which allows community groups across the country to sponsor new refugees.

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Business lobby joins unions in calling for lift in minimum wages for skilled visa workers

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Business Council of Australia also calls for migrant intake boost as Greens set up Senate standoff to raise wages in female-dominated industries

Big business has agreed with unions that the pay floor for temporary skilled visa workers should be raised to $90,000,in a split with smaller employer organisations that warned this could “kill” migration.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has also called for a two-year boost to the annual migration intake to 220,000 a year in a submission ahead of next week’s jobs and skills summit.

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