Australia

As the stalemate continues over a common set of rules on asylum within the European Union, “externalizing,” “offshoring,” “outsourcing” and, most recently, “regionalizing” asylum and migration management in non–European Union countries remain on the agenda. So does offshoring actually work? This brief takes a comparative look at offshoring asylum and migration management in Australia, Spain, Tunisia, and the United States, and lessons learned for the European Union.

Eight refugees previously held on Manus Island, have left Papua New Guinea's capital of Port Moresby to be resettled in the United States.

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In Numbers

10 metric tons of food assistance distributed

US$ 0 six months (September-February) net funding requirements

16,766 people assisted in August 2018

Operational Updates

• Tropical Storms caused heavy rains and flooding in 79 districts of 14 provinces across Lao PDR. According to the Government, over 80,000 families have been affected. In response, the UN Logistics Cluster, led by WFP, was activated and provided logistics support.

Australia is supporting the Philippines in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

Mangkhut has brought torrential rain and damaging winds to the north of the main island of Luzon, affecting over 5 million people.

Australia is providing $800,000 of humanitarian supplies for the emergency response. This includes sleeping mats, blankets, hygiene and shelter kits for up to 25,000 people in the most affected areas.

These supplies are being distributed by the Philippine Red Cross.

Australia is supporting the Philippines in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

Mangkhut has brought torrential rain and damaging winds to the north of the main island of Luzon, affecting over 5 million people.

Australia is providing $800,000 of humanitarian supplies for the emergency response. This includes sleeping mats, blankets, hygiene and shelter kits for up to 25,000 people in the most affected areas.

These supplies are being distributed by the Philippine Red Cross.

Australia will provide $10 million in support to combat infectious diseases in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Low rates of immunisation have led to recent outbreaks of preventable diseases such as polio, measles, and whooping cough.

Australia’s contribution will support the PNG Government’s major vaccination campaign and help increase routine immunisation levels to avoid future outbreaks.

The PNG Government has declared the recent polio virus outbreak a national public health emergency.

Distinguished President,
Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva,
Excellencies,
Colleagues and friends,

It is an honour to be called to this mandate, to assist States to uphold the human rights of their people, in this year in which we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A climate scientist says the inclusion of climate change as a security issue by Pacific Island leaders is an opportunity to push for more urgent action in the region.

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The Australian government must urgently evacuate the 107 refugee children and their families trapped in appalling conditions in Nauru, or else accept New Zealand’s offer to provide safe haven, said Amnesty International, as the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) comes to a close in Nauru today.

The four-day meeting, which brought together leaders from across the region, comprehensively failed to address the needs of refugees, with the approved draft Forum Communiqué featuring no mention of an improved, human rights-oriented approach to refugee policy.

Children detained by Australia on the Pacific island of Nauru are suffering mentally and some attempting suicide

By Jared Ferrie

PHNOM PENH, Sept 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Children detained by Australia on the Pacific island of Nauru are suffering mentally and some attempting suicide, according to human rights groups and refugees who appealed to a regional leaders meeting on Wednesday to resettle them elsewhere.

By Elise Worthington

The ABC understands the most senior medical officer working with asylum seekers on Nauru has been removed from the island amid an ongoing stoush over the transfer of patients off the island.

Dr Christopher Jones, a Queensland GP, was told by the Australian Government's contractor, International Health and Medical Services(IHMS), that his visa was revoked last Thursday and he left the island the following day.

It was the Gold Coast doctor's second deployment to Nauru as a locum with IHMS.

Key points:

• Refugee Council says 400 people lost their payments from the Status Resolution Support Services program in August

• Department of Home affairs says the SRSS program is only designed to provide short-term aid

• UN Special Rapporteur for Extreme Poverty and Human Rights describes the move as 'ruthless'

The Federal Government has started cutting off support payments to asylum seekers living in Australia as they wait for their refugee claims to be assessed.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with agencies helping refugees in Nauru yesterday but didn't meet directly with refugees.

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Six years after the Australian government began sending people seeking asylum to Nauru, there are still around 900 people left on the island, including an estimated 109 children.1 All of them will have been there for over four years. Almost 200 people lived in a processing centre, including 14 children,2 until they were cleared out along with tents and temporary accommodation they were living in for the Pacific Islands Forum.3 In 2013, Amnesty International reported that Australia’s policy of offshore processing was breaking people. Six years on, people are broken.

By Gia Garrick

Regional security and other pressing issues like climate change will be top of the formal agenda at the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru this week.

Read more on Radio New Zealand International.

Index: ASA 05/8971/2018

30 August 2018

JOINT OPEN LETTER TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM LEADERS AND OBSERVERS IN THE CONTEXT OF AUSTRALIA’S ABUSIVE OFFSHORE REFUGEE PROCESSING POLICY

The escalating health crisis for refugee children on Nauru and the Australian government’s shameful refugee policy must be at the top of the agenda when regional heads of government meet at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) next week, said Amnesty International, in an open letter co-signed by a coalition of 84 influential civil society organizations.

By Anne Barker

Vietnamese community leaders fear a group of suspected asylum seekers found in Queensland are part of a potential flood of people fleeing human rights abuses and state seizure of their land in Vietnam.

By Kristy Sexton-McGrath, Brendan Mounter and staff

A group of suspected asylum seekers found in far north Queensland have been taken to Christmas Island for processing, the Federal Government has confirmed.

A spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the 17 suspected asylum seekers had been transferred to detention on Christmas Island and were being interviewed in detention.

Thirteen Manus Island refugees flew out of the Papua New Guinea capital of Port Moresby yesterday to be resettled in the United States.

Two members of the group are Pakistanis, two are Tamils, five are Afghans and four come from Myanmar.

Read more on Radio New Zealand International