Australia has agreed to take 12,000 refugees living on the borders of Syria and northern Iraq. It continues however to refuse entry to refugees on boats from Indonesia. The head of Australia’s Refugee Council says he expects Australia will soon ask New Zealand to help get it out of trouble with the Nauru asylum seekers’ Read more
The Anglican Bishop of Newcastle has defended a priest over a sign outside a Gosford church that read, “Hell exists and it’s on Nauru”. The messages on the signboard outside the church on the NSW Central Coast, of which Father Rod Bower is archdeacon, have taken aim at detention centre operator Transfield on more than Read more
“If such a thing as hell exists, it would be very similar to Nauru,” a 23-year-old Tamil asylum-seeker told ABC Television last week, after slashing her body in a failed suicide attempt. Written submissions to the Australian Senate Committee inquiry told of rape and sexual assault, of children self-harming, of guards trading hot water and drugs for Read more
Australia’s Immigration Department has established a Child Protection Panel to provide independent advice on child protection at the country’s asylum seeker detention centres — including the one on Nauru. It says four Australian Federal Police officers will also travel to Nauru to advise local police. Both developments are part of the government’s response to the Read more
Nauru’s Justice Minister, David Adeang, has issued a press release defending, on moral and religious grounds, his government’s decision to control access to the internet. However some are claiming the social media blackout was directed by the Australian government to assist its Cambodian resettlement policy. The Nauru government says it is restricting internet access to block Read more
Asylum-seekers transferred from Australia to Pacific island detention centres, including survivors of torture and trauma and unaccompanied children, are living in arbitrary detention and harsh physical conditions that do not meet international standards In his recent Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis calls for generosity towards migrant people. He says, “Migrants present a particular challenge Read more
Refugee Action Coalition Sydney has reported five attempted suicides by asylum seekers in Nauru in recent weeks. The latest attempted hanging took place last Saturday (2 February). All of those attempting suicide were Iranian or Iraqi asylum seekers among those transferred from Australia to Nauru on 21 January, 2013 “Just as with the recent suicide Read more
An Amnesty International Australia researcher says major changes are needed immediately at the Australian run detention camp for asylum seekers on Nauru. Alex Pagliaro was one of two researchers who last week visited the camp where 387 male asylum seekers are crammed into leaky tents in a very hot environment. She says it is a Read more
Radio Australia reports that the processing of asylum seekers sent to Nauru by the Australian government “may be six months or more away yet”. This is according to a spokesperson for Australia’s Immigration Minister. Major Paul Moulds, of the Salvation Army, is quoted as saying that the uncertainty is having a detrimental effect on the Read more
Three of the asylum seekers detained in Nauru’s processing centre have attempted self harm in as many days. Self harm is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. An Iranian man attempted self harm on Thursday, while another two Iranians did the same on Saturday, an Australian Immigration Department spokesman Read more