Category Archives: Australian immigration and asylum

‘Love conquered all’: Biloela welcomes home Nadesalingam family after four years

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Family ecstatic to be back in small Queensland town that fought so hard to free them, but they still seek permanent protection

The Nadesalingam family have finally touched down in Biloela, four years after they were taken from their home by the Australian Border Force.

As the family walked out of Thangool airport on Friday, Priya dropped to her knees and kissed the ground.

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Albanese vows to reconsider Australia’s deportations rules in olive branch to New Zealand

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Jacinda Ardern welcomes ‘reset’ in trans-Tasman relationship after years of tension over visa cancellations on character grounds

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has vowed to consider changing how the government handles visa cancellations in an olive branch to ease longstanding tensions with New Zealand.

The pledge to look at tweaking the scheme prompted the visiting New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to declare the talks in Sydney on Friday allowed for “a reset” in the trans-Tasman relationship.

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Australian visa backlog keeping engineers out of country amid skills shortage

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Wait time for 476 visa, for overseas graduates who want to work or study in Australia for up to 18 months, has blown out to 41 months

Australia’s vast visa backlog is trapping engineering graduates out of the country for up to four years, compounding the skills shortages and causing heartache, frustration and depression among applicants.

The engineering job vacancy rate has increased 97% in 12 months, something the main industry body, Engineers Australia, fears could have a “catastrophic” impact, including by delaying major infrastructure projects relied upon for the nation’s economic recovery.

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New Zealand-born woman abused in Australian state care wins appeal against ‘501’ deportation

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Tribunal finds her offending was ‘directly related’ to factors including sexual abuse when she was in the care of Australian authorities

A New Zealand-born woman has successfully appealed being deported from Australia under its controversial “501” migration law after a tribunal found her offending was directly related to being abused in Australian state care as a child.

The woman, whose name is withheld, arrived in Australia when she was seven years old with her mother and two siblings, and has lived there for several decades.

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Watchdog won’t investigate AFP reliance on flawed technique to prosecute Indonesian boys

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Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity says complaint about federal police not about corruption so does not fall within its remit

Australia’s law enforcement integrity watchdog refused to investigate Australian federal police who relied on a deeply flawed technique to use false dates of birth on sworn legal documents to prosecute Indonesian children as adult people smugglers.

Earlier this year, the Guardian used a trove of internal documents to show how police relied on deeply flawed evidence to alter the dates of birth given to them by Indonesian children found crewing asylum boats in 2009 and 2010.

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After four years, Murugappan family begin journey home to Biloela

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Anthony Albanese says he is proud to see Tamil family returning home, but their long-term status remains unresolved

The family of Tamil asylum seekers held in detention for more than four years have finally begun their journey home to the central Queensland town of Biloela.

Speaking from Perth airport on Wednesday, Priya Murugappan, also known as Priya Nadesalingam, thanked the community in Western Australia, where the family has spent the past 12 months, before beginning the journey east.

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Man who had Australian visa cancelled challenges government’s ability to keep evidence secret

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Lawyers for Lebanese man tell high court that national security information should not be kept completely secret from parties

Lawyers for a man whose visa was cancelled because of an adverse Asio assessment have argued courts cannot be required to keep evidence completely secret.

The high court began hearing the man’s case on Tuesday. It challenges the federal government’s ability to keep national security information secret in merits reviews and appeals.

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‘Unprecedented’ delays at Australian passport office prompt fears of cancelled travel plans

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People planning an overseas trip may face cancelled or delayed travel arrangements as waiting times balloon out

Australians planning an overseas trip are facing the possibility of cancelled or delayed travel plans as the Australian passport office buckles under post-Covid-restrictions demand.

The “unprecedented” passport processing delays have resulted in people queueing for hours at passport offices and people spending hours calling to check for updates on their documents.

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Murugappan family to return to Biloela on bridging visas

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Tamil family can return to Queensland town while their immigration status is resolved, Labor’s Jim Chalmers says

The Murugappan family is set to return home, to the rural Queensland town of Biloela.

The interim home affairs minister, Jim Chalmers, said on Friday afternoon that he had exercised his powers under the Migration Act to give them bridging visas, fulfilling a pre-election promise to let them go home.

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Scott Morrison’s staff urged border force to publicise Sri Lankan boat interception on election day

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ABF officials made it clear publication of the interception could only proceed on the authority of the home affairs minister, Guardian Australia understands

Scott Morrison’s staff conveyed a clear message to border force officials through Karen Andrews’ office on election day that they wanted the department to publicise the interception of a boat from Sri Lanka, Guardian Australia understands.

While an investigation into the politically charged incident is ongoing, people familiar with the events last Saturday have confirmed that on current information, staff working for Andrews made it clear to officials that Morrison wanted the boat interception publicised. They also conveyed that they wanted the opposition briefed about the incident, given the caretaker convention was in force.

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Refugee children handed anti-illegal migration playing cards, Australian charity says

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Cards branded with Australian government’s ‘Zero Chance’ logo and QR code to border force website distributed in Indonesia

Playing cards adorned with the Australian government’s “Zero Chance” campaign against “illegal migration” were distributed to refugee children in Indonesia by people trespassing on school grounds, the charity running the school alleges.

The playing cards were allegedly given to children during break time at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre in west Java.

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Election day press release about asylum seeker boats ‘a disgrace’, Richard Marles says

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Acting prime minister says information released by Liberal party about Sri Lankan boats being intercepted should not have been made public

The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, says the issuing of an election day press release about the interception of an asylum seeker boat was a “disgrace” and has demanded an explanation from public servants.

The media release paved the way for a last-minute scare campaign run by the New South Wales Liberals, which pushed texts to voters across key electorates, warning them the only way they could maintain secure borders was by voting Liberal.

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New Zealand woman held in Villawood detention centre found dead, detainees say

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Activists say woman’s death is an example of people with serious mental health problems being detained without adequate care

Advocates and detainees say a woman’s body was found at Villawood detention centre on Sunday morning.

The New Zealand woman was found dead about 10.45am, shortly after a room search had been conducted by Serco officers. She is believed to have killed herself.

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Labor victory means Murugappan family set to return home to Biloela

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After four years in immigration detention, the election would produce an all-or-nothing result for the Tamil asylum seekers

About 11pm on election night in the central Queensland town of Biloela, Angela Fredericks phoned her absent friend.

“Priya, you are coming home,” she said.

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Scott Morrison breaks own rule against commenting on ‘on-water matters’ to confirm asylum boat intercepted

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PM says Australians ‘need to vote Liberal and Nationals’ so he can stop future boats, despite Labor’s identical policy on boat turnbacks

Scott Morrison has breached his own rule against commenting on “on-water matters”, confirming an asylum seeker boat from Sri Lanka has been intercepted.

In a last-ditch pitch to voters on election day, Morrison told Australians they “need to vote Liberal and Nationals” for him to be there to stop future boats, despite Labor having an identical policy to intercept and turn back boats where safe to do so.

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Australian federal election 2022 live: Plibersek says Albanese has a ‘tough job’ as polls tighten

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AEC concedes some Covid-positive Australians ‘may not be able to vote’: prime minister responds after Labor announces policy costings; Covid and illness lead to drop in working hours; nation records at least 52 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s developments live

Scott and Jenny Morrison are visiting Whitemore in the Labor-held electorate of Lyons in Tasmania this morning.

Brian Mitchell holds Lyons on a margin of 5.2%, although his buffer was inflated by the disendorsement of his Liberal opponent mid-campaign in 2019 for anti-Islamic social media posts. Morrison is still on the offence, seeking gains to offset expected losses elsewhere.

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Immigration detainees transferred from Melbourne to Christmas Island amid heated protests

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Australian Border Force confirms 12 detainees, including one refugee, had visas revoked under Migration Act on character grounds

The Australian Border Force has confirmed the transfer of 12 immigration centre detainees to Christmas Island, 24-hours after a heated clash between police and protesters outside a Melbourne detention centre on Tuesday.

Guardian Australia understands that 12 detainees, including one person whose refugee status has been approved, were woken by guards at the Melbourne International Transit Accommodation centre early yesterday morning and told they would be moved to Christmas Island.

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Expert warned against wrist X-rays used by AFP to prosecute children as adult people smugglers

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Radiologist James Christie’s court evidence said technique had no scientific validity and was never intended to assess age

An expert radiologist says Australian federal police continued to use wrist X-rays to prosecute children as adult people smugglers after he had given unequivocal evidence of the technique’s unreliability, something he now says was “just wrong” and akin to “child abuse”.

Last week, six Indonesian boys won a major case overturning their convictions as adult people smugglers in 2010 amid the highly charged political atmosphere around border protection.

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‘They were tiny’: the Indonesians still fighting their conviction as adults in Australia

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Anto and Samsul Bahar were 15 when they were jailed in a maximum security facility in Western Australia

Staring at the camera, Anto’s face, wide-eyed and child-like, invites a simple question.

How could anyone, let alone Australia’s federal crime fighting agency, see an adult gazing back at them?

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Refugees resettled in New Zealand from Australia to be permanently banned from returning

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Government says refugees will be stopped at border, even if they have become New Zealand citizens

Refugees resettled in New Zealand from Australia will be unable to return even if they’ve become New Zealand citizens, the Morrison government has announced.

The home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, revealed on Tuesday that Australia will prevent the resettlement deal for 450 refugees from becoming a “back door” by stopping would-be travellers at the border.

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