Victoria Police Acting Assistant Commissioner, Shane Patton, spoke to reporters after the Federal Government said African gang crime was “out of control” in Melbourne. Patton stated, “we have a problem with young African thugs”.

Victoria’s acting Premier, James Merlino, called on Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to apologise for comments he made about the state government’s handling of African youth crime. He stated that Dutton had ‘gone-too far’ with his comments on African youth crime.

Figures to the Treasury Senate Estimates Committee, reported by the Australian Financial Review, revealed that the Australian government spent a total of $4.06bn on border protection in the last financial year. The figure includes $1.57 billion spent on onshore compliance and detention, $1.08 billion on the offshore management people seeking asylum in Australia by boat, $1.06 billion on border enforcement.

Doctors expressed concerns that Zamal, a refugee suffering an acute mental health crisis and a broken ankle, has now become too sick to transfer and believe that his case has been stalled because he may never be well enough to return to Nauru. Australia has a policy of returning refugees to offshore detention once their medical treatment is complete. Zamal has waited for more than a year to transfer from Nauru to Australia for emergency medical treatment. Nauruan authorities approved his medical emergency transfer on two occasions as his condition deteriorated. His declining mental health has also led to repeated attempts to take his own life.

Refugees on Manus Island released footage showing dirty water, reportedly sewage, flowing down the hill past their dining area. Neighbouring residents blocked access to the West Haus and Hillside Haus because of the leaking sewerage – These roadblocks were later cleared by police, who claimed the sewerage problem had been fixed.

Ongoing contract disputes between two security firms, Paladin Solutions and Kingfisher Security, left the men on Manus fearing for their safety in their new accommodation compounds following protests and death threats from locals. Senator Nick McKim claimed “[Paladin Solutions’] security contract expires at the end of January and neither [PNG nor Australian] governments has said what is going to happen next”. He further lamented that “the old contract [has] been an abject failure”.

The full bench of the Federal Court found that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s rejection of the appeal of an Indian Sikh man who claimed fear of significant harm on account of him being homosexual, showed “extreme illogicality” and lacked “an intelligible foundation.”

New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, denied reports from the Turnbull government that her offer to resettle 150 refugees on Manus has led to a surge of people smuggling boats.

After nearly five years in detention, 40 people departed for the United States after being detained for five years on Manus Island, leaving 1,950 people, including 169 children, still indefinitely detained in both Manus and Nauru

The Commonwealth was ordered to bring a young girl detained on Nauru to Australia for urgent psychiatric treatment, amid warnings she may take her own life without intervention. The Federal Court advised that the girl, who arrived on Christmas Island with her family in 2013, has already tried to take her own life during her five years in detention.

Twenty-two refugees detained became the fourth group refugees to be resettled under the U.S deal from Nauru, with 1,800 people still left behind on Manus and Nauru.

The third group of refugees flew out from Papua New Guinea from Manus to be resettled in the United States, including 18 people.

Refugees on Manus Island were told to remain in their accommodation after three men were allegedly attacked and injured by soldiers from the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. The asylum seekers from Iraq, Iran and Pakistan said they were set upon by a group of soldiers while walking in the main town on the island, Lorengau.

The Australian government offered a 55-year-old Iranian woman detained on Nauru with a life-threatening heart condition the chance be transferred overseas for medical treatment, without permitting her son to accompany her. A doctor determined the woman, Fatemeh, to be “at extremely high and imminent risk of having a catastrophic cardiac event such as heart attack, or sudden death due to arrhythmias”. Fatemeh reported that Australian Border Force officials made the offer conditional on her 17-year-old son staying behind. She said her son, who has a mental health condition, has no-one to stay with and is very dependent on her.

It was revealed that in 2013, the Australian Immigration Department asked ASIO to delay security checks for people seeking asylum in Australia by boat. This delay meant asylum seekers would miss the deadline to receive permanent protection. The agency’s Director General, Duncan Lewis, rejected the suggestion that this was a denial of natural justice, instead arguing that processing refugee claims was a “lower priority” at the time.

Overheating, contamination and mould in tents was documented as up to 76 times the normal safe levels on Nauru, affecting 330 people including 36 children.

Four more families of refugees and a cohort of single men departed immigration detention on Nauru to start new lives in the United States.The group of 29, including eight children, was the fifth cohort to depart Nauru under Australia’s refugee resettlement deal with the US.

A contingent of police, Australian Border Force officers and Serco guards forcibly removed a Sri-Lankan family from their home in the central Queensland town of Bileola. Priya, Nades and their two Australian born little girls faced immediate deportation because their visa had expired by a single day. According to the Tamil Refugee Council, they were given only 10 minutes to gather belongings from their home before being forcibly taken without warning to an immigration centre in Melbourne, more than 1500 km away from their home.

Men on Manus Island whose claims for refugee status have been rejected were told it is too dangerous for them to return to their countries of origin, but they are also not allowed to stay in Papua New Guinea.

The Australian government cut support to more than 12,000 people on bridging visas who are waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. The support scheme was called (SRSS) which enabled people seeking asylum access to Newstart allowance and rent assistance.

The Tamil refugee family detained by the Australian Border Force for overstaying their visa by one day has received support from tens of thousands of Australians. A petition asking that the family be allowed to remain in Australia was signed by more than 90,000 people. A local social worker from Bileola, Anglea Fredericks has started a petition on change.org. entitled “Bring Priya and her beautiful family back home to Biloela, Queensland”, the petition read “Our community is not ready to let this family go.

The Sri Lankan family forcibly taken from their home in a small Queensland town were pulled from a plane minutes before they were due to be deported for overstaying their visa by one day. A last-minute legal intervention resulted in them being removed from the plane before it took off.

The Australian government cut support to more than 12,000 people on bridging visas who are waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. The support scheme was called (SRSS) which enabled people seeking asylum access to Newstart allowance and rent assistance.

A 10-year-old boy detained on Nauru has made repeated attempts to kill himself. His mother has been concerned for his mental health since he was only 6 years old. Medical experts have declared that his mental condition is critical, with risks that his health will decline into chronic severe mental health problems and risk of suicide. Despite recommendations by medical experts in July 2017, the Department rejected the transfer later in December 2017. The Court has ruled that the Department of Home Affairs ‘[holds] a duty of care’ to boy and his parents.

A 10-year-old Iranian boy detained on Nauru was flown to Australia to receive urgent medical care. A federal court judge ordered the boy and his mother be sent to Australia on the “next plane out of Nauru” on March 7 after concluding the child was facing a “significant present risk of suicide”.

The Asia Pacific director for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Indrika Ratwatte, criticised Australia’s immigration detention policies in an address to reporters in Canberra. Mr Ratwatte visited the Nauru detention centre, concluding that some people currently detained in the facility are worse off than the Rohingya in Bangladesh.

The Australian government cut support to more than 12,000 people on bridging visas who are waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. The support scheme was called (SRSS) which enabled people seeking asylum access to Newstart allowance and rent assistance.