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January 2015 – refugee news

Global Refugee News

  • More than 7000 flee to Western Chad to escape attacks on Baga, Nigeria. Read further.
  • UN envoy calls for emergency education fund and urges the international community to do more to support crisis-hit countries. Read on here.
  • Refugees in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya are concerned about access to food, after the World Food Programme was forced to cut rations by 50% in November 2014. Full rations have since resumed, but new funding is needed to prevent the risk of cuts re-occurring. Read on.
  • UNHCR staff have been working around the clock for the last few  weeks to help millions of refugees and internally displaced people endure a severe winter storm that has been sweeping across much of the Middle East. Read more.
  • Cambodia’s actions in the ongoing case of the Montagnards – a Christian ethnic minority from Vietnam suggests the country’s capacity and willingness to protect asylum seekers remains weak. Read more here.
  • International Organisation for Migration staff in Italy report on the new ‘Ghost ship’ trend – a developing trend where smugglers use old, unsafe and large cargo ships which are then abandoned by their crews. Read more.
  • South Korea has increased financial support this year for asylum seekers coming to the country. 

The government has approved a 510 million won (US$461,747) budget in 2015 to assist refugee entrants from overseas, 50 percent higher than the amount given out in 2014. Read more.
  • Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Negev in southern Israel to protest a new law designed to counter the influx of African migrants, which Israel calls ‘infiltrators’. The law allows the government to imprison asylum seekers and refugees for up to 20 months without trial. It is reportedly directed primarily at people fleeing Sudan and Eritrea. Read more.
  • New restrictions to Syrian nationals’ access to Lebanon took effect on 5 January, requiring Syrians to obtain a visa in order to enter the country. Read on.
  • Upsurge in Libya fighting triggers new displacement.  Read further.

At Home

  • Arrested protesters from the recent Manus Island hunger-strike face jail conditions until refugee status decided. Read more.
  • ASIO recently quietly reversed an adverse security assessment for a group of seven refugees. Two of these men then had their clearances overturned with no reasoning provided. Read more.
  • Melbourne baristas use crowd-funding to launch refugee-staffed café. Read more.
  • Months after deal, no refugees choose Cambodia as new home. Read on.
  • Asylum seeker advocates write to UN over indefinite detention at Darwin’s Wickham Point Centre. Read more.
  • Committing a crime does not mean forfeiting all human rights for the future – Gillian Triggs comments on her findings in The Basikbasik case. Read further.

February 2015 refugee news

Global

  • This month the UNHCR, concerned about the spread of violence from north-east Nigeria into neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, requested urgent humanitarian access to refugees and internally displaced people. Read more here.
  • Sudan has started issuing identity cards as the number of South Sudanese refugees continue to increase in Sudan. This allows their identification and enables them to work in their former country. Read here.
  • Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam continued to cross into Cambodia this month, with the Cambodian authorities continuing to refer to them as ‘illegal’ foreigners. Read here.
  • According to UNHCR, more than 300 refugees from North Africa have lost their lives in 2 major maritime tragedies this month. Read more here and here.
  • Recently, Greece’s new Deputy Minister for Public Order, Giannis Panousis, announced that Greece is going to stop detaining migrants indefinitely. Read further.
  • A report commissioned by the International Labour Organisation, Unicef and Save the Children, sheds light on the large scale of exploitation faced by Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Read more here.
  • A report by Amnesty International has highlighted a rise in attacks against asylum seekers and other minority groups in Bulgaria. Amnesty says that Bulgaria’s failure to adequately investigate and prosecute these crimes is fueling violence, fear and discrimination. Read the report here.
  • Afghan refugees in Turkey are homeless and helpeless. Read more here.

At home

  • The Australian Human Rights Commission’s report ‘Children in Immigration Detention’ reveals shocking details about the mental health impact of abuse of children in Australia’s detention centres. Read on here.
  • The Coalition is facing growing pressure to disclose the results of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault in the offshore immigration detention centre on Nauru. Read on.
  • The denial of a visa to a Pakistani refugee was deemed unlawful by the High Court of Australia. Read more here.
  • The 17th February 2015 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Reza Barati at Manus Island Detention Centre. Read more here.
  • Considered a ‘dangerous terrorist’ by attorney general George Brandis because of previous convictions that have since been proven false and revoked, an Egyptian man and his family remain in indefinite detention in Villawood Detention Centre. Read more here.
  • PNG PM Peter O’Neill warns police against the use of ‘unacceptable excessive force’ after receiving a petition from Port Moresby residents, where police have been accused of killing two men. Read more here.
  • Government-contracted security officers have been investigated over a series of attacks on asylum seekers in Victoria’s Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre. Read on here.
  • Despite the High Court of Australia ruling that the detention of 157 asylum-seekers at sea was permitted under the Maritime Powers Act, the UNHCR states that Australia is bound by its international obligations. Read more here.