Tag: asylum policy

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Australia's immigration department doesn't keep a record of the number of people applying for asylum at airports. This means there is no oversight over the treatment of those seeking protection.

UN general secretary urges PM Malcolm Turnbull to review Operation Sovereign Borders.

Former Australian PM raises eyebrows, saying Christian instinct is “leading much of Europe into catastrophic error”.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott’s address to the 2015 Margaret Thatcher Lecture at Guildhall in London, 27 October 2015

Outspoken American performer denied entry to Australian refugee centre after detainees attempt self-mutilation and suicide.

The author of the United Nations report which condemns Australia’s detention of asylum seekers, rejects Tony Abbott’s accusation.

In his latest video rant, Russell Brand lines up Tony Abbott and Rupert Murdoch for a verbal lashing.

UN told healthcare provided to asylum seekers is comparable to what is available in Australia and that “all but a few children will be out of detention” within months.

A poster displaying a refugee filled boat caught on stormy waves with threatening dark skies and the words ‘No Way: You will not make Australia home’ has struck a nerve.

John Howard's defence force chief, Admiral Chris Barrie, has slammed the Abbott government's handling of asylum seeker issues, labelling it ‘secretive, expensive, and unnecessary' while claiming it is damaging Australia's reputation.

Immigration and Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison this week announced that most children in immigration detention camps who are under the age of ten, and their families, will be released into the Australian society by the end of this year.

Australian Immigration and Border Protection offered a group of 157 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers a lifeboat to India.

A boat carrying 41 asylum seekers was escorted back to Sri Lanka after it was intercepted by Australian border control, infuriating human rights activists who fear for the refugees’ safety in their home country.

Border security agency claims to be saving taxpayer money.

The federal police commissioner has been asked to investigate whether border protection personnel committed a criminal offence during an asylum boat turn-back.

Sydney-based asylum seekers will be moved to Western Australia just a day before a legal case they are involved in is heard in the harbour city.

BBC radio presenter suggests Australia is ‘effectively operating a sort of Guantanamo Bay ... only in some ways even worse’

The federal opposition is critical over reports that Iran has summoned the Australian envoy to complain about the death of an Iranian asylum seeker in PNG.

Human Rights Watch has slammed Australia's treatment of asylum seekers in its annual report.

The Abbott government insists it will honour its election promise to stop asylum seekers arriving by boat despite Indonesian opposition to its controversial plan to turn back vessels.

ELECTION13 | Liberal candidate for Lindsay Fiona Scott has blamed traffic congestion in western Sydney on an influx of asylum seekers under the Labor government.

AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 13 | With conscience issues likely to come to parliament in the coming term, Bob Katter and Clive Palmer have given their members some flexibility.

American actor Matt Damon has entered into Australia's asylum seeker debate while visiting Sydney to promote his new film Elysium.

AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 13 | The Opposition have called on the Rudd government to withdraw advertisements regarding reforms to their asylum seeker policy, which were paid for with public funds.

Papua New Guinea wasn't seeking economic gain when it agreed to open a processing centre for asylum seekers trying to get into Australia, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says.

Less than a week since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced his PNG solution the first asylum seekers have arrived on Manus Island for processing.

A prominent former US diplomat has criticised Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plan to relocate asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea, and has referred to the Australian defence budget as "paltry".

The Nauru “tent city” solution proposed by the Coalition has been blighted by claims that the visit to the island by Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and a News Corp journalist were sponsored by a private company who may profit from the policy.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's recently revealed reforms to asylum seeker policy would send gay refugees to Papua New Guinea despite the country's strict laws against homosexuality.

Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer has announced his support for on-shore processing of asylum seekers, claiming that reforms to the system would save $5 billion from the Australian budget.

Labor and the coalition have continued the blame-game over asylum seeker boat arrivals, after another boat sank and claims of rape on Manus Island.

Kevin Rudd’s tough new stance on asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat has boosted the ALP’s standings on the issue, the latest Newspoll shows.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has accused Opposition leader Tony Abbott of undermining the tough message on people smugglers.

BREAKING | A riot has broken out on Nauru, leading to around 300 asylum seekers escaping from the island's detention centre. This break-out comes in the aftermath of Australian PM Kevin Rudd's announcement of a new hard-line approach to boat people.

Prime Minister Rudd announces no asylum seekers arriving by boat will resettle in Australia under new deal with PNG.

Four people died yesterday when a boat carrying 150 asylum seekers capsized off the coast of Christmas Island.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has said that elite SAS troops should be sent on-board boats carrying asylum seekers that threaten self-harm in an attempt to be allowed into Australia.

Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham has urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard to adopt the Coalition’s policy of sending boats carrying asylum seekers back into Indonesian waters in order to address the severity of the people smuggling issue.

Australian border protection authorities won’t yet recover the bodies of dead asylum seekers near Christmas Island.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has rejected Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s accusation that Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop had “embarrassed the nation” by claiming that the Indonesian government supported the Coalition’s policy to turn back the boats of asylum seekers if elected later this year.