B. Ki-Moon, ‘The Refugee Crisis Is a Test of Our Collective Conscience’, New York Times, 16 September 2018

J. Favero, ‘Keep fighting for the kids on Nauru’, Eureka Street, 11 September 2018 

J. Crisp, ‘As the World Abandons Refugees, UNHCR’s Constraints Are Exposed’, News Deeply, 13 September 2018

S. Leape, ‘Greece has the means to help refugees on Lesbos – but does it have the will?’, The Guardian, 13 September 2018

L. Bishai, ‘It’s a start – why the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration matter’, Just Security, 12 September 2018

‘How Europe determines whether asylum-seekers are gay’, The Economist, 13 September 2018

X. Yuan, ‘Why economic turmoil in Iran is causing big problems in Afghanistan’, IRIN News, 11 September 2018

Refugee Diplomacy: Negotiating protection in a changing world

The Kaldor Centre Annual Conference on 23 November 2018 will bring Australian, regional and global thinkers to Sydney to explore the place of ‘refugee diplomacy’ in today’s turbulent world, and the interdependence of foreign and domestic policy agendas that impact refugees, asylum seekers and other forced migrants.

Foreign policy bears directly on refugee policy. Today both policy agendas are feeling the twin pressures of nationalism and globalisation, and the long-prevailing rules-based order is now contested. What does this mean for people seeking protection, and for the international legal regime that has governed refugee movements since the Second World War, finding solutions for millions of displaced, even as millions more now face an uncertain future in protracted situations?

Listen to the latest Kaldor Centre podcasts on iTunes or Soundcloud.

ECRE has published a new policy note, ‘Taking Liberties: Detention and Asylum Law Reform’, analysing the changes agreed so far on the reform of the EU Reception Conditions Directive and the way these reforms will likely lead to an increased use of detention against asylum seekers. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has condemned Australia’s offshore detention and processing system as ‘an affront to human rights’ and called on Australia to revise its policies. The High Commissioner’s opening statement can be found here.

Meanwhile a report by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has gone before the UN Human Rights Council. The report lists Working Group opinions on Australia’s detention of three asylum seekers, including a stateless man held for nine years. Further details can be found here.

An Iraqi asylum seeker has been deported after lawyers were reportedly prevented from contacting the man by phone in time to prevent his forced removal. The Guardian reports that the Department of Home Affairs will soon begin a three-year $63m contract with the charter flight company SkyTraders for the purpose of deportations, transfers and staff travel to onshore and offshore locations.

Further reports have emerged about the critical mental health needs of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru, including children. One 12-year-old girl is said to be at serious risk of self-harm if she is not removed off the island for treatment, while The Saturday Paper has reported on the serious mental and physical decline of a refugee who has been denied medical treatment in Australia.

A refugee has been hospitalised in Port Moresby after swallowing razor blades. The man is said to be suffering a chronic illness and to have been in and out of hospital for some time. Meanwhile Behrouz Boochani’s book ‘No Friend But The Mountains’ was reportedly the highest selling book at the recent Melbourne Writers Festival.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has warned that drastic funding cuts are ‘hitting the East Africa aid sector hard’, and that the international community should ‘step up to support countries that are still accepting refugees’ like Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to ‘avoid a refugee catastrophe in East Africa’.

After a special meeting on the ‘migration crisis’ caused by the outflow of millions of Venezuelans to neighbouring countries, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) has announced the creation of a working group to analyse the situation, chaired by exiled Venezuelan politician David Smolansky.

The US government has agreed to settle three lawsuits relating to families separated under President Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policy earlier this year, and to give more than 1,000 immigrant parents and their children a second chance to prove they have a ‘credible fear of persecution or torture’ if sent back to their home countries. Human Rights Watch has described the move as ‘the official beginning of recognizing the ways this policy harmed parents and children’.

Last week, ASEAN parliamentarians, lawmakers and refugee experts met in the Philippines for a series of refugee forums aimed at fostering an exchange of knowledge and regional perspectives on the refugee situation across Southeast Asia. Participants discussed the capacity of ASEAN to deal with refugee and mixed migrations movements, including the need for ASEAN to develop a comprehensive refugee and asylum policy.

Human Rights Watch has called on the UN Human Rights Council to act to preserve evidence and create a path to justice for victims of atrocities in Myanmar.

23 of the approximately 500 Yemeni asylum seekers who have arrived on the South Korean island of Jeju this year have been granted one-year ‘humanitarian stay permits’ allowing them to remain in Korea. The asylum seekers have reportedly been determined not to be refugees, but to have other ‘humanitarian’ reasons justifying their stay in Korea.

More than 100 asylum seekers and migrants, including children, are believed to have died following a shipwreck off the coast of Libya last week. 276 survivors were taken to Khoms in Libya, where Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says they are now being held in ‘arbitrary detention’. There are reports that European airplanes dropped lifeboats at the scene, but deferred to Libya to perform the rescue, raising questions about who should have saved them. Meanwhile aid agencies warn that restrictive EU policies and clampdowns have meant no NGO rescue vessel have been operational on the main migration routes between north Africa and southern Europe since 26 August, their longest period of absence from the central Mediterranean since they began operating in late 2015, leaving thousands of people are at risk of drowning at sea.

The European Commission has released a series of new proposals relating to migration to coincide with President Juncker’s State of the Union address. These include a proposal for a recast of the Return Directive as well as proposals for a Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex), amendments to the proposed Regulation on the European Agency on Asylum, and a communication on enhancing legal pathways to Europe. 

Italy and Austria have put forward a controversial proposal to hold migrants rescued at sea in the territorial waters of European countries on ships while an initial screening of their chances of obtaining asylum is carried out. The suggestion is seen as an alternative to the recent proposal of ‘regional disembarkation platforms’. Meanwhile the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has announced plans to dispatch teams to Italy and Austria to examine the treatment of asylum seekers and migrants in those countries after an ‘alarming escalation of attacks’ them.

The UN Committee against Torture has ruled that the expulsion of an Eritrean torture victim from Switzerland to Italy under the Dublin Regulation would violate the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, by depriving him of the conditions conducive to recovery and rehabilitation. The Committee found that the Swiss authorities had ‘failed to sufficiently and individually assess the complainant’s personal experience as a victim of torture and the foreseeable consequences of forcibly returning him to Italy’, including the real risk that he would be deprived of necessary medical treatment and become destitute, and the fact that he would be separated from his brother who is a resident of Switzerland. Read more here.

NGOs are continuing to raise critical concerns about the deteriorating conditions in overcrowded reception centres on the Greek islands, and have again urged the Greek authorities and EU leaders to take action to address the situation. Public health inspectors have reportedly declared the Moria reception centre on Lesbos as ‘unsuitable and dangerous for public health and the environment’.

Italy is reportedly wavering on a deal with Germany to take back asylum seekers who have previously lodged an application for asylum in Italy, despite German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announcing that agreement has been secured after similar agreements were reached with Greece and Spain.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has warned European countries not to rush to repatriate Afghan refugees or blame their community for isolated crimes in Europe, advising that returns to Afghanistan are a ‘complex issue’ and should be carried out ‘with great caution because conditions from the security point of view are deteriorating’.

UNHCR is ‘increasingly troubled at a looming severe funding shortfall’ for its humanitarian work in support of millions of Syrian refugees and internally displaced people. Meanwhile Turkey has warned that a major offensive in the north-western Syrian province of Idlib could cause a ‘new wave of migration’ affecting not only Turkey, but also Europe.

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