The report addresses the key gaps in the current policy settings that discriminate against Convention Refugees and people seeking asylum.

This report is a multi-disciplinary collaboration which highlights the Australian government’s intentional use of family separation against people who seek asylum. Calling on leading medical experts and international law specialists, this report shows that the Australian government’s tactic of separating families is not merely morally...

Amnesty International has for the first time carried out investigative field research on Aotearoa New Zealand soil. It follows a number of reports of the ill-treatment of people in prison, including people who’ve sought asylum. This report establishes that the New Zealand government has repeatedly...

After five years, the Australian government practice of offshore processing of asylum seekers on Manus Island is about to finish.

This report argues that Australia has a vested interest and particular experience and expertise to contribute to the Global Compact on Refugees in order to institute a more effective and equitable response to asylum seekers and refugees.

How should we shape the Global Compact on Refugees and what does this mean for states, civil society, refugee and host communities and others? These questions were the focus of international discussions in Geneva in June 2017.

This guide provides statistics on the number of boats that have been ‘turned back’ since the practice of removing unauthorised maritime arrivals in Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels (SIEVs) from Australian waters was introduced by the Howard Government (from 2001–2003) and reintroduced by the Abbott Government...

This working paper reviews the current policy of removing failed asylum seekers in Australia and draws lessons from similar policy areas and reforms in the United Kingdom and Canada.

The world is in the midst of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Yet Australia’s approach in recent years has been to punish people seeking asylum, while increasing the numbers of refugees it resettles. This contrasting approach threatens the long and proud history Australia has of successful...

Introduction It has been four decades since the first boats carrying Indochinese asylum seekers arrived on Australia’s shores. Since then public perceptions or concerns over unauthorised maritime arrivals continue to strongly influence government policy and to be an emotive and divisive political issue. While the...

The issue of an Australian bill of rights has been placed back on the political agenda by a visiting UN expert. Michel Forst is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. After two weeks in Australia, he delivered his preliminary report and recommendations to...

The current policy of the Australian Government is that no person who arrives in the country by boat seeking asylum can ever settle in Australia. Instead, anyone who arrives by boat is forcibly taken to offshore 'Refugee Processing Centres,' one of which is on the...

Australia’s new Human Rights Commissioner, Edward Santow, will use his first year in office to focus on the treatment of people in detention in Australia.

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 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...

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...

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has received a blow to her open borders policy towards migrants and refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria. On the weekend, her ruling CDU party was out-voted by an anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party at local elections in the north-east of...

In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Nonresident Fellow in the Migration and Border Policy Project Dr Khalid Koser argues that the international protection regime is failing and Australia has a responsibility to help fix it. Koser defines how promoting reform, at the domestic, regional and global...

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...

On Wednesday, The Guardian released a slew of disturbing new examples of sexual abuse, self harm and appalling living conditions at Australia's immigration detention facility on Nauru. It's the largest ever cache of leaked documents from the island facility, with more than 2,000 incident reports...