B. Boochani, ‘Five years in Manus purgatory’, The Saturday Paper, 28 September 2018

A. Staikos & E. Beswick, ‘“I was shocked”—what's it like in Lesbos' Moria refugee camp?’, Euronews, 26 September 2018

O. Pilkey & K. Pilkey, ‘The global climate refugee crisis has already begun’, The Hill, 29 September 2018

L. Freier, ‘Why Latin America Should Recognize Venezuelans as Refugees’, News Deeply, 28 September 2018

B. Ebus, ‘In the Caribbean, local aid helps tackle a surge in Venezuelan asylum seekers’, IRIN News, 1 October 2018

B. Van Schaack, 'Why What’s Happening to the Rohingya Is Genocide’, Just Security, 1 October 2018

Keynote speaker: Anne C Richard

Ms Richard served as US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration in the Obama Administration (2012-17). In this role she led US diplomacy on refugee and humanitarian issues, and negotiated with Australia regarding resettlement of refugees from Manus Island and Nauru. She is currently a Centennial Fellow at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University and is affiliated with its Institute for the Study of International Migration.

Book your tickets to hear the unique insights of Ms Richard and others.

This report by Talent Beyond Boundaries presents contributions from businesses spearheading efforts to include refugees in international recruitment practices, creating an additional solution to displacement. These business perspectives illustrate the private sector’s will to contribute to the global response to the refugee crisis, and reveal the value that refugees can provide if part of the global workforce.
 

A Vietnamese asylum seeker who fled religious persecution and arrived in Australia by boat in 2011 has said her life and safety will be at risk if she is returned to Vietnam. An alleged incident of sexual assault at Yongah Hill detention centre has been referred to police.

Australian military veteran Jason Scanes is urging the government to grant a visa to his former colleague from Afghanistan, who was employed as an interpreter with Australian forces. Mr Scanes has started a charity called ‘Forsaken Fighters’ to draw attention to translators overseas who are at risk due to their work for Australian forces. Meanwhile The Australian has reported that Labor leader Bill Shorten wants to retain the Department of Home Affairs if Labor wins the next federal election.

The Australian government reportedly acquiesced to Nauru’s blocking of medical transfers off the island, in order to ‘preserve’ the working relationship between the two countries. The Guardian has reported that in the last financial year the Australian government spent $320,000 fighting requests for urgent medical transfers.

News outlets have reported on the transfer of 17 refugees from Papua New Guinea to the United States under a 2016 resettlement arrangement between the U.S and Australia.

South Sudan has signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and is the 143rd country to have done so. Meanwhile, Evan Atar Adaha, a surgeon who runs a remote hospital in South Sudan that serves over 200,000 people including 144,000 Sudanese refugees, has received the prestigious 2018 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. Dr Adaha was chosen for his 20-year commitment to providing medical services to people forced to flee conflict and persecution in Sudan and South Sudan, as well as to the communities that welcome them.

UNHCR has expressed grave concern for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians in the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where violence by armed groups has recently claimed more than 20 lives.

The Trump administration has missed the end-of-fiscal-year deadline to set the maximum number of refugees that will be allowed in the United States in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, eighteen US states and the District of Columbia have filed a friend-of-the-court brief to bolster plaintiffs challenging a new US policy that denies asylum to those claiming to be victims of gang or domestic violence.

The UN Human Rights Council has overwhelmingly approved another investigation into human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. A new international body will be established to collect evidence and prepare case files of alleged atrocities in Myanmar. A recent report by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar described the violations against the Rohingya in the country as "the gravest crimes under international law."

The Bangladeshi government and the UN have agreed to jointly address conflict-related sexual violence committed against members of the Rohingya population forcibly displaced from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government has also postponed plans to begin relocating Rohingya Muslims to a proposed settlement on the remote island of Bhashan Char, designed to house 100,000 refugees. The island is one hour by boat from the nearest land but violent storms make the journey by sea dangerous or sometimes impossible. The UN has insisted that any relocation to Bhashan Char be voluntary.

Two Chinese nationals have applied for asylum after making a transit stop in Taiwan. It has been reported that the asylum seekers were refused entry by Taiwanese immigration authorities, and are currently stranded at Taoyuan International Airport.

Spain, France, Portugal, Germany and Malta have agreed to distribute between them 58 asylum seekers who were rescued by a private rescue ship in the Mediterranean Sea last week and left stranded because the ship could not find a country which would let it dock. UNHCR has commented that the ‘leadership and solidarity of all five countries’ was ‘key to resolving this situation and should be an example to others’. UNHCR has also emphasised the collective responsibility for ‘increasing search and rescue capacity in the Central Mediterranean and for leaving space for NGOs to contribute in a coordinated manner to these efforts’.

Greece has moved another 400 asylum seekers to the mainland from the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos. The Moria camp is severely overcrowded, and some reports suggest that 30% of its inhabitants have attempted suicide. The government, under pressure from aid groups and local authorities, has said it will transfer 2,000 people the camp to the mainland by the end of the month. The EU’s anti-fraud watchdog has also announced that it is investigating the potential misuse of EU funds meant to provide food for refugees in Greece.

International philanthropic organisation The Soros Foundation (OSF) has said that it will take Hungary to the European Court of Human Rights over new and broadly drafted legislation which is said to criminalise the provision of assistance to asylum-seekers. OSF has said that the legislation ‘breaches the guarantees of freedom and expression enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights and must be repealed.’ The Hungarian government has said that it will not repeal the new laws, whatever the outcome of the case.

Italy has introduced new laws which limit humanitarian protection to victims of labor exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, natural calamities, or those needing medical care, as well as to those who performed ‘deeds of particular civic value.’ The laws also permit authorities to suspend evaluation of asylum requests for migrants who are judged ‘socially dangerous’ or who are convicted of a crime, before court appeals are exhausted.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency has received pledges of  US$118 million from donor countries to help it overcome a crisis triggered by US funding cuts. The biggest contributors include Kuwait, as well as the EU, which pledged US$46 million.

Syria’s foreign minister has told the United Nations General Assembly that the country is ready for the voluntary return of refugees who fled during more than seven years of conflict.

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