If you had been told thirty years ago that Australia would create the least asylum seeker friendly institutional arrangements in the world, you would not have been believed. In 1992 we introduced a system of indefinite mandatory detention for asylum seekers who arrive by boat. Since that time, we have accepted the idea that certain Read more
The Australian Bishops’ Delegate for Migrants and Refugees says the Australian government should accept New Zealand’s offer to take detainees on Manus Island. “It is time to find an alternative and conscionable solution, including accepting New Zealand’s offer of resettlement and bringing the remaining detainees on Manus Island to Australia,” said Bishop Vincent Long Van Read more
A 72-year-old Brigidine sister, Jane Keogh, is on Manus Island where she has been trying to help a mentally ill man at the East Lorengau Transit Centre. She says there is no help available for people suffering from mental illness. Last week an apparent suicide of a Tamil detainee was closely followed by that of Read more
A growing number of detainees is being transferred from Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island to Port Moresby with the understanding they will not be returning to the detention centre. The Australian-run facility is due to close by the end of October but the PNG government is worried it will be left to care for about Read more
Catholics from Christmas Island have been in Fiji for the first time to rekindle their kinship with the assistant parish priest at Lomary Parish Father Peniata Bakatete, a Christmas Islander who has been in Fiji since 2008. Bakatete Koririntetaake, who comes from Christmas Island and lived in Fiji for some time, said the group had Read more
New Zealand should make an offer to Papua New Guinea to resettle some of the asylum seekers Australia has detained on Manus Island, according to Amnesty International. A group of detainees has asked the New Zealand prime minister Bill English for asylum as they say PNG is incapable of resettling them when the detention centre Read more
Refugees detained on Manus Island have been warned not to revolt as Papua New Guinea authorities revealed plans for the gradual closure and demolition of the Australian detention centre. Refugees and detainees were told to consider their options, but not to leave it too late to make a decision. “No one will be resettled in Read more
A New Zealander working with an NGO has been awarded the 2017 Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize by UNESCO. Shaun Cornelius is a Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders Logistician Manager on the SOS Méditerranée asylum seekers rescue boat Aquarius in the Mediterranean. Shaun, who comes from Wellington, is on his fourth assignment with MSF. He previously Read more
“When I went to the police station they took me to a cell and gave me a mattress. There were cockroaches crawling and biting me, I thought to myself this is similar to a police station in Afghanistan!” It’s just after midnight at Auckland International Airport when Khalid, who we agreed not to name to Read more
“It’s time to revive the Tampa spirit and rescue the refugees our Australian neighbours have sent off to rot in hellish prison camps on remote islands like Nauru and Manus,” says columnist Brian Rudman. Amnesty International is calling on New Zealand to take a lead in exerting international pressure on Australia over its detention centre Read more