The Commission has endeavoured to identify options for responding to flight by sea which are consistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations. In publishing this paper, the Commission is seeking to make a positive contribution to this difficult policy area. We have sought to provide the framework for an alternative policy response, rather than an...

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s (DIBP) management of procurement activity for garrison support and welfare services at the offshore processing centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea (Manus Island) has fallen well short of effective procurement practice. This audit has identified serious and persistent deficiencies in the three phases of procurement activity undertaken...

Anniversaries are opportunities for reflection and re-evaluation. In recent weeks, news media around the world have commemorated and reassessed the events of late August and early September 2015 that led to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, and their initially enthusiastic reception, in Germany. In Germany itself, the anniversary dominated...

The Refugee Council of Australia has always taken a principled stand against offshore processing. Our view has always been that the policy is cruel and inhumane, and that its human and financial cost can neither be justified nor sustained. We have also consistently maintained the view that boat turnbacks should be abandoned as a matter...

The ‘Nauru files,’ which detail reports of abuse in Australia’s asylum-seeker detention centre on Nauru, have received global attention since their release. They should provide a flashpoint for the Turnbull government to reassess the longstanding policy of offshore detention of asylum seekers before more serious harm is inflicted both on those detained and on Australia’s...