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
The long term lack of services for migrants and refugees in Auckland has resulted in a lost generation of refugees to crime, early marriage, unemployment, drugs and illiteracy, an Auckland Council report says. The report, Funded Services to Migrants and Refugees in Auckland, was completed earlier this year and aimed to provide a snapshot of Read more
The Salvation Army, which is running care services for asylum seekers on Nauru Island, says facilities should be improved before women and children are transferred there. Salvation Army spokesman Paul Moulds says women and children should not be sent yet, because asylum seekers are sleeping in tents while the compound is under construction. “We certainly Read more
General secretary of PNG and Solomon Islands Catholic Bishops Conference, Father Victor Roche, told Radio Australia that when one of their bishops last year described his unhappiness at the conditions he saw in an offshore detention centre, the bishops formed a collective viewpoint on the issue. “We are against the offshore detention centres in Papua Read more
The Human Rights Commission are opposing a proposed new law making it mandatory to detain asylum seekers as a way to deter “mass arrivals” and people-smugglers, saying it’s discriminatory. New Zealand’s race relations commissioner Joris de Bres told MPs that detaining asylum seekers under the Immigration Amendment Bill would unfairly prosecute them and breach their Read more
Australia’s Labour government may have to resort to sending asylum seekers to Nauru without their preferred option of transferring them to Malaysia after appeals by the government for the opposition to meet it halfway on policy fell on deaf ears. Despite three cabinet ministers urging yesterday the opposition to allow Labour’s Malaysia plan in return Read more
Plans to lock up refugees arriving in groups to New Zealand have drawn concern from across the Tasman. The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) has opposed the mandatory detention provisions in the Immigration Amendment Bill, in a written submission on the Bill currently before Parliament. ACMRO and Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand will appear Read more
Prime Minister John Key has announced the rolling out of what he termed “tough new measures to deter potential mass arrivals of illegal immigrants and people smuggling to New Zealand.” Did the visit of the US Secretary for Homeland Security (1-3 May) have anything to do with this hasty amendment to the 2009 Immigration Law? Read more
Australia’s Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, has confirmed ten Chinese nationals in Darwin have decided to seek asylum in Australia. The group arrived by yacht in Darwin late last week while on their way to claim asylum in New Zealand. They were warned that sailing across the Tasman Sea would be extremely dangerous. Mr Bowen says Read more
“Women and children and the elderly are coming out in the cold, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, to seek safety.” reports Father Simon Faddoul, president of Caritas Lebanon. “It’s very cold, and they have nothing,” he said. The U.N. refugee agency said that as many as 2,000 Syrian Refugees crossed into Lebanon Read more