How Australia decides who is a genuine refugee

Mary Anne Kenny (Murdoch University) explains the process of determining refugee status.

How effective was the Cambodia refugee deal?

Madeline Gleeson (University of NSW) fact checks whether millions of taxpayer dollars were spent and “very few lives which were changed by that”.

Turnbull announces a new refugee plan, but will it solve the crisis?

Alex Reilly (University of Adelaide) questions why the government is extending the source countries of its resettlement program and notes that the increase is merely a re-announcement of an Abbott Government pledge. While the Government will likely herald the benefits of regional co-operation, the announcement smacks more of cynical politics trumping common sense.

Offshore detention: Australians have a right to know what is done in their name

Johan Lidberg (Monash University) explains that the consequence of the Government's fortress of secrecy about offshore detention is that Australians don’t know what is being done in their name on Nauru and Manus Island. It also means the refugees are dehumanised—suffering children and families become numbers instead of human beings.

Conditions in offshore detention centres are inhumane, degrading and pose life-threatening risks

Karen Zwi (University of NSW) and Nicholas Talley (University of Newcastle) explain in The Conversation the health ramifications of Australia's refugee policy and the disturbing litany of delays, poor judgement, ill-informed decisions and above all, the serious consequences of a detention system that neglects warnings and fails to heed clinical advice.

International criticism of Australia will not cease while current policy settings are maintained

Amy Maguire (University of Newcastle) writes in The Conversation that Australia faces a constant tide of international criticism which will not cease while current policy settings are maintained, but all Australians need to contribute to shape the country’s attitudes towards, and practice of, human rights.

How the ‘fair go’ became the last bulwark for Australia’s freedoms

Gillian Triggs (University of Sydney, Human Rights Commission) writes in The Conversation that successive governments and political leaders since 2001 have played on community fears of terrorism and the unauthorised entry of refugees to concentrate power in the hands of the executive – to the detriment of Australian liberty. Most Australians are unlikely to be able to describe the doctrine of the separation of powers, but they’re quick to assert their liberties under the rubric of a ‘fair go’.

Australia's treatment of refugees is a profound injustice

Julian Burnside (Adjunct Professor, Australian Catholic University ) surveys Australia's policies toward refugees in The Conversation. This article is based on his delivery of the 2015 Hamer oration. It should be a very sobering read. If you don't really understand Australia's refugee policy, you should read this article. If you think you do understand, you will naturally want to read this article. Australia is now judged overseas by its behaviour as cruel and selfish.

A political myth that Australia takes more refugees than any other country

Mary Anne Kenny (Murdoch University) writes in The Conversation that it is incorrect to claim that Australia takes more refugees than any other country. In order to substantiate a "world best" boast, one has to torture the data to exclude the 99% of refugees who are not resettled by the UNHCR and also calculate on a per capita basis.

Distinct absence of strategy in Middle East actions

Michelle Grattan writes in The Conversation about the nexus between refugee, foreign and defence policy. She highlights the lack of accountability for Australia's offshore detention centres and an absence of strategy in Australia's intervention in the Middle East.

Spot the difference: Labor vs the Coalition on asylum seekers

Writing in The Conversation, Emily Darling and Sara Davies (Queensland University of Technology) explain the few areas of difference between the Coalition and Opposition policies on asylum seekers.

Refugee fact sheets from the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

The University of NSW Kaldor Centre for Internaltional Refugee Law has published some excellent fact sheets on its website, including Debunking Myths and Turning Back Boats. A summary of the fact sheets is provided here.

Boats secrecy leads to bad policy without democratic accountability

Alex Reilly (Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, University of Adelaide) writes in The Conversation that there is confusion about the role of government, and the role of information in holding the government to account. The agencies of the bureaucracy are a central part of government. They carry out the will of the executive and as such need to be open to the same scrutiny as ministers themselves.

Australian clemency appeals to Indonesia hampered by hypocrisy

Amy Maguire (Lecturer in International Law at University of Newcastle) writes in The Conversation that Australia’s contrasting approaches to capital punishment and the treatment of asylum seekers raise questions about Australia's commitment to human rights and the international body of law that exists to protect these.

Lacking political leadership: Comparing the treatment of boat people in 1977 and today

An excellent article by Klaus Neumann, Professor of History at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, in “Queue jumpers” and the perils of crossing Sydney Harbour on a Manly ferry provides the historical context for the current morass that is Australia's refugee policy.

Neumann provides a survey of the Vietnamese boat people "crisis" that occurred in 1977 and draws parallels with the politics of boat people during the last decade or so.