The Human Rights Law Centre and refugee advocates have criticised the Albanese Government’s cruel attacks on migrant and refugee communities, after some of the most brutal migration laws Australia has seen in years were passed overnight.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre will call for the Albanese Government to abandon its brutal deportation and surveillance laws, in evidence to a Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry this evening.
Read MoreA new joint report from the Human Rights Law Centre and the University of Melbourne: Prison to Deportation Pipeline has found that visa cancellations on ‘character grounds’ have increased tenfold in the last ten years.
Read MoreThe High Court of Australia has today ruled that forcing people released from immigration detention to wear ankle bracelets and live under curfews is unconstitutional.
Read MoreAs a twenty-four-hour protest led by refugees reaches 100 days, the Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to provide permanent visas to the 8,500 people who have been stuck in visa uncertainty and limbo for the last 12 years.
Read MoreFor 94 days refugee community members and activists, together with their allies, have camped in front of government offices demanding visa equality for people failed by the former Coalition Government’s broken ‘fast track’ refugee processing system. After a decade of limbo, they are calling for permanent visas to ensure safe futures for themselves and their families.
Read MoreA national coalition of over 40 community legal centres, unions, business groups, and faith, welfare and human rights organisations welcome the federal government’s introduction of groundbreaking reforms to reduce widespread migrant worker exploitation.
Read MoreEleven years after former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the introduction of mandatory offshore processing, the Albanese Government must change course and provide thousands of people who have suffered for over a decade dignity, safety and freedom, said the Human Rights Law Centre today.
Read MoreThe High Court has dismissed a legal challenge to the Australian Government’s ongoing detention of people who cannot be forced to return to their country of citizenship, meaning that up to 200 people may remain indefinitely detained, said the Human Rights Law Centre today.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has condemned the Albanese Government for jeopardising the freedom and safety of thousands of people in the Australian community.
Read MoreThe High Court will today hear a challenge to the Australian Government’s continued detention of people who cannot be forced to return to their country of citizenship.
Read MoreRefugee Women Action for Visa Equality (WAVE) and the Human Rights Law Centre will give evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry today calling for the Albanese Government’s dangerous and draconian proposed deportation laws to be rejected.
Read MoreThe Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Human Rights Law Centre and Democracy in Colour have denounced the Albanese Government’s rushed law that would further punish people who have been unlawfully held in indefinite immigration detention.
Read MoreThe High Court is set to hear a challenge in April to the Australian Government’s continued detention of people who cannot be forced to return to their country of citizenship.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to end the offshore detention regime, and evacuate all those who are still offshore to Australia, as the coronial inquest into the death of Faysal Ishak Ahmed begins today.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre and Migrant Justice Institute welcome legislation passed this week that is the first critical step to upholding migrant workers’ rights at work.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre and Asylum Seeker Resource Centre have condemned the Albanese Government’s proposed introduction of a preventive detention regime that would create a parallel legal system allowing migrants and refugees to be imprisoned on the basis of what they might do in the future.
Read MoreNed Kelly Emeralds, an Iranian man who has been detained for over a decade while seeking asylum, has won his challenge against his ongoing detention. Ned’s case is the first to be heard since the High Court recently ruled that indefinite detention was unlawful.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government must not proceed with knee-jerk, rushed legislation which continues to curtail people’s right to freedom after the High Court decision in NZYQ, the Human Rights Law Centre and Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said today.
Read MoreThe High Court has today ruled that it is unlawful and unconstitutional for the Australian Government to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention. The Human Rights Law Centre and UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law appeared as amici curiae – friends of the court – to successfully argue that detention is unlawful for any person the Government is unlikely to remove in the foreseeable future.
Read MoreThe High Court will tomorrow hear a landmark legal challenge to the Australian Government’s power to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention. The Human Rights Law Centre and UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law will appear at the hearing as amici curiae – friends of the court – to argue that detention is unlawful for any person the Government is unlikely to remove in the foreseeable future.
Read MoreThe High Court will next month hear a landmark legal challenge to the Australian government’s power to hold people in immigration detention indefinitely.
Read MoreNed Kelly Emeralds, an Iranian man who has been detained for over a decade while seeking asylum, is in the Federal Court of Australia for a hearing to challenge his ongoing detention and apply for a release order.
Read MoreNed Kelly Emeralds, an Iranian man who has been detained for over a decade while seeking asylum, has won his appeal in the High Court of Australia, leaving open the possibility that courts could end indefinite detention by making ‘home detention’ orders. Despite this victory however, Ned’s detention continues – now in its eleventh year.
Read MoreDespite committing to whistleblower protections for migrant worker exploitations, the Albanese Government’s proposal will fail to protect exploited workers from visa cancellation, according to migrant workers and migrant rights experts.
Read MorePrivate security firm G4S and the Australian government have settled civil proceedings with the parents of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati who was killed during the 2014 Manus Island riots.
Read MoreThe Migrant Workers Centre, Unions NSW, the Human Rights Law Centre, Immigration Advice and Rights Centre, and Migrant Justice Institute have set out the roadmap for strong and robust visa protections for migrant workers in a new report: Not Just Numbers: A Blueprint of Visa Protections for Temporary Migrant Workers.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government must immediately evacuate the 75 remaining survivors of offshore detention from Papua New Guinea and shut down its detention centres on Nauru, as it accounts for the multi-million-dollar secret payments that have propped up offshore detention over the past decade.
Read MoreA decade ago today, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced he would not allow any person seeking asylum by sea to settle in Australia. The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to end 10 years of calculated, cruel policies inflicted on people who came to Australia seeking safety.
Read MoreThe last refugee held on Nauru to be evacuated to Australia after 10 years arrived last night, in a welcome and long overdue move for refugees. However, around 80 people still held in Papua New Guinea need urgent evacuation.
Read MoreThe Australian Government must strengthen its commitment to human rights in its laws, policies and practices, the Human Rights Law Centre said today in response to new comprehensive data looking at the state of human rights in Australia.
Read MoreItem 2: Enhanced interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
Read MoreReports that the last people remaining in Nauru under Australia's offshore detention policy would soon leave the island have been welcomed by the Human Rights Law Centre, with a warning that the same must be done for those languishing in Papua New Guinea.
Read MoreMigrant Justice Institute and the Human Rights Law Centre today welcome the Albanese Government's commitment to introducing visa-based protections for migrant workers who address exploitation at work.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to repatriate all Australian nationals still held in detention camps in Syria, after Save the Children were today forced to commence legal action because the Government has failed to act.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to repatriate all Australian nationals still held in detention camps in Syria, after Save The Children recently warned it would be forced to commence legal action if the Government failed to act.
Read MoreThe High Court is set to hear an appeal brought by an Iranian man who has been detained for nearly a decade while seeking asylum. The appeal will determine for the first time whether the Federal Court has the power to direct that a person be detained at a location in the community, rather than a detention centre.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and Migrant Workers Centre has appeared before the Joint Standing Committee on Migration calling for Australia’s migration laws to centre the rights of people over punitive politics and economic profit.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to address the root causes of systemic family visa delays and finally end the deliberate separation of refugee families, after a new report found the Department of Home Affairs failed to prevent family visa applications being stalled or delayed.
Read MoreThis week, the Federal Government had the opportunity to end a decade of cruel, inhumane treatment of 150 people stranded in offshore detention. Instead, the Albanese Government voted with the Coalition and One Nation to block Greens senator Nick McKim’s Evacuation to Safety Bill that would remove the last refugees from Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Read MoreA national coalition of over 40 legal service providers, unions, ethnic community peak bodies, churches, and national organisations is calling on Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil to urgently bring widespread migrant worker exploitation out of the shadows.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government’s announcement that it will provide a pathway to permanent residency for people on temporary protection visas offers hope at last to thousands of people who have built lives in Australia but have been held back by punitive visa rules.
Read MoreToday the Federal Government abolished Ministerial Direction 80, a policy that has intentionally kept thousands of refugee families apart for a decade. While the policy change marks a necessary first step towards reuniting people with their loved ones, the Human Rights Law Centre calls for further action from the Albanese Government to stop separating families to punish and deter people from seeking safety in Australia.
Read MoreA new report by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and Human Rights Law Centre, Labour in Limbo: Bridging Visa E holders and Modern Slavery Risk in Australia, casts a new light on the continued suffering of people who sought safety in Australia by boat.
Read MoreWe express profound concern that the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has been forced to take the drastic measure of suspending its visit to Australia due to obstruction encountered while attempting to carrying out its mandate during its visit to Australia under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).
Read MoreThis week the International Commission of Jurists, Victoria announced Sanmati Verman, Managing Lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre, as the winner of the 2022 John Gibson Award for her work defending the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government must end the practice of locking people in immigration detention for years on end in dire conditions, human rights experts have told the United Nations, ahead of its investigation of the Australian government’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture treaty. It must also repeal laws that are resulting in record numbers of people being detained.
Read MoreAn Afghanistan-Australian father has been reunited with his wife and four children after four years of visa delays, and following the Australian Government conceding defeat in a court case brought by the family.
Read MoreNine years on from the announcement that all people seeking asylum by boat would be prevented from settling in Australia, the federal government’s shameful treatment of people seeking safety continues.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed the appointment of Clare O’Neil as the Minister for Home Affairs and Andrew Giles as the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs and has called on them to take action to end a decade of cruelty against refugees and people seeking safety.
Read MoreLawyers acting for the parents of murdered Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati have welcomed the settlement last week of civil proceedings brought by former Manus Island guard Chandra Osborne, and called on the Australian Government and G4S to now compensate Mr Berati's family.
Read MoreAustralia’s family migration system is in urgent need of an overhaul to ensure that families and partners are reunited with efficiency and transparency, a Senate committee has found.
Read MoreLegal experts have slammed the Government’s decision to reintroduce the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill — which has repeatedly been rejected — as a political stunt at the cost of people on visas and their families.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government’s newly announced refugee resettlement deal with New Zealand is a step in the right direction, but fails to account for almost one thousand people still affected by Australia’s offshore detention policies.
Read MoreAn Afghanistan-Australian family, which has waited over four years to be reunited in Australia, has brought a legal challenge against the Morrison Government’s unjustified family visa processing delays.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government, with the support of the ALP, last night passed damaging and unnecessary laws in the lower house, that would give the Immigration Minister more power to cancel visas and deport people who live in Australia.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government is again attempting to pass damaging and unnecessary laws that would give the Immigration Minister more power to cancel visas and deport people who live in Australia. It is the third time the Coalition has attempted to pass the laws.
Read MoreAustralians overwhelmingly support a pathway to permanent residency for migrants who have lived and worked in Australia for several years, according to new research.
Read MoreThe Department of Home Affairs did not follow its own policies and was inconsistent in its approach to family members separated by international travel restrictions, a new audit report has found.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has urged the federal government to overhaul the legal framework for travel restrictions following the postponement of border changes for people on temporary visas.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has today welcomed the federal government’s announcement that international border restrictions will be lifted for most temporary visa holders.
Read MoreAlmost a million people in Australia on temporary visas and 10,000 refugees remain in limbo as the Morrison government refuses to detail a complete plan for lifting international travel restrictions.
Read MoreFindings were delivered today in the coronial inquest into the death of 23-year-old refugee Omid Masoumali who was held in offshore detention in Nauru. Queensland State Coroner Terry Ryan found that almost three years without any prospect of safe resettlement had led Omid to despair and frustration. The Coroner called for the Australian Government to provide certainty and expeditious resettlement for the people who still remain in Nauru.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Morrison government to provide a complete and inclusive plan for easing travel restrictions that includes residents on temporary visas, their family members and refugees whose resettlement in Australia has been postponed.
Read MoreA coalition of human rights lawyers is calling on the Morrison Government to act urgently to ensure the safety of people held in Park Hotel Alternative Place of Detention amid an escalating COVID-19 outbreak.
Read MoreToday the Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews announced that the Morrison Government will be ending offshore processing in Papua New Guinea by the end of the year, following 8 years of policy failure and harmful treatment of people seeking asylum.
Read MoreRefugees and people seeking asylum held in Australia’s network of immigration detention centres must be immediately released as at least one guard has tested positive for COVID-19.
Read MoreCommunity Legal Services across Australia have announced their support for the call made by the Afghan Australian Advocacy Network for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to take action for Afghanistan.
Read MoreHuman rights lawyers are calling on the Morrison Government to act urgently to ensure the safety of people held in immigration detention centres around Australia, amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Read MoreThe parents of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati, who died in 2014 after being brutally beaten in an Australian offshore detention centre, have commenced legal action over his death.
Read MoreToday marks eight years since former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that people seeking asylum in Australia by boat would be processed offshore and prevented from settling in Australia.
Read MoreArbitrary and inconsistent rules imposed by the Australian Government are unfairly keeping people separated from their families, the Human Rights Law Centre warned in its submission to an audit of Australia’s COVID-19 international travel restrictions.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is today calling on the Morrison government to accept New Zealand’s longstanding offer to resettle refugees from Australia’s offshore detention regime.
Read MoreThe Australian government’s visa laws are devastating families and keeping parents away from their children for years, a Senate Committee inquiry has been told. The landmark inquiry into the Morrison government’s family migration policies has received evidence from legal experts and people separated from their families, which show a broken system in urgent need of reform.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has today called on the Morrison Government to bring an end to the detention of a father who is cruelly separated from his wife and child. Overnight, The Project reported on the story of Mehreen, Zijah and three year old Eshal.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has engaged in a strategic, deliberate and coercive campaign to separate refugees from their families and prevent them from reuniting in Australia, a new report by the Human Rights Law Centre reveals.
Read MoreAn armed attack this week on men still held in offshore detention in Papua New Guinea is further evidence that the Morrison Government needs to bring this cruel policy to an end.
Read MoreToday, the Federal Government confirmed the Minister for Home Affairs has chartered a flight to return refugees and asylum seekers to offshore detention on Nauru in a worrying development the Time For A Home coalition said highlighted the Government’s continued failure to provide a solution for the people it has held for 8 years.
Read MoreThe release of 15 more refugees from the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) detention centre yesterday is welcome news, particularly following the release of 46 people last week and the 1 man resettled in the U.S this week from the Park Hotel.
Read MoreAustralia’s human rights performance was in the spotlight tonight as the Australian Government appeared before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major human rights review that happens every four to five years.
Australia’s human rights performance will be in the spotlight tonight as the Australian Government appears before the Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major human rights review that happens every four to five years.
The Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed reports that the Morrison Government has released a small number of people who have been held in detention for over seven years.
A coalition of refugee organisations has condemned the federal government’s decision to slash support to people seeking asylum in the 2020-21 Budget. This decision, they say, puts over 100, 000 people, including around 16, 000 children, at further risk of homelessness and destitution.
Read MoreSenator Jacqui Lambie announced today that she will not support the Federal Government’s bill that would stifle criticism of immigration detention, reduce transparency and cut off crucial support for the people detained.
Read MoreHuman rights and legal organisations are today calling on Federal Senators to reject new laws that would allow the Morrison Government to stifle criticism of immigration detention, reduce transparency and cut off crucial support for the people detained in immigration detention.
Read MoreOn 10 August 2020, the Federal Court ordered the Federal Government to stop detaining a 68 year old man at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, due to the health risks of COVID-19.
Read MorePrivate security contractors have used excessive force against people in Australian immigration detention centres, a damning new report by the independent detention monitoring body has found.
Read MoreEarlier today, the Federal Court of Australia ordered the Minister for Home Affairs to cease detaining a 68-year-old man with multiple health conditions at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA), to guard against the serious risk of COVID-19 infection.
Read MoreSeveral members of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee have today found that the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton has failed to justify the need for sweeping new powers that would undermine transparency in immigration detention.
Read MoreReports that the Federal Government will reopen the Christmas Island Detention Centre highlight the failure of the Minister for Home Affairs to appropriately respond to the threat posed byCOVID-19 in immigration detention.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government must act urgently to ensure the safety of people it continues to detain in indefinite offshore detention in Papua New Guinea, with the country’s pandemic chief warning that the COVID-19 outbreak could overwhelm its health system within days.
Read MoreNew Zealand granting Behrouz Boochani asylum is a strong reminder to the Morrison Government that there is a viable solution to 7 years of failed asylum policy.
Read MoreThis Sunday, July 19, marks the day in 2013 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that people seeking asylum, arriving by boat, will never be settled in Australia and would be processed offshore.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has told the Senate Committee tasked with investigating the Federal Government's response to COVID-19 that human rights must be at the centre of the Government’s actions, both now and into the future.
Read MoreA leading infectious diseases specialist says the Federal Government must take immediate action to protect refugees and people seeking asylum detained in crowded immigration detention facilities, after a staff member at the Mantra hotel in Melbourne - which is currently being used as a makeshift detention centre - tested positive for COVID-19.
Read MoreA Senate committee will today hear evidence about new laws that would allow the Morrison Government to stifle criticism of immigration detention, and cut off crucial support for the people detained. In a submission to the inquiry, the Human Rights Law Centre called for Parliament to reject the proposed laws.
Read MoreAs the Federal Government faces further protests outside a makeshift detention centre in Brisbane, the Human Rights Law Centre has called for the Morrison Government to bring an end to its needless punitive detention of refugees.
Read MoreNew laws that would see mobile phones stripped from refugees and people seeking asylum in immigration detention and massively expand invasive search procedures are an unjustified overreach of power, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Senate Committee.
Read MoreAn alliance of civil society and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and senior academics have told the Senate Committee tasked with investigating the Morrison Government's response to COVID-19 that there must be greater oversight of places of detention both during the pandemic and beyond.
Read MoreHuman rights groups have slammed another attempt by the Government to avoid responsibility and scrutiny for their inhumane policy of mandatory, indefinite detention.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government must take action to protect the children, women and men held in its care in immigration detention in Australia and offshore in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the Senate Select Committee into COVID-19 in an urgent submission.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has joined a call from over 180 civil society organisations to extend critical COVID-19 support to temporary visa holders, including refugees and people seeking asylum.
Read MoreA legal challenge against Minister Peter Dutton and the Department of Home Affairs on behalf of a person in immigration detention relating to COVID-19 has been filed in the High Court by the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreA coalition of human rights lawyers have today called on the Morrison Government to act urgently to ensure the safety of the women and men held in its care in onshore immigration detention centers.
Read MoreAbdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee and human rights defender, addressed the United Nations in Geneva to call out the Morrison Government’s continued cruel treatment of people still held on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea.
Read MoreToday the International Commission of Jurists, Victoria announced David Burke, Legal Director with the Human Rights Law Centre, as the winner of the 2020 John Gibson Award for his work defending the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum.
Read MoreToday as we celebrate Human Rights Day, we are delighted to launch our Annual Report for 2019.
Read MoreNow that the Government has ripped away a medical solution it is more urgent than ever that they ensure every single person is resettled to safety.
Read MoreToday the Australian Government has stripped away a humane, transparent and doctor-led process for the refugees in its care on PNG and Nauru to access essential medical care.
Read MoreThe full bench of the Federal Court of Australia today dismissed the Morrison Government’s appeal of a Federal Court decision that required it to consider Medevac applications of sick women and men in Nauru who are barred from engaging in telehealth consultations with Australian doctors.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre today urged the Australian Senate to reject the Morrison Government’s Medevac repeal bill – the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019 – which has been listed for debate in Parliament on Wednesday.
Read MoreThe Full Bench of the Federal Court will today hear the Morrison Government’s appeal from a Federal Court ruling that requires the Government to consider applications under the Medevac laws where doctors provide reports based on detailed medical records.
Read MoreA new report by the panel of medical experts appointed by the Australian Government under the Medevac laws shows that the laws are working. The Medevac laws allow independent Australian doctors to recommend medical transfers for ill people detained offshore.
Read MoreA Senate Committee report released today shows that the Medevac laws are working as intended. The laws, passed in February 2019, allow doctors to recommend that people be evacuated from Nauru and Papua New Guinea to Australia for medical treatment.
A new report by the Independent Health Advice Panel shows that the Medevac laws, which allow independent Australian doctors to recommend medical transfers for seriously ill people detained offshore, are working.
Read MoreThe Medevac laws are an important safeguard that is helping to ensure vital medical treatment for seriously unwell refugees held by the Australian Government on Nauru and Manus, the Human Rights Law Centre will tell a Senate inquiry today.
Read MoreThis week at the United Nations in Geneva, the Committee on the Rights of the Child is reviewing the Australian Government’s track record when it comes to upholding and protecting the rights of children.
Read MoreDoctors, human rights lawyers and advocates have urged the Morrison Government to listen to expert advice about the need for doctors to be at the heart of medical assessments for sick refugees on Manus and Nauru, as the reporting deadline closes to the senate inquiry investigating the Medevac repeal bill.
Read MoreThis week marks six years of suffering for around 800 men and women still detained indefinitely by the Morrison Government on Manus Island and Nauru.
Read MorePaying another company to run the Australian Government’s offshore detention centre on Manus Island will not end the suffering of the men still trapped on the remote island, the Human Rights Law Centre said today in response to reports the Morrison Government will terminate Paladin’s contract once another company is appointed.
Read MoreAbdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee and human rights defender, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva overnight to call out the Morrison Government’s continued cruel treatment of over 800 people still held on Nauru and Manus Island.
Read MoreYesterday, the Federal Court of Australia ruled that the Australian Government has to consider applications for refugees on Manus and Nauru made under the Medevac laws that are made in line with standard Australian medical practices.
Read MoreUN experts have once again urged the Australian Government to immediately provide healthcare to over 800 refugees in its care on Manus and Nauru and transfer those identified as requiring urgent care to Australia.
Read MoreHuman rights champion and former Socceroo Craig Foster delivered a powerful speech at our annual fundraising dinner in Melbourne on 24 May 2019. Download Craig’s speech here.
Read MoreAnother man held by the Australian Government on Manus Island attempted suicide yesterday amidst an unprecedented medical crisis on Manus and Nauru. More than 50 incidents of attempted suicide and self-harm have been reported among the refugees on Manus and Nauru in the weeks since Federal Election.
Read MoreIn collaboration with international NGOs, the Human Rights Law Centre has written to UN member countries to plea for the UN’s human rights mechanisms to be adequately funded.
Read MoreAfter six years of offshore detention there is an unprecedented medical crisis on Manus and Nauru. Men and women, who have been detained by the Australian Government, are experiencing a wide range of serious health conditions ranging from people who are acutely suicidal, to people with serious heart conditions that cannot be treated on the islands.
Read MoreI woke up this morning thinking of the men and women still held by the Australian Government on Manus and Nauru after six long years.
Thinking of First Nations people, LGBTIQ communities, migrant communities and others.
Read MoreLast night, in a damning attack on the Australian Government’s offshore refugee camp on Nauru, the Former President of Nauru, Sprent Dabwido, said the agreement with Australia was a mistake, describing it as a ‘deal with the devil.’ Mr Dabwido likened the policy, under which the Australian Government has indefinitely detained refugees on the tiny island nation for up to six years, to ‘torture.’
Read MoreThe United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, used her address to the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council to highlight some of the world’s worst human rights abuses and called out the Australian Government’s treatment of refugees and people seeking asylum.
Read MoreAbdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee and human rights defender, who has spent nearly six years detained by the Australian Government on Manus Island, overnight addressed the UN Human Rights Council to highlight the Morrison Government’s inhumane treatment of people seeking asylum.
Read MoreKey national organisations have banded together to oversee and ensure the timely and orderly assessment of applications for medical transfers under the “Medevac Bill” by creating the Medical Evacuation Response Group (Medevac Group).
Read MoreThe inquest into the death of 23-year-old refugee Omid Masoumali on Nauru will commence in the Coroners Court of Queensland in Brisbane on Monday 25 February.
Read MoreAbdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee and human rights defender, who has spent nearly six years detained by the Australian Government on Manus Island, was overnight awarded the prestigious Martin Ennals Award.
Read MoreRefugee and human rights organisations rejoiced today as the House of Representatives overturned 90 years of tradition and a toxic debate to vote authoritatively to deliver medical care to the refugees who have spent almost six years detained offshore.
Read MoreAmid delays to evacuations and more court proceedings on behalf of sick refugees, lawyers have called on the Federal Government to allow desperately needed reform to the offshore medical transfer process.
Read MoreSince joining the Human Rights Law Centre, Daniel Webb has tirelessly fought for the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum. Now, after seven years, he is taking a year-long break from his role to work on government transparency and anti-corruption initiatives in the Pacific region with Transparency International.
Read MoreA Government proposal to address the medical crisis engulfing critically ill refugees detained offshore has been firmly rejected as window dressing on the existing unconscionable process which has seen 12 people die in offshore detention in the past five years.
Read MoreLawyers, doctors and caseworkers welcomed the news that all of the critically sick children detained by the Australian government on Nauru were now receiving the medical care they need in Australia and the remaining children would be resettled in the US.
Read MoreAt the same time as children and their families are being medically evacuated from Nauru, it’s been reported today that Canstruct, a Queensland company, is set to make in the order of $150 million in earnings from the Australian Government for running the Nauru detention centre.
Read MoreThe Australia Government is today challenging the Federal Court’s power to order urgent medical evacuations of acutely unwell men, women and children from Manus and Nauru.
Read MoreDespite reports today that all children and their families will finally be evacuated from Nauru and amidst mounting public pressure to end offshore detention, it’s also been reported that Canstruct has had its contract to run the Nauru detention centre renewed.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has submitted a report to the United Nations Child Rights Committee showing that Australian governments are failing to protect the rights of vulnerable children. Australia is due to front the Child Rights Committee in Geneva in February, where the Government’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child will be measured. The HRLC’s report, ‘Justice for Children’, will inform the assessment of Australia.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre cautiously welcomed reports today that all children and their families will finally be evacuated from Nauru but warned that the evacuations must happen immediately.
Read MoreLegal experts and human rights advocates today condemned Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s refusal to resolve the urgent medical emergency for children on Nauru when he ruled out negotiating with Labor and the crossbench.
Read More63 mothers, fathers and children permanently separated between Australia and indefinite offshore detention on Manus and Nauru have taken their case for family reunion to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should immediately end its engagement with Myanmar’s military and impose sanctions on abusive military generals, the Human Rights Law Centre and the Australian Council for International Development said in a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council overnight.
Read More“As the Australian Government sits here on this Council, professing its commitment to human rights, it is indefinitely imprisoning 102 children in its offshore refugee camp on Nauru,” Daniel Webb told the UN Human Rights Council.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should not be allowed to pick and choose what detention facilities can be scrutinised under the UN anti-torture treaty, the Human Rights Law Centre said in a submission to the Human Rights Commission.
Read MoreThe new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has used her maiden speech at the UN Human Rights Council to condemn the Australian Government’s indefinite offshore detention regime.
Read More“The Australian government’s refugee policies have been internationally condemned as putting lives at risk. Businesses, including airlines, that actively facilitate and profit from this system are complicit in abuse and risk exposing themselves to serious reputational liability.”
Read MoreThe Queensland Coroner has found that the death of Hamid Khazaei, a 24 year old man indefinitely detained by the Australian Government on Manus Island, was “preventable” and that if he was evacuated to Australia for medical treatment sooner he would have survived.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has been urged to improve its track record on women’s rights overnight by an expert UN Committee on women’s rights.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women made its criticism after a robust review earlier this month to assess Australia’s progress on ending discrimination against women.
Read MoreThursday 19 July will mark five years of limbo and suffering for over 1650 men, women and children indefinitely imprisoned in the Turnbull Government’s refugee camps on Manus Island and Nauru.
Read MoreFollowing the UN Human Rights Chief’s condemnation of Donald Trump’s brutality to children at the US border, the Turnbull Government’s indefinite detention of 134 refugee children has been called out at the UN Human Rights Council overnight.
Read MoreThe Turnbull Government’s second session as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN body responsible for protecting the rights and dignity of people all over the world, will begin in Geneva tomorrow.
Read MoreHe has been denied his liberty, denied his personal security and denied his most fundamental of human rights. But he has defiantly refused to be denied his voice. We were honoured to have Behrouz Boochani deliver our Sydney Human Rights Dinner keynote address from Manus Island.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has joined 44 other nations in delivering a scathing statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council overnight on the rapid deterioration of Cambodia’s human rights situation, expressing "deep concern about the recent serious decline of civil and political rights in Cambodia".
Read MoreIn a statement delivered in the United Nations overnight, the Human Rights Law Centre has called on the UN Human Rights Council to hold the Turnbull Government accountable for the continued suffering of 1800 refugees still languishing on Manus and Nauru after almost five years.
Read MoreAfter nearly five years of fear, violence and limbo, 22 refugees yesterday left Nauru to fly to safety in the United States as part of the US refugee resettlement deal. However, over 1800 people - including 150 children - are still languishing in desperate and dangerous conditions across Manus and Nauru.
Read MoreToday the International Commission of Jurists, Victoria announced Daniel Webb, Director of Legal Advocacy with the Human Rights Law Centre, as the winner of the 2018 John Gibson Award for his work defending the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum.
Read MoreAfter nearly five years of fear and violence on Manus Island approximately 40 men are today flying to safety to the United States as part of the US resettlement deal. For the people left behind, in the Australian Government’s offshore detention centres, hope is running out.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has ratified an important UN torture prevention treaty. The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is a mechanism established to prevent cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in places of detention.
Read MoreOvernight, a UN committee of independent human rights experts told Australia to end the indefinite limbo of the 2000 men, women and children being warehoused on Manus Island and Nauru by evacuating them to safety in Australia.
Read MoreFour and a half years is a long time. I think about all the things that have happened in my life in four and a half years. I think about all of the things that have happened in the world in four and half years. And then I think about the innocent men on Manus, and the children and the families on Nauru.
Read MoreThere was a fleeting moment of hope and compassion for refugees stranded on Manus Island for the last four and a half years today when the Australian Parliament voted to support their safe resettlement in New Zealand, only for the Government to then block the motion by orchestrating a re-vote.
Read MoreAustralian companies need to be held to account for human rights abuses they commit overseas, but Australia’s complaints system is woefully inadequate and in desperate need of reform.
Read MoreThis morning PNG armed forces have again stormed the Manus Island regional processing centre. Reports say they are beating the men and forcing them to leave. This follows yesterday’s actions where approximately 50 of the 400 men were forced to move to accommodation that two days earlier the UN had found was unsafe and unready.
Read MoreThe Australian Government is bracing for another round of intense scrutiny at the United Nations – this time focusing on its efforts to combat racial discrimination.
Read MoreAustralia was condemned overnight by a UN Human Rights Committee for its human rights record on a range of issues including refugees, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rights, youth justice and democratic freedoms.
Read MoreThe UN’s top expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has included criticism of the Australian Government in a scathing global report condemning deterrence-based responses to people seeking asylum.
Read MoreA threatening notice posted inside the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (RPC) today has warned refugees detained there for the last four and a half years that from the 31 October, all food, water and electricity will be disconnected, the fences will come down and the facility will be handed over to the PNG Defence Forces.
Read MoreJust one day after condemning the Australian Government’s “chronic non-compliance” with international human rights laws, in a further hearing overnight the expert Committee honed in on the Government’s cruelty to refugees and in particular its offshore detention regime. The Human Rights Committee described the policies as “shocking” and “disturbing”.
Read MoreAustralian engineering firm Canstruct will be complicit in serious human rights abuses if it takes over the contract to run the Australia’s immigration detention centre on Nauru. A leaked memo from Canstruct’s CEO overnight, shows the company will take over the contract to run the Nauru centre by the end of the month, and will be paid $8 million by the Australian Government.
Read MoreOvernight Australia was slammed by the UN Human Rights Committee for its “chronic non-compliance” with, and disengagement from, that Committee’s work. Australia’s record on human rights was found lacking as part of the Committee’s review into Australia’s protection of civil and political rights.
Read MoreDuring the same week that Australia is expected to be granted a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, an expert UN committee will grill the Australian Government over its own human rights record.
Read More“This is the most significant UN position Australia has sought since the Security Council. Relatively speaking Australia is likely to be a positive force for reform on the Council, but if it wants to have the credibility required to be a true human rights leader it can't continue to blatantly breach international law itself. There's no doubt that it's cruel treatment of refugees will hamstring Australia's efforts on Council," said Emily Howie.
Read More"After four years of fear, violence, suffering and death, these men deserve safety. Shunting them from one island prison to another doesn’t cut it,” said Daniel Webb.
Read MoreThe Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, former Prime Minister of Canada and chair of the Award jury, has announced Daniel Webb, Director of Legal Advocacy with the Human Rights Law Centre as a winner of the inaugural Global Pluralism Award for his work highlighting and promoting the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum.
Read MoreAnother refugee held by the Australian Government on Manus Island has been found dead. He was one of over 900 men who came to Australia seeking safety but have been held on Manus for four years. His is the ninth death in the Australian run offshore detention centres and the second on Manus Island in just two months.
Read MoreAfter four years of fear and violence, a small handful of people finally received some good news. But this doesn't close the dark chapter in our history — not until every single man, woman and child tormented on Nauru and Manus Island is safe.
Read MoreThe United Nations has been asked to urgently intervene to halt the Australian Government’s moves to make refugees and people seeking asylum destitute as a means of coercing them to return to danger and harm on Nauru or Manus Island.
Read More“It’s time to bring some compassion, common sense and basic human decency back to the way we treat people seeking asylum. Premier Andrews has shown it. Now it’s time for other leaders to do the same,” said Daniel Webb.
Read More“These are babies who’ve taken their first steps and spoken their first words in Australia. Kids going to Australian schools. Families who have been part of our community for years. And now, out of the blue, they’ll be effectively thrown out on the streets in a cruel attempt to force them back to harm,” said Hugh de Kretser.
Read MoreMEDIA ALERT - PRESS CONFERENCE
Who: Hugh de Kretser, Executive Director, Human Rights Law Centre - who represent most of the affected people, Amy Frew, Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre, Natasha Blucher, Detention Advocacy Manager, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Date: Sunday 27 August 2017
Time: 11:00AM (AEST)
Location: HRLC, Level 17, 461 Bourke St, Melbourne
"The people in the Manus detention centre are tired from this kind of political games. We just want freedom and a chance to rebuild our lives," said Behrouz Boochani.
Read MoreAnother man held by the Australian Government on Manus Island has been found dead. It is reported that the refugee’s body was found in dense jungle on the island. He was one of over 900 men who came to Australia seeking safety but have been held on Manus for four years.
Read More“I just cried as I was reading the transcripts of the most two powerful leaders in this world. Their words made me feel like I am just a product to them and I can be traded for anything.”
“I am just a human being and there is no need to play with my life. All I want is to respect and love others and be loved and respected in return. All I need is a sense of belonging to a safe country so that I can live a life that every human deserves.” - Imran Mohammad, a refugee held on Manus Island for almost four years.
Read More“Turnbull was clearly more concerned with appearances than reality - totally preoccupied with maintaining the facade of the deal irrespective of whether or not anyone will actually find safety under it.”
Read More“We are seeing a chain of attacks against refugees. The local police can’t protect us. We are being forced to live in constant fear,” said Behrouz Boochani.
Read MoreToday the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, revealed that the Australian Government misled the UN while seeking its support for the controversial US refugee resettlement deal.
Read More“All the men on Manus and the families and children on Nauru want – all they have ever wanted – is a life in safety and freedom. They’ve had four years of their life taken from them. They deserve a future.” says Daniel Webb.
Read MoreNews that US officials interviewing refugees on Nauru have walked out two weeks before their scheduled departure time has cast more doubt on the future of the US resettlement deal.
Read MoreBehrouz Boochani, a refugee currently held on Manus Island said, "All the men here have families, and four years with no certainty for their future is already too much."
Read MoreResponding to reports that France has withdrawn its candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council – meaning Australia and Spain can be elected to the world’s peak human rights body unopposed – Emily Howie, a Director of Legal Advocacy at the HRLC, said Australia has work to do in order to fulfill the duties of a Council member.
Read MoreThe Australian Government must evacuate every man, woman and child currently warehoused on Manus and Nauru and bring them to safety in Australia, the United Nations said overnight.
Read MoreImran Mohammad is a Rohingyan refugee whom our Government has detained for the last four years on Manus Island in PNG. “I have never experienced safety since I was born.” With your support, we have travelled to Manus three times to expose conditions inside the detention centre and to bring the voices of the men trapped inside to the world.
Read MoreThe Australian government must immediately evacuate every person warehoused on Nauru and Manus to safety if it wants to be taken seriously as a human rights leader, the Human Rights Law Centre told the United Nations Human Rights Council in a statement delivered overnight.
Read MoreThe Australian Government today confirmed it would pay $70 million to almost 2000 men, many of whom it has warehoused on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for nearly 4 years.
Read MoreThe Department of Immigration revealed in Budget Estimates that it plans to expand bed capacity at the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre to house up to 440 men on Manus when it closes the detention centre in October.
Read More"It’s not good enough to just leave innocent people trapped in limbo in unsafe conditions forever. Every single one of these men deserves the chance to finally start rebuilding their lives in safety," Daniel Webb said.
Read More“For the last four years we’ve seen report after report - horror story after horror story - detailing the harm people are suffering inside the camp and the serious dangers they face when they venture outside it. How much more evidence do we need?” said Daniel Webb.
Read MoreLeaked reports reveal that camp managers and security staff contracted by the Australian Government intentionally tried to make conditions in Australia’s detention centre on Manus Island even worse, putting the men who have been held in limbo for almost four years at greater risk of serious harm.
Read MoreA scathing Senate Committee report has found that conditions inside the Nauru and Manus camps are unsafe and are causing severe harm for which the Australian government is responsible.
Read MoreThe terrifying and violent attack on the men in the Manus Island regional processing centre last night is further proof that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must immediately evacuate the camp and bring the men to safety in Australia.
The Human Rights Law Centre has urged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to use his PNG trip – which comes at a critical juncture in Australia’s bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council - to make arrangements for refugees and people seeking asylum languishing on Manus Island to be immediately evacuated to safety.
Read MoreThe offshore processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island continue to be the sites of ongoing human rights violations, including illegal detention, sexual assault and child abuse. Today, a new report by Amnesty exposes how Spanish multinational Ferrovial and its Australian subsidiary Broadspectrum are making vast profits operating Australia’s abusive offshore detention centres.
Read MoreThe daughter of a man being held indefinitely on Manus Island, despite being found to be a refugee, traveled to Canberra to ask politicians to reunite her family, who have been separated for three and a half years by the government’s offshore detention policies.
Read MoreToday the Human Rights Law Centre joined church groups, medical associations, academics and a coalition of organisations and community groups to call for all refugees and asylum seekers to be immediately evacuated from Nauru and Manus Island and brought to safety in Australia.
Read MoreThe future of the US refugee deal has again been thrown into doubt following reports that US President Donald Trump has called the agreement the ‘worst deal ever’.
Read MoreMedia reports suggest that US President Donald Trump has today told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that he will not quash the US refugee deal, but simple and important questions about the detail of the arrangements remain unanswered.
Read MoreExecutive orders signed by US President Donald Trump, imposing a four month freeze on all refugee resettlement to the US and drastically reducing America’s refugee intake thereafter, have exposed further holes in the Turnbull Government’s already uncertain refugee deal.
Read MoreExecutive orders expected to be signed by US President Donald Trump, which would reportedly impose a temporary ban on most refugees and suspend visas for people from many refugee producing countries, have cast further doubt on the Turnbull Government’s already shaky US refugee deal.
Read MoreIn less than three weeks, over 100 children just like Moubani will experience their first Christmas in safety and freedom. This time last year they were trapped behind detention centre fences and terrified of being sent back to Nauru.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre told the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee the proposed ‘lifetime ban’ for people who are living in our community, or who have been warehoused on Nauru or Manus Island is both cruel and unnecessary, and would permanently separate families.
Read MoreThe UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, today condemned the Australian Government’s treatment of refugees and people seeking asylum, saying that Australia’s human rights record has been tarnished.
Read MoreAfter three years the Australian Government has finally acknowledged that our offshore centres on Nauru and Manus Islands are unsustainable and that it needs to find a way forward. However, today’s announcement reveals it still hasn’t found one.
Read MoreHuman rights groups including the Human Rights Law Centre, GetUp, the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, the Refugee Council of Australia and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre respond to the Turnbull Government’s announcement of a refugee settlement deal.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has condemned the Turnbull Government’s secretive deportation of a man from Australia to Nauru last night.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Turnbull Government to urgently clarify whether or not its proposed ‘lifetime ban’ will apply to over 320 men, women and children who are already in the community after being brought back to Australia from Manus and Nauru, many of whom the HRLC represents.
Read MorePrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this morning announced government plans to amend the Migration Act to permanently ban people seeking asylum in Australia by sea from ever being able to stay or from ever coming to Australia to visit loved ones.
Read MoreMonday night’s Four Corners episode, The Forgotten Children: The young refugees stranded on Nauru, is further evidence that all people currently warehoused by the Australian government on Nauru and Manus must immediately be brought to safety in Australia.
Read MoreContinuing violent attacks against refugees on Manus Island are further evidence that Australia’s offshore detention centres must close and that the innocent people held there for the last three years must be brought to safety in Australia.
Read MoreThe secrecy provisions of the 2015 Border Force Act have compromised Australians’ basic democratic rights and damaged Australia’s international standing, the Human Rights Law Centre told the United Nations overnight in a statement to the Human Rights Council.
Read MoreToday’s announcement by the Australian government at the Obama Leaders’ Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis doesn’t address the future of around 2000 people currently languishing in offshore camps on Manus Island and Nauru said the Human Rights Law Centre, Getup and the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce.
Read MoreFleeing persecution, Nayser Ahmed was separated from his family en route to Australia. While they rebuild their lives in Sydney, he remains stuck on Manus Island. In this Fairfax produced video Daniel Webb speaks to The Age's Nick McKenzie about Nayser and his family and the situation for the men on Manus Island. Watch video here.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre and GetUp are launching a major campaign today featuring the stories of the men imprisoned on Manus Island and their families in Australia, calling on the government to allow the men be brought to safety in Australia to rebuild their lives.
Read MoreThe Australian Government’s offshore detention regime edged closer to collapse today as Wilson Security committed not to retender for any further offshore detention services when its current contract expires in 2017.
Read MoreThe Prime Minister of PNG, Peter O’Neil today announced that the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island is to be closed. While not committing to a specific date, O’Neil said in a statement that “Both Papua New Guinea and Australia are in agreement that the centre is to be closed.”
Read MoreViolent attacks on refugees on Manus Island are further evidence that Australia’s offshore detention centres must close and the innocent people held there for the last three years must be brought to Australia.
Read MoreThe UN’s human rights chief, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed extreme concern about the serious allegations of violence, sexual assault, degrading treatment and self-harm contained in leaked incident reports from Australia’s offshore processing centre on Nauru.
Read MoreThe Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has the power to examine the response of the Australian Government and its contractors to child sexual abuse on Nauru, according to legal advice released today.
Read MoreFollowing today’s release of leaked incident reports from Australia’s detention centre on Nauru, a coalition of human rights and refugee organisations have called on the Australian Government to urgently bring the people seeking asylum to Australia.
Read MoreAustralia’s abusive offshore detention centres are sustained by a vast network of global banks and investment funds that are failing to meet their responsibility to respect human rights.
Read MoreAustralia is a multicultural success story and the contribution of refugees are a key part of that success. Australia has successfully accepted over 7 million migrants since 1945 including around 800,000 refugees and humanitarian entrants.
Read MoreThe Australian Government’s response overnight at the UN in Geneva to a major review of its human rights record has failed to address the serious concerns raised by the international community.
Read MoreThe global gay and lesbian community has been asked to help a gay refugee couple currently living in fear after the Australian Government’s punitive refugee policies have left them languishing on a tiny island where homosexuality is a crime.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should remove unjustified limits on basic rights and freedoms in Australia, said the Human Rights Law Centre today. HRLC Director of Advocacy and Research, Emily Howie, welcomed the Australian Law Reform Commission’s report, Traditional Rights and Freedoms – Encroachments on Commonwealth Laws, that adds to the growing evidence of Australian laws that infringe on rights. Read More
The Human Rights Law Centre is proud to have partnered with GetUp! and the Australian Churches for Refugees Taskforce to create and coordinate the #LetThemStay campaign for the 267 people linked to our High Court case.
Read MoreLast night was the first time in three days that the HRLC legal team had been allowed to speak with our client. HRLC’s Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, said that it was unusual and unreasonable that access be so restricted.
Read MoreFollowing the Human Rights Law Centre's public statement earlier this afternoon that its legal team had been prevented from speaking with the clients for the last three days, the government agreed to allow Baby Asha’s mother to speak to her lawyer, Daniel Webb, by phone early this evening.
Read MoreThe Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, has announced that ‘Baby Asha’ will be moved from a Brisbane hospital – where medical staff had been refusing to discharge her – and into community detention.
Read MoreThe Australian Government appears to be rapidly moving to clear the way for fast-track deportations without notice of many of the 267 vulnerable people the Human Rights Law Centre represented in the recent High Court challenge to Australia’s role in offshore detention.
Read MoreOn Monday night our Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, delivered a speech at the #LetThemStay community event in Melbourne...
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre’s Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, has welcomed news that the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, has written to the Prime Minister explaining that he wants the 267 men, women and children facing deportation following this week's High Court decision, to call Victoria home.
Read MoreThe United Nations has intervened in the plight of 267 vulnerable people that the Australian Government intends to deport to offshore camps, warning the Government to adhere to its obligations under the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against torture and other cruel treatment.
Read More