Category Archives: Australian immigration and asylum

Drugs, alcohol and ‘horrendous’ attacks in detention centres leave ABF reeling

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Exclusive: Commissioner Michael Outram appeals for greater powers to manage ‘high level of risk’ and worrying rates of addiction in facilities

The commissioner of the Australian Border Force is appealing to the government for increased search powers to crack down on drugs and alcohol in immigration detention, where he says addiction is rife and violence is on the rise.

After “quite horrendous assaults” on Serco staff in detention centres, Michael Outram said expanded search powers “would be of great assistance” to reduce the “high level of threat and risk” posed by detainees with access to drugs and alcohol.

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Indonesian boys jailed by Australia claim no translation provided in court

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Minors who were locked up in adult prisons for people smuggling say they could not understand proceedings and thought they were going home

Vulnerable Indonesian children say they were either given no interpreter or an interpreter who spoke the wrong language during deeply flawed people smuggling prosecutions, leaving them unable to understand court proceedings before their imprisonment by Australia in maximum security adult jails.

The Australian government last year agreed to pay $27.5m in compensation to more than 200 Indonesians who were wrongfully prosecuted and detained as adult people smugglers while they were children.

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Job threat for Australian university staff as claims international student cuts are being weaponised

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Leading experts have described Labor’s controversial migration policy as a ‘recipe for chaos’ set to hit campuses

University staff have been threatened with deep job cuts because of the federal government’s proposed international student cap, raising concerns the controversial policy is being weaponised as an “excuse” to slash jobs.

The draft bill, introduced to parliament last month, would give the education minister powers to set a maximum number of new international student enrolments. Leading policy experts have described it as a “recipe for chaos”.

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Curfews on released detainees are not punitive and less onerous than Covid restrictions, commonwealth says

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Ankle bracelets only ‘produce slight discomfort or embarrassment’ and can be hidden under clothes, commonwealth tells high court

Curfews imposed on non-citizens released from immigration detention are not punitive because they are less “onerous” than the Covid-19 curfews in Victoria and New South Wales, the federal government has suggested.

The commonwealth makes that claim in its defence to a legal challenge against the electronic monitoring and curfews imposed on people released as a result of the high court’s ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful.

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New ‘targeted’ search in Samantha Murphy investigation – as it happened

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Sydney’s light rail network disrupted today amid industrial action

A reminder for Sydney commuters that the light rail network will be disrupted today amid planned industrial action.

Recent estimates have Australians consuming around 3,300,000 bags of cocaine per year, with every single one of them bought off the black market. There is no way of knowing whether any of them have been cut with deadly substances like fentanyl or nitazene.

We have to acknowledge that the majority of people who use cocaine do so recreationally and there is absolutely no chance of stopping people using the drug. We therefore need to consider all options to reduce harm, including regulating cocaine in a similar way to how we regulate alcohol.

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King’s birthday honours list 2024: from a nun who spent 26 days outside parliament to ‘Australia’s job queen’

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Refugee advocate Sister Jane Keogh, rich lister Sarina Russo, Asio chief Mike Burgess and ex-premiers Dan Andrews and Mark McGowan among award recipients

Two former state premiers, a veteran refugee advocate and one of Australia’s richest women are among the hundreds of Australians to receive awards in this year’s King’s birthday honours.

While there are plenty of notable names sprinkled among the 737 Australians recognised, the governor general, David Hurley, noted that “the vast majority” are those quietly making a huge impact in their communities.

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Non-citizen Andrew Giles wanted to be ‘rid of’ cannot be deported, court rules

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Exclusive: Safwat Abdel-Hady may now be able to pursue damages for false imprisonment after court found his detention was not authorised by Migration Act

A non-citizen convicted of offences related to alleged drink-spiking who Andrew Giles said he wanted to be “rid of” has had a major win in court, with the commonwealth conceding he cannot be deported.

On Tuesday the federal circuit court made declarations that “there was no real prospect of removal” of businessman Safwat Abdel-Hady currently or in the period 28 July 2022 to 13 February 2024 and his detention was not authorised by the Migration Act for those 18 months.

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Andrew Giles issues new rules for visa cancellations that make community safety ‘highest priority’

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Immigration minister announces direction 110 after previous rules used to overturn visa cancellations for non-citizens who committed serious offences

New rules on visa cancellation that emphasise the importance of community protection and impact on victims of crime will still allow decision-makers to favour factors other than safety as their paramount consideration.

On Friday the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, revealed he had made ministerial direction 110 “strengthening our cancellation system to better reflect community expectations” after a spate of cases of visa cancellations of non-citizens who had committed serious offences being overturned by an independent tribunal. The new rules will be in force from 21 June.

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Border force apologises for failing to prevent ‘misconduct’ after reports found bullying and harassment

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Exclusive: Apology issued to staff includes pledge ‘to foster a safe, inclusive, empowered, accountable and supportive workplace’

The Australian Border Force has apologised to its staff for failing to “prevent workplace misconduct from occurring” after two damning reports found sexual discrimination and harassment rife in the ABF.

The ABF’s senior leadership issued the apology in May, after Australian Human Rights Commission reports into the culture of the marine unit and the broader ABF found bullying and harassment “are normalised” in some sections of the workforce.

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Number of asylum seekers on Nauru jumps as Australia transfers 37 people who arrived by boat

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Deterrence policy against asylum seeker boats is under strain, with three vessels arriving in a week in May

The number of asylum seekers on Nauru appears to have topped 100, with a further two groups of 37 people sent to the Pacific Island.

The people, classified as “unauthorised maritime arrivals”, include 33 Bangladeshis who were found on Christmas Island on 9 May, one of who is a woman. Their boat was destroyed by bad weather.

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Australia politics live: $600,000 speechwriter not responsible for Bill Shorten’s ‘zingers’, Matt Keogh says

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Workplace relations minister Tony Burke has conceded role wouldn’t ordinarily be paid that much. Follow today’s news headlines live

For a bit of a change of pace, you may enjoy this essay from Malcolm Turnbull in Foreign Affairs, where he outlines how he believes world leaders can deal with a second Trump presidency.

Turnbull bases a lot of his arguments on his own dealings with Donald Trump while prime minister. He runs through the infamous refugee deal phone call (the transcript of which was leaked) and the trade back-and-forths over tariffs.

The caricature of Trump as a one-dimensional, irrational monster is so entrenched that many forget that he can be, when it suits him, intelligently transactional. Like most bullies, he will bend others to his will when he can, and when he cannot, he will try to make a deal. But to get to the deal-making stage, Trump’s counterparts have to stand up to the bullying first.

I would certainly like to see the performance lifted. I would like to see better outcomes, particularly for the more vulnerable cohorts.

We also have work going on, in response to a parliamentary inquiry into the employment services system, going on in parallel to overseeing this new system.

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Former ADF chief to report on Zomi Frankcom’s Gaza aid convoy death in ‘coming weeks’ – as it happened

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Wage increase should be more than inflation so workers get real pay rise: McManus

Sally McManus says workers are still coming from behind:

I won’t be too happy if it’s 3.5%. That’s smack on inflation. I think it should be more than inflation.

People should see a real wage increase.

One of the things that, you know, some people argue is … this weird wage price spiral idea which has been well and truly debunked over the last few years.

Just because one group of workers get a pay rise, like, the lowest paid … that’s not going to automatically flow on to everyone else.

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Australia news live: Sydney drenched by month of rain in day; man arrested after woman found dead in Darwin

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The Coalition has questioned why the government is using drones to monitor people released from immigration detention.

Cabinet minister Murray Watt confirmed on Insiders earlier that “drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in, in for example ensuring that it’s not too close to schools or other areas that they’re not supposed to be living close to.”

There’s a couple of issues here. One, either Andrew Giles accidentally and casually disclosed a previously secret drone surveillance program operating domestically in Australia in a Sky News interview with your colleague Kieran Gilbert. Or he made it up and it’s not actually happening at all.

And in a fresh statement provided by the Department of Home Affairs to SBS, I understand yesterday afternoon, they refer to using aerial surveillance to look at people’s locations and other buildings in the area.

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Labor minister denies direction 99 was a mistake and says community safety ‘number one priority’

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Federal cabinet minister Murray Watt also claims Labor has deported more criminals in its first year than under Peter Dutton’s reign

A new ministerial direction on deporting foreign-born criminals will prioritise “community safety” over their ties to Australia, federal cabinet minister Murray Watt has said as he denied the government made a mistake with the controversial “direction 99”.

But mystery still surrounds the government’s purported use of drones to monitor people released from immigration detention, with no confirmation of which agency is operating them.

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Coalition’s ex-detainee curfew amendments made regime unlawful, high court toldin high court

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Exclusive: Lawyers for YBFZ argue default ankle bracelets and curfews are punitive and breach the separation of executive and judiciary

Coalition amendments beefing up the Albanese government’s regime of electronic monitoring and curfews for people released from immigration detention have been cited in the high court as a key reason to strike the laws down.

Lawyers for YBFZ, a stateless man from Eritrea challenging the laws, have argued the curfews are unconstitutional, in part, because the default is that they are imposed on all non-citizens unless the minister is satisfied the condition is not necessary to protect the community.

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Australia politics live: government has discretion over acting on ICC arrest warrants, officials say

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Meanwhile, government to rewrite visa cancellation rules after independent tribunal gave non-citizens with serious criminal convictions their visas back. Follow the day’s news live

Andrew Giles was asked why he wasn’t told about what was happening with his directive in the tribunals – why there weren’t meetings to receive updates.

He said there were meetings with his department which were taking place “pretty regularly”.

What has been unacceptable is the fact that these AAT decisions to set aside cancellations that were made under section 99 that were made by this government by my department – we were not advised, I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal.

That’s the issue that I’m deeply concerned about. And that’s what I’m focusing on fixing now.

There are around 30 that I’ve called up as a matter of absolute urgency and they are dealt with through the day and night.

I’m gonna get to the bottom of this – a protocol that I put in place was not adhered to, that is entirely unsatisfactory. As I said, I’m now focused on dealing with the urgent issue which is the cancellation consideration, I put in place a new protocol and I want to get to the bottom of what happened and why.

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Two murderers and 26 sex offenders released under NZYQ ruling not electronically monitored

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ABF commissioner tells Senate there is a ‘big difference between some murders and other murders’

At least two murderers or attempted murderers and 26 sex offenders released from immigration detention are not required to wear an electronic ankle monitor or observe a curfew.

Australian Border Force officials revealed at Senate estimates on Wednesday that half of the 153 non-citizens released as a result of the high court’s ruling on indefinite detention are not subject to electronic monitoring, including some convicted of serious offences.

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Change in visa rules was to apply in absence of ‘serious offending or family violence’, Andrew Giles was told

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Labor is standing by ‘ministerial direction 99’ despite cases that appear at odds with advice given in early 2023

A rule change that meant a non-citizen’s ties to Australia would be considered before their visa was cancelled was intended to target people without “serious offending or family violence”, the immigration minister was told in early 2023.

But reports detailing the criminal history of some non-citizens who have had their visas restored appear at odds with the intention of that advice to Andrew Giles – leading the Coalition to pledge it would tear up the new rules if elected.

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Serco concealed ‘inappropriate’ use of firefighting equipment to control Christmas Island riots

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Exclusive: Ombudsman’s report says devices ‘discharged directly on’ detainees and into areas where people retreated, including those not involved in riots

The services company Serco was fined for having “concealed” the “inappropriate” use of firefighting equipment for crowd control at the Christmas Island detention centre – including on people not involved in riots.

The commonwealth ombudsman revealed two incidents that occurred in early 2022 in reports raising its concerns about “apparent pre-planned and systematic use of firefighting equipment against people held in detention”.

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Dutton won’t rule out a Coalition government quitting ICC – as it happened

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Chris Bowen says nuclear energy is ‘slow, expensive and risky’

Chris Bowen is also asked about the latest CSIRO report released today, showing electricity from nuclear power in Australia would be at least 50% more expensive than solar and wind.

CSIRO and Aemo have looked at large-scale nuclear for the first time. It finds that that would be far more expensive than renewables, despite claims from the opposition – quite inappropriate attacks on CSIRO and Aemo from the opposition, that they hadn’t counted the cost of transmission. The cost of transmission and storage is counted, and still renewables comes out as the cheapest.

And of course, CSIRO points out that nuclear will be … very slow to build. So nuclear is slow and expensive and is risky when it comes to the reliability of Australia’s energy system.

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