Refugee rights group said 40 people who recently sought asylum in Western Australia should be brought back from offshore detention. Pip Hinman reports.
Refugee Council of Australia
Labor promised to end the cruel practice of imposing temporary protection visas. Alex Bainbridge argues its announcement concerning 19,000 refugees is welcome, but does not go far enough.
Mozhgan Moaref, a co-founder of the Refugees and Asylum Seekers Information Centre in Jakarta, spoke by video link to a Refugee Action Collective forum on refugees in Indonesia.
The Refugee Council of Australia has released a report into refugees’ experiences with the government's Jobactive program that found a number of agency staff members were "hostile" and provided little or no support.
The report called for an independent review of the $1.4 billion Jobactive program, saying it is largely failing refugees.
Refugees said they felt disrespected and were routinely being pulled out of English classes to attend compulsory Jobactive meetings that did not result in employment.
The Refugee Council of Australia called for a bipartisan commitment on offshore detention on February 1.
* * *
The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) has called on political leaders to urgently bring the people imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru to safety in Australia.
The Federal Court ruled on December 16 that delays by the Department of Immigration and Border Security (DIBS) in making decisions on citizenship were “unreasonable”, prompting hope for people with refugee backgrounds in a similar plight.
One litigant said: “This may set an important precedent for individuals in similar circumstances.”
Acting CEO of Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) Tim O’Connor said the decision was a “landmark ruling” which recognised the “injustice” citizenship delays had caused.
In a landmark decision on December 16, the Federal Court found the minister for immigration Peter Dutton unreasonably delayed making decisions on applications for citizenship by refugees.
The court also ruled that Dutton erred in rejecting the applications for citizenship of two Afghan refugees several weeks after they commenced legal proceedings. The pair had been permanent residents of Australia for more than four years.
Hundreds of Afghans attended a candlelight vigil on the evening of July 27 to commemorate the horrific attack on protestors the previous weekend in Kabul, which left 80 civilians dead and 230 wounded.
On August 19, the refugee rights group People Just Like Us hosted another in its series of meetings in Parramatta Library. Speakers included Sayid Kasim, a Rohingya from Arkan and Salmore, a Rohingya from Myanmar who told their stories of fleeing for their lives. Rohingya are stateless people, victims of racism and genocide. Dhugel, from Bhutan, told of his escape via India to Nepal. Paul Power from the Refugee Council of Australia told the meeting that governments should listen to refugees when making policy. “They are not a threat to our values”, he said.