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Project Safecom News and Updates Monday, 30 October 2017 Project SafeCom News and Updates Monday, 30 October 2017 Support us by making periodic donations: https://www.safecom.org.au/donate.htm 1. UN condemns Australia on Indigenous detentions and asylum policies 2. Australia's asylum boat turnbacks are illegal and risk lives, UN told 3. Manus Island: dark chapter of Australian immigration poised to close 4. Food, water, power to be cut at Manus Island centre as refugees forced to depart 5. 600 men refuse to leave Manus Island detention centre as closure imminent 6. Behrouz Boochani: Days before the forced closure of Manus, we have no safe place to go 7. MEDIA RELEASE: End the Manus siege; restore food and services! 8. PNG sends in 'paramilitary' as police warn safety can't be guaranteed in Manus move 9. 42 Fijians to provide security on Manus Island as tension mounts over imminent closure 10. Manus Island closure: PNG's notorious police mobile squad to be deployed 11. Australia must act to stop 'humanitarian emergency' in Manus, says UNHCR 12. Human Rights Watch says AFP may be needed on Manus Island before closure 13. Manus medical team to stay on after detention centre closes 14. Manus Island regime will cost Australia up to $250 million a year after closure 15. MEDIA RELEASE: Navy take-over of Manus will put lives at risk 16. Papua New Guinea tells Australia it must resettle refugees unwilling to stay 17. 'No sinister behemoth': Michael Pezzullo defends Home Affairs department 18. Peter Dutton to face new class action alleging unlawful detention 19. 'Thousands' to join class action against Peter Dutton over detention regime 20. Refugee held on Nauru pleads with Australia to let him see birth of first child 21. Cat and dog crackdown: Asylum seekers now need the government's permission to buy a pet 22. Pet rules requiring asylum seekers to ask permission for cats and dogs criticised as 'authoritarian over-reach' 23. Hundreds March in Sydney for Asylum Seekers Ahead of PNG Camp Closure 24. The Australian Government Is Charging $7500 For A Dead Asylum Seeker’s Body, Family Says 25. Peter Dutton's citizenship bill fails after Senate ultimatum 26. Refugee lawyers vow to fight for 71 asylum seekers after Dutton cuts welfare support 1. UN condemns Australia on Indigenous detentions and asylum policies Human rights committee singles out treatment of Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu who died in police custody and calls asylum policies ‘shocking’ The Guardian Calla Wahlquist and Ben Doherty Friday 20 October 2017 14.54 AEDT Australia’s castigation before the UN has continued for a second day, with the human rights committee condemning Western Australia’s practice of jailing fine defaulters, and specifically highlighting the death of Indigenous woman Ms Dhu in custody. The WA attorney general has promised to amend the laws by the end of the year. Australia is currently before the committee for the periodic review of its human rights record, and the issues of Indigenous incarceration and asylum policy again dominated committee criticisms. Dhu, a 22-year-old Yamatji woman, died in custody in Port Hedland on 4 August 2014, less than 48 hours after being arrested for $3,622 in unpaid fines. She had never been jailed before. The committee criticised the Western Australian government for failing to comply with a coronial recommendation to scrap the law allowing people to be jailed for unpaid fines. “The case of Ms Dhu once again calls for justice,” human rights committee member Duncan Muhumuza told the Australian delegation. Muhumuza also highlighted the case of an Indigenous mother-of-five who was jailed last month for unpaid fines, and released after an anonymous donor paid off her fine. The woman was arrested by police who were following up a reported domestic violence incident, in which she was not the perpetrator. “What is done to police personnel who, instead of helping a person in need, arrest that person instead?” Muhumuza said. “How is this consistent with the trauma-informed approach for children experiencing domestic violence situations?” The coroner who oversaw the inquest into Dhu’s death recommended in December that WA amend legislation allowing people to be taken directly into custody if they have a warrant of commitment for unpaid fines, suggesting the state should either ban the practice of using jail time to pay off debt or should change the law so that the decision to jail someone for unpaid fines is made by the court. The law has not yet been changed. WA attorney general John Quigley has said he will introduce the reforms by the end of 2017. “I intend to introduce a package of amendments to the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Act 1994 (WA), the effect of which will be to reduce the number of people imprisoned for fine default alone,” Quigley told Guardian Australia. “I have examined the approach taken in other jurisdictions in relation to jailing for fines and I will be in a position to bring forward a reform package to cabinet before the end of the year.” A South African representative on the UN committee, Christof Heyns, also called for Australia to examine the practices of jailing people for fines and mandatory sentencing, both of which he said could contribute to the disproportionately high rates of imprisonment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Both issues are being examined by an Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry, which is due to report in December. Australia’s hardline asylum policies – in particular the practice of indefinite offshore detention – again attracted significant criticism On a second day of questioning, Prof Yuval Shany focused on the indefinite mandatory detention of asylum seekers and refugees in harmful conditions. “We are not questioning Australia’s right to exercise border control … we are concerned with two elements, one is the issue of non-refoulement [returning a person to danger] … and the second is the treatment of these migrants who are seeking asylum while present in Australian jurisdiction, in particular with their right not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty.” He said Australia had contorted its asylum protection policy to one focused on deterrence. Harsh detention conditions “rising to the level of cruel treatment”, unjustified use of physical force, handcuffing of asylum seekers, appeared unreasonable actions. “The question is: how does the state justify treating migrants as criminals?” Committee member Prof Sarah Cleveland described Operation Sovereign Borders and Australia’s offshore processing of asylum seekers as “shocking”. “I find the legal regime in place quite shocking for this state, particularly for a state that holds itself as broadly human rights compliant,” she said. “It’s very disturbing both from the perspective of respect international law and humane protection of persons and from the model it suggests for other states.” The Australian government’s delegation told the committee the issue of irregular mass movement, was a complex challenge for all countries. But it said Australia upheld its international legal obligations. “Australia’s approach seeks to permanently disrupt the business model of the criminal syndicate people-smugglers that prey on vulnerable people, taking their money and encouraging them onto unseaworthy vessels, where there’s a significant chance they will drown,” Luke Mansfield, first assistant secretary with the department of immigration and border protection, said. “Australia acknowledges its approach is firm and is not universally liked, but it is consistent with our international obligations, including non-refoulement.” Since 2013, Operation Sovereign Borders has intercepted 771 asylum seekers, on 31 boats, and returned them to source or transit countries, or sent them for offshore processing, Mansfield said. He said the “on-water assessment” of protection claims was thorough and comprehensive. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/20/un-condemns-australia-on-indigenous-detentions-and-asylum- policies 2. Australia's asylum boat turnbacks are illegal and risk lives, UN told Special rapporteur Agnes Callamard delivers report to UN general assembly on unlawful deaths of migrants and singles out Australia for criticism The Guardian Ben Doherty Monday 30 October 2017 07.29 AEDT Australia’s “push-backs” of asylum seeker boats are illegal under international law and “may intentionally put lives at risk,” the United Nation’s global expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has said in a formal report to the UN general assembly. Special rapporteur Agnes Callamard’s report, Unlawful death of refugees and migrants, focuses on government responses to worldwide flows of migrants across borders. Callamard said around the world, governments were acting punitively and recklessly towards migrants. She identified “multiple failures on the part of states to respect and protect refugees’ and migrants’ right to life, such as unlawful killings... and as a result of deterrence policies and practices which increase the risk of death”. Callamard wrote that in a global environment where refugees and migrants were demonised, and the act of moving to another place criminalised, countries had designed migration policies based on deterrence, militarisation, and that tolerated the risk of migrant deaths as part of controlling entry. “Deterrence policies are punitive, including policies ranging from securing the more accessible border entry points — thereby purposefully funnelling the migration flows into more hazardous terrain — to the imposition of strict detention and return policies.” Callamard highlighted cases where migrants are reportedly attacked and killed by government authorities, including in Libya, Mexico, Egypt, and the Sudan. But Australia is singled out for criticism for its policy of forcibly intercepting asylum seeker boats and pushing them back to where they’d come from. “‘Push-back’ measures, in addition to violating the principle of ‘non-refoulement’, may also amount to excessive use of force whenever officials place refugees or migrants intentionally and knowingly in circumstances where they may be killed or their lives endangered because of the environment,” Callamard wrote.
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