Refugees & migrants

Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek's office fence on Broadway in Ultimo was adorned with cardboard cut-outs of children trapped behind bars on August 15, with some holding messages urging that the refugees be bought to Australia.

When the Census website crashed and was taken offline on August 9, the ABS was quick to blame overseas hackers. And in its defence, blaming foreigners has worked pretty well for authorities in this country on pretty much every other issue up till now.

Deaths in Custody Watch Committee WA and Refugee Rights Action Network WA released this joint statement on August 10.

A boy is grabbed around the throat, his head is smashed against the ground twice and then a chair is thrown onto him by a security guard. Many people witnessed and reported the incident.

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to “rebuild Britain” on August 4 by creating 1 million jobs and homes. The socialist politician put full employment and house building at the heart of his bid for re-election as Labour's leader in a 10-point plan for the country.

The Australian government has once again showed it is a law unto itself. The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court asked it to provide information by August 4 on how it planned to relocate the people in Manus Island detention centre. No one showed up to court. PNG lawyer Ben Lomani, who has represented the refugees and asylum seekers in the Manus Island detention centre throughout the case, sent documents relating to compensation for the men on Manus Island to the Australian High Commission last year. He has still not received a reply.

The six richest countries in the world, who make up almost 60% of the world’s economy, are hosting less than 9% of the total number of refugees in the world, a July 18 report by British charity Oxfam found.

Green Left TV's Zebedee Parkes has had his short film My Friend in Detention has been officially selected to be screened at the Washington DC-based Global Impact Film Fest later this month.

Advocacy group Doctors for Refugees has launched a High Court challenge to the controversial Border Force Act that prevents them from speaking out about child abuse and other threats to asylum seekers in detention centres. Lawyers for the doctors will argue that the court should declare invalid laws that threaten detention centre staff with two years' jail for disclosing information about conditions they observe behind the wire.

In the dead of night on July 26, a young Sudanese man, whom we will call “Walleed”, was forcibly removed by police from a van. Video footage shows a dozen protestors shouting “We love you” and “We will not let you be forgotten” as he is dragged into Melbourne airport. Refugee activists had surrounded the van and blocked it from entering the airport for a few hours before police moved in.

“Omid's name should never be forgotten,” said Stephen Langford just before he went into his second hearing in Waverley Magistrates Court. Langford was charged after he chalked “Omid” outside the electorate office of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Omid Masoumali is an asylum seeker, who died from self-immolation in Australia's notorious Nauru offshore detention camp. The case was adjourned again to August 24.

The number of refugees in France’s Calais Jungle camp has topped 7000 for the first time, despite eviction attempts by the French authorities, solidarity groups said on July 21. Morning Star Online reported that a census carried out by Help Refugees and L’Auberge des Migrants showed there were now 7307 people living in terrible conditions there.