Australia Plans to Ban Boat Refugees From Visiting the Country
The Australian government is seeking to ban asylum seekers who try to reach the country by boat from ever visiting Australia.
Under measures proposed by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on October 30, those asylum seekers who arrive illegally by boat would never be able to enter the country for tourism, business or as an Australian’s spouse.
The legislation, which would apply retroactively to arrivals since July 19, 2013, will be introduced in the Australian parliament next week.
Australia already blocks refugees who come by boat from ever being resettled in the country. Instead, they are sent to Australian-run camps on Papua New Guinea’s Manus island and the South Pacific island nation of Nauru.
Around 1,200 people are held in the secretive facilities, where reports of widespread abuse and self-harm camps have caused outrage.
The proposal drew the ire of opposition politicians and human rights lawyers in Australia, who warned it could separate families and breach the U.N. Refugee Convention’s prohibition on punishing people who seek asylum.
Police Enter Expanding Migrant Camp in Paris
French riot police entered an informal migrant camp in Paris that has swelled in size since the evacuation of the Calais “Jungle” camp.
Police drew a cordon around residents of the camp near Stalingrad subway station in northeastern Paris and checked their identity documents. Municipal workers cleaned parts of the camp, while a digger cleared away some tents near a canal.
Camp residents protested the measures, and one was sprayed with tear gas before they were allowed to return to their belongings, Reuters reported.
Paris officials said they plan to evacuate the camp entirely. It has grown by about one-third in size since the evacuation of over 6,000 people from the Calais camp last week, officials say.
Suicide Bombings Hit Nigerian Displacement Camp
A wave of suicide bombings hit a camp for Nigerians displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency this weekend.
A female suicide bomber killed several people at the entrance to the Bakassi camp in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, while another bomber heading towards the camp in a motorized rickshaw detonated near a fuel station. Nigerian officials said nine people were killed in the blasts on October 29.
A day later, a man wearing explosives was shot dead by troops at the entrance to the camp, without causing further casualties, the Associated Press reported.
The bombings have increased tensions among the more than 16,000 people sheltering in the camp from Boko Haram violence.
Recommended Reads:
- Vox EU: Refugees and Economic Migrants: Facts, Policies and Challenges
- The Atlantic: What It Takes to Settle Refugees
- IRIN: Nigerian Migrants: Rescued but Still in The E.U. Crosshairs
- Washington Post: Calais Migrants Face Opposition at New, Small-Town Destinations
- Amnesty: Greece: Evidence Points to Illegal Forced Returns of Syrian Refugees to Turkey