Category Archives: Nauru

Pacific’s fight against Covid-19 hamstrung by lack of clean water

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Access to clean, safe drinking water across the Pacific is the lowest of any region in the world, raising fears for the rapid spread of coronavirus

Papua New Guinea’s battle against a climbing rate of Covid-19 infections is being hampered by the most basic of shortages – access to clean water –public health experts have warned.

Case numbers have jumped from just 11 cases two months ago to 424 on Friday, with four deaths. And efforts to contain escalating case numbers throughout the archipelago, and to prevent outbreaks across the Pacific region, are being hamstrung because thousands cannot access clean water for hand-washing and cleaning, the region’s key development agency says.

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I left Manus Island but it’s hard to feel free while my refugee brothers and sisters are still detained | Imran Mohammad Fazal Hoque

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Those of us who have resettled in the US and other countries all left someone very close to us behind

On 19 July 2013 the Australian government announced that those who arrived by boat seeking safety would never reach the mainland. The effect of this policy is beyond description and I am still haunted by the memories of the time myself and hundreds of others were held captive on Manus Island.

The concept of a system ruining people’s lives is not easy to understand. It is complex, destructive and manipulative and every aspect is highly politicised. It is a form of systematic torture, the scars of which are not obvious, but they are real and will affect a person for the rest of his or her life.

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Australia’s offshore detention is unlawful, says international criminal court prosecutor

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Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’, but does not warrant prosecution, ICC office says

Australia’s offshore detention regime is a “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law, the international criminal court’s prosecutor has said.

But the office of the prosecutor has stopped short of deciding to prosecute the Australian government, saying that while the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers formed the basis of a crime against humanity, the violations did not rise to the level to warrant further investigation.

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‘I’m happy, but I am also broken for those left behind’: life after Manus and Nauru | Elaine Pearson

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Resettlement in the US has allowed some long-persecuted people to flourish, but that doesn’t let Australia off the hook

“To freedom.”

Imran, a 25-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, raises a glass with a big smile. We are in a bustling restaurant on Chicago’s north side. This midwestern city seems a million miles from Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, or the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru, yet it’s now home to several Rohingya men resettled under an agreement between Australia and the US.

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Police ask Clover Moore for statement on Angus Taylor – politics live

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Sydney lord mayor approached by police investigating accusations the emissions reduction minister relied on a falsified document to attack her. Follow all the day’s political news live

That’s where we’ll leave the live blog for the day. Thanks for following along.

It’s been another messy day. Many say the medevac repeal has made it one of parliament’s darkest.

Another development on the Angus Taylor front.

The City of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has been approached by police to provide a statement for their investigation into accusations Taylor relied on a falsified document to attack her travel-related emissions. The council said in a statement:

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Peter Dutton appeals federal court ruling over medical transfer of refugees

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Lawyers for refugees say case important given the government wants to repeal medevac legislation

Peter Dutton is seeking to appeal in the high court a federal court ruling relating to dozens of medical transfers of asylum seekers and refugees.

The government argued the federal court had no jurisdiction to hear cases brought on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers in offshore centres on Manus Island and Nauru, who were seeking urgent medical transfer to Australia.

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The asylum seekers held in a PNG prison have a choice: return to death or literally rot in jail | First Dog on the Moon

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They have already been suffering in inhumane conditions for six years. All this is well known and makes no difference

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Judge accuses Australia of putting relationship with Nauru before the law

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Judgement follows failure to transfer seriously ill refugee under medevac laws

A federal court judge has excoriated the Australian government, accusing it of putting its relationship with Nauru ahead of complying with court orders and federal law.

The judgement by Justice Debra Mortimer was published on Friday, after the government failed to comply with a 14 June order to transfer a refugee with “serious medical and psychiatric issues” to Australia under the medevac laws.

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Peter Dutton claims asylum seekers refusing resettlement in US due to medevac laws

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Home affairs minister alleges 250 applications for medical transfer being reviewed by ‘activist’ doctors

Peter Dutton claims asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island and Nauru are refusing resettlement offers in the United States because of the medevac legislation, claiming 250 applications for medical transfer were currently being reviewed by “activist” doctors.

Despite conceding last week the US was “unlikely” to resettle 1,250 refugees under the deal Malcolm Turnbull struck with the then US president, Barack Obama, and begrudgingly held to by Donald Trump, Dutton said the medevac legislation had upended the process and claimed asylum seekers and refugees were still holding out for Australia.

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Federal court overturns attempt to block medevac transfer from Nauru

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Appearing to set an important precedent, judge rules doctors don’t have to speak to patient to make assessment

The federal court has overturned the home affairs department’s attempt to block the medevac transfer of a critically ill 29-year-old Iraqi man from Nauru, by ruling that doctors don’t have to speak to a patient in order to make a medical assessment.

In a judgement delivered on Tuesday, Justice Mordecai Bromberg found in favour of the refugee, whose lawyers had claimed the department secretary, Mike Pezzullo, had refused to notify the minister of the man’s application for a medical transfer, which would commence the process.

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Sprent Dabwido: former Nauru president and leader of Nauru 19 dies, aged 46

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Dabwido regretted signing deal with then Australian prime minister Julia Gillard to restart offshore processing

Sprent Dabwido, the former president of Nauru who spent the last few years fighting persecution from the new government, has died in Australia at the age of 46.

Dabwido had spent his last few weeks in Armidale, New South Wales, with his wife, Luci, after seeking asylum in Australia and getting treatment for terminal cancer.

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Have we, Australia, become a country that breeds mass murderers with our words? | Richard Flanagan

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We are better than our politicians’ dark fears. We are not their hate. We are optimistic about a country built on openness

I have only ever heard Behrouz Boochani’s voice through speakers. One day, he will stand here before us, and we will hear and see him in the flesh. As a free human being. And I am here today to say that day is coming.

Because change is coming. You can feel it, you sense it. It is coming and it will not be denied. But it needs us to fight for it and to keep fighting for it, and we need to fight for it, not only for the refugees of Manus and Nauru, but for our own salvation.

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Only one person has been transferred under medevac law, refugee advocates say

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As the new process for bringing sick refugees to Australia faces unexplained delays, others who have come are being held under guard in hotels

More than a month after the medevac bill passed the Australian parliament, just one person is believed to have been transferred under the law.

The Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force refuse to say how many transfers have occurred, but according to advocates and detainees only one of more than 25 people brought to Australia for treatment in recent weeks has been under the new law.

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Scott Morrison leads PR sortie to reopened Christmas Island

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PM hints it is possible asylum seekers with serious medical emergencies will still be treated in Australia

Scott Morrison has indicated it is possible that asylum seekers with serious medical emergencies will continue to be treated in Australia, while taking a pool of reporters to Christmas Island to showcase the facilities the government has reopened at an estimated cost of $1.4bn over four years.

The prime minister led reporters on a tour of the Christmas Island facilities on Wednesday. When pressed about why he was on the remote island, with reporters in tow, for what was self-evidently an expensive public relations sortie, Morrison declared it was “important for Australians to know this facility is up to the job”.

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Julian Burnside takes on Josh Frydenberg as Greens candidate for Kooyong

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The refugee advocate sets up a four-way contest with the treasurer, Liberal-turned-independent Oliver Yates and Labor

The human rights lawyer and refugee advocate Julian Burnside will run as the Greens candidate for Kooyong at the next election.

In a statement that appeared in Nine newspapers and the Australian on Tuesday the prominent barrister said he would take on the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in the blue-ribbon Liberal seat because he believes the “political system is broken”.

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The medevac bill is law: what does that mean for ailing offshore refugees?

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A diversion to Christmas Island, a change of law on Nauru and other complications may hinder the ability to provide care

When the medevac bill – which on Friday became law – passed parliament, it was intended to create a streamlined process to get sick refugees and asylum seekers into the medical care they needed in Australia, because it wasn’t available on Manus Island or Nauru.

The government expressed concerns the bill could lead to weakened borders and national security. Amendments to the bill gave the minister 72 hours to assess a transfer referral which, if he or she refused, would be sent to an independent medical panel. The panel could override a minister’s refusal on health grounds but the minister has the final veto if there are security issues surrounding the patient.

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Last four refugee children leave Nauru for resettlement in US

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Move follows intense campaign by refugee advocates for all children sent to the island by the Australian government to be taken off

The last four children living in Australian government-run offshore processing on Nauru have now left the island, amid a group of 19 people flown to the US for resettlement.

The group includes a number of Iranians, according to refugee advocates, contradicting persistent suspicions that Donald Trump’s travel ban on six nationalities was blocking refugees from the resettlement scheme.

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‘Hockey owes me’ – Penny Wong releases bombshell Helloworld email – politics live

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Senate estimates hears startling email about Joe Hockey’s meeting with travel agency representative. All the day’s events, live

Labor is persisting with Helloworld, and the evidence given by Dfat officials this morning. Can the prime minister confirm officials were unaware before the meeting that Joe Hockey had a major shareholding in Helloworld, and not told about the conflict of interest until after the meeting?

Christopher Pyne hides behind the secretary of Dfat, Frances Adamson.

The committee has moved on to Rex Patrick asking Dfat questions about Julian Assange.

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Labor issues please explain over Paladin’s $420m Manus contract

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Penny Wong says it’s ‘deeply concerning’ a company with ‘such a poor track record’ was awarded a lucrative sum through closed tender

Penny Wong has indicated Labor will target the Paladin offshore detention security contract in Senate estimates this week, accusing the government of failing to explain why the company was awarded $420m in contracts through closed tender.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that Paladin Group’s $420m of contracts to provide security to refugees on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea was extended by the home affairs department in January after a closed tender process.

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