Nauru detention camps鈥 water reserves are close to running dry, leaked emails showed on September 10.
A Transfield operations manager wrote in an email: 鈥淲e are currently nearly out of water 鈥 Due to recent outages at the DIBP RO [immigration department reverse osmosis facility] we have not been able to build up stock so have been slowly going backwards.鈥
Nauru
The release of up to 150 children under the age of 10 from residential detention is not a humanitarian move by the government, in case you were wondering.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison claimed that issuing bridging visas to 150 children and their families to live in the community was a 鈥渄ividend of stopping the boats鈥.
More than half a million Iraqis have been displaced and hundreds killed after the fall of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul to Islamic fundamentalists. But even as the crisis in Iraq dramatically worsens, Australia is refusing to offer any reprieve for the thousands of Iraqi refugees in its care.
World Refugee Day is dedicated each year to raising awareness about the more than 43.7 million refugees and internally displaced people around the world. The United Nations and non-government organisations usually share refugee stories and make pleas for compassion and empathy.
But in Australia, refugees and asylum seekers are treated like the enemy in a war: the target of a highly resourced, military-led 鈥渄eterrence鈥 strategy complete with arbitrary detainment, detention camps, guards to terrorise them, forced deportations and the violent suppression of those who protest.
For years the federal budget has been brutal on refugees and asylum seekers. Each year for the past two decades, visa places have been cut or made more difficult to gain, and services and rights to appeal are cut. The rights of people seeking protection in Australia are slowly eroded while detention centres get bigger and bigger budgets.
Now, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have revealed a budget that takes the war on refugees to new heights 鈥 with a newly merged border control agency, more patrol boats and the axing of independent oversight of refugee processing.
The Refugee Action Coalition Sydney released this statement on April 16.
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An outbreak of dengue fever has hit Nauru, raising concerns for the short-term and long-term heath and welfare of asylum seekers being held on the island.
At least three people (staff and detainees) have been confirmed suffering dengue fever. Another 12 cases are presently confirmed in the Nauruan population by a spokesperson for the Nauru general hospital.
A former welfare worker at the Nauru refugee detention camp says the July 19 riot that razed most of the Topside compound was an 鈥渋nevitable outcome鈥 of a 鈥渃ruel and degrading policy鈥, in a new book released last week.
The Undesirables follows several big whistleblower revelations that have come from Nauru since the camp was re-established by then-PM Julia Gillard in August 2012.
As a mother and her baby fight to avoid the 鈥渞at-infested鈥 Nauru refugee camp, a Fairfax-Nielsen poll showed half of Australian voters disapprove of the Coalition government's refugee policy. The poll also showed Prime Minister Tony Abbott has come to the end of what has been described as the shortest 鈥渉oneymoon period鈥 of a PM in history. Abbott's popularity took an unprecedented dive 鈥 with a personal approval rating of 1%, believed to be fuelled by his attitude to the 鈥渄iplomatic stand-off鈥 with Indonesia over substantial spying allegations.
Seven Iranian families 鈥 comprising 14 adults and 12 children 鈥 were sent to Nauru鈥檚 detention camp on August 21. Immigration minister Tony Burke said the children were aged between five and 15. He said more families would be sent to the island and 鈥渂efore long鈥 unaccompanied minors would also face possible removal from Australia to Nauru.
The Refugee Action Coalition released the statement below on August 21.
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The Refugee Action Coalition has condemned the Labor government鈥檚 transfer of asylum seeker families to Nauru.
Nauru's terrible poverty, stagnant economy and unstable administration has paved the way for its main aid-provider, the Australian government, to sign it up for a similar refugee 鈥渄eal鈥 as Papua New Guinea.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that refugees who arrived in Australia by boat could be sent for processing and then would 鈥渟ettle and reside鈥 on Nauru.
As asylum seekers face years of detention in the Nauru and Manus Island detention camps, where not a single claim has been assessed, the Australian government refuses to answer to scrutiny or calls for human rights oversight.
The ABC鈥檚 Four Corners and SBS鈥檚 Dateline have now tried to investigate the conditions inside each 鈥渞egional processing centre鈥. The camps are believed to be abysmal, inadequate and places of widespread physical and psychological breakdown among detainees.
The smuggling of cameras inside detention camps on Nauru and Manus Island by the has added to pressure on Labor to answer for the shocking conditions in which men, women and children are being held.
Footage that was aired on April 29 showed rows of muddy tents, derelict amenities and ablution facilities and image after image of people who are losing the will to live.
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