Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru detention centres

Journalist and author Behrouz Boochani is the guest on the latest Green Left Show, speaking about about his latest book Freedom, Only Freedom.

Behrouz Boochani

Behrouz Boochani released the following Twitter statement on July 19, to mark nine years since Kevin Rudd's Labor government decided that no refugee who arrived in Australia by boat would ever be resettled here.

The refugee deal with New Zealand offers some mitigation to Australia's cruel refugee policy. But, Binoy Kampmark asks, what will happen to the many hundreds of others in detention?

Don Khan, a Rohingya refugee who was brought to Australia under the defunct Medevac law, told a rally that he had still not been given specialist treatment, reports Chris Slee.

The anniversary of the death of Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati was commemorated in Perth, writes Alex Salmon.

Thousands of refugee rights activists, in more than 20 protests around the country, filled streets chanting “Six years too long, bring them here” on July 20.

Many asylum seekers had hoped a Labor government, having supported the medical evacuation law (Medivac) and agreed to accept New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 people a year, would mean an end to six years of torture. The election result has killed that hope, writes Zebedee Parkes.

Kurdish refugee Farhad Bandesh, who is detained on Manus Island, addressed the Palm Sunday rally in Newcastle by phone. Here is an edited transcript of his speech.

The Australian Financial Review has revealed that the federal Coalition government awarded a $423 million security and cleaning contract for three Manus Island refugee detention centres to Paladin Group, a company that, at the time, was registered to a Kangaroo Island beach shack. 

Just days after the latest — and largest — round of #KidsOffNauru protests, the federal government has said all children will be removed from Nauru by the end of the year.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “I stopped these [boats]” desk trophy is symbolic of his government’s callous disregard for human rights. But you can be sure that Morrison won’t be stopping the Nauruan government from kicking Mؘédicins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) off Nauru.

Within days of Nauru’s decision that MSF’s mental health services would “no longer be required”, news came through that an Iranian detainee on Nauru had self-harmed by swallowing washing powder.

Twelve people have died in Australian offshore detention centres in the past five years as a result of murder, suicide and medical neglect, according to Angelica Panopoulos from the Refugee Action Collective (Victoria).