Australian court rules against PNG abortion for asylum-seeker

A federal court has said a pregnant asylum-seeker cannot be forced to have an abortion in Papua New Guinea, rather than Australia. The woman claims to have been raped in an offshore detention center on Nauru.

Deutsche Welle, 7 May 2016

In his ruling late on Friday, Justice Mordecai Bromberg said the African asylum-seeker, who has sought an abortion in Australia, could not be forced to have the operation in Papua New Guinea because it was both unsafe and illegal.

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton had ordered that the pregnant African woman, identified in court documents only as S99, be sent to Papua New Guinea for the procedure in line with the government's hardline policy on immigration, under which refugees trying to reach the country by boat are told they will never be settled in Australia.

Instead, they are sent for offshore processing to camps on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

Under the policy, such refugees can only be brought to Australia under "exceptional circumstances" - and Dutton has said the woman's case is not exceptional enough.

In a 150-page judgment, Bromberg said that the "abortion in Papua New Guinea made available to the applicant is attended by safety and lawfulness risks that a reasonable person in the minister's position would have avoided."

Dutton says the woman's circumstances are not exceptional enough for
treatment in Australia

Papua New Guinea allows abortion only in case of danger to a woman's life. The woman has claimed she was raped while she was in Nauru, where abortion is also illegal except to save the life of the woman or to preserve her physical or mental health.

Bromberg also rejected Dutton's argument that he had no duty of care toward the woman, saying she had been, and still was, reliant on the minister for all her basic needs.

He said the woman had serious neurological, physiological and psychological conditions that required expert care.

The camps are a controversial issue in Australia as well

Policy under fire

A spokesman for Dutton said the court ruling was "under consideration," and suggested that the government might appeal.

The camps on Nauru and Manus Island have come under widespread criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups, amid reports of harsh conditions and systemic child abuse.

Papua New Guinea last month after the country's Supreme Court ruled it illegal, while on Nauru, two people have set themselves on fire this month to protest against conditions there.

A 23-year-old Iranian man died of the injuries he sustained, and a young Somali woman remains in critical condition in an Australian hospital.

Australia doctors demand children be freed from #immigration detention http://t.co/oSHkZyvn5V pic.twitter.com/s9yLBKHA2Z

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 12, 2015

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European toilets a mystery to many refugees

Refugees often find European toilets mystifying. Pictograms and instructions in Arabic don't always have the desired effect - but help is on the way in the form of a novel kind of toilet for all.

Deutsche Welle, 17 February 2016

The influx of more than 1 million refugees last year is German society's "rendezvous with globalization," according to Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

It's undoubtedly a rendezvous of different cultures. And in the rush to provide housing, cots, clothing, food, language training and health care for the thousands of newcomers, no one thought to explain Western-style flush toilets.

The mayor of Hardheim, a small town in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, raised the issue in October - and was ridiculed for thinking it necessary to admonish the town's asylum-seekers not to relieve themselves in gardens, parks, behind hedges and behind bushes.

European sanitation norms

The difficult and often tense situation in overcrowded emergency refugee shelters, tents and gyms isn't made easier by different toilet standards and rituals.

Squat toilets are traditional in many parts of the Muslim world. Baffled by ordinary Western-style flush toilets, refugees nationwide have squatted on toilet rims or the floor of the bathroom when nature called; others have relieved themselves in the shower stalls, leaving behind human excrement on the floors.

It's not a central problem, says Manfred Nowak of Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), a social welfare organization in Berlin that currently looks after 4,000 refugees in six initial reception facilities in the capital. But it does exist, he told DW, adding that the severity of the problem depended on where the refugees were from.

Many refugees find themselves confronted with outside portable toilets

Many migrants will have never seen toilet paper before, and even if they have, water-free wiping is widely thought to be an unsanitary way of cleaning oneself. Sit-down flush toilets are a mystery despite the pictogram instructions that have meanwhile been put up.

Co-existence of cultures

A remedy is in the works, however: Sanitary specialists at the Global Fliegenschmidt toilet manufacturers in Coswig in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt have come up with a portable "multicultural toilet."

It's been on the market for just a few days, company head Peter Fliegenschmidt told DW. His company has sold squat toilet units for years, he said, but in the wake of the refugee crisis in Germany, the challenge was to come up with a combined Western-style/squat toilet. He has already received queries from organizations that run refugee shelters.

His firm specializes in portable toilets, which are currently in high demand for use in emergency refugee shelters. "Generally, about 60 percent of our toilets are found on construction sites, and about 30 percent are used at special events like fairs and concerts," he said. Equipping refugee shelters is a new development that's bound to be "temporary," he said, adding that he saw a market for the new portable squat toilet abroad and at construction sites, which often employ foreigners.

Fliegenschmidt's design is actually surprisingly simple. It's a regular Western-style toilet bowl with a sizeable squatting platform to the left and the right.

Different body hygiene standards

Toilet routines differ, and Islamic culture has detailed toilet etiquette.

Islamic countries traditionally use water to wash. The myreligionislam.com website lists 20 rules and practices "to be followed when answering the call of nature." One rule stipulates using fingers to clean oneself, and "if there are still traces," washing them with water. Cleaning the private parts "with stones and similar materials" is regarded as an "acceptable substitute for cleaning them with water."

Other rules forbid talking, singing, smoking or reading the paper while on the toilet. People are also advised to enter the bathroom left foot first, while exiting with the right.

Australian hospital refuses to return asylum baby to Nauru

Yahoo – AFP, Glenda Kwek, 14 February 2016

Greenpeace holds a #LetThemStay banner on Sydney's harbour calling for the 

asylum-seekers, who are set to be deported after being brought to Australia 

for medical treatment, to be allowed to stay (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

An Australian hospital has refused to return an asylum-seeker baby to detention in Nauru, as momentum built across the country on Sunday against offshore Pacific camps for processing refugees.

Under the government's tough immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are sent to detention camps in the Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

They are blocked from being resettled in Australia even if found to be refugees.

The hospital's move came as state governments, churches and activists stepped up their efforts to stop the return of some 267 refugees to Nauru following a High Court ruling.

On Sunday, campaigners from ActionAid, Amnesty International, GetUp! and Greenpeace unfurled a #LetThemStay banner on Sydney's iconic harbour calling for the asylum-seekers, who are set to be deported after being brought to Australia for medical treatment, to be allowed to stay.

People hold placards at a protest outside an immigration office in Sydney on February 4, 

2016, as Australian church leaders say they would offer sanctuary to asylum-seekers set to be

deported to Nauru to defy the government's harsh immigration policy (AFP Photo/William West)

The #LetThemStay campaign, which has been trending on Twitter, has also seen hundreds of people maintain a vigil -- now in its third day -- outside the Brisbane hospital where the baby is being cared for.

The 12-month-old infant, who is called Asha and the child of Nepalese asylum-seekers, was brought to the eastern city of Brisbane for treatment in late January after being scalded with hot water at the remote Nauru facility.

Following the High Court's ruling earlier this month in favour of the government's policies, Asha and 36 other babies born in Australia are among the asylum-seekers facing removal.

But a spokesman for Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital said Asha "will only be discharged once a suitable home environment is identified".

Growing political, community support

Their stance was supported by Queensland state's Health Minister Cameron Dick, who said in a statement Sunday that he "strongly support(s) doctors in our hospitals to make the right clinical decisions".

"Doctors must expect to advocate for their patients," Doctors For Refugees co-founder Richard Kidd, who has joined the vigil outside the hospital, told AFP.

People protest outside an immigration office in Sydney on February 4, 2016, as 

Australian church leaders say they would offer sanctuary to asylum-seekers set to

 be deported to Nauru, to defy the government's harsh immigration policy (AFP 

Photo/William West)

"We have... overwhelming evidence over many years now that detention does terrible harm to babies and children, particularly their mental health but also physical health."

Australian church leaders in early February vowed to defy the federal government, offering sanctuary to the asylum-seekers.

Several state government premiers have said they would help settle in their communities those facing deportation if they were allowed to stay.

There have also been numerous community-led protests. Thirty-seven cots -- one for each of the Australia-born babies -- were set up on Sydney's Bondi Beach, while two campaigners abseiled from a Melbourne bridge with a "Let Them Stay" banner.

"I think the case of the 267 people has just really spoken to the hearts of the people across Australia," GetUp! organiser Sally Rugg told AFP.

"It's people from all walks of life. We are seeing churches and hospitals and teachers and premiers, it's a whole movement."

Canberra has long defended its policy, saying it has prevented the deaths of asylum-seekers at sea and secured its borders.

But rights groups have criticised the measures and detention conditions, while the government-funded Human Rights Commission has found that children who lived in the Nauru centre had high levels of mental illness.

"This offshore detention policy is being operated by the Australian government in secrecy and there's a severe lack of transparency and that's obviously not how people of Australia want their taxpayers' money being spent," Amnesty's Ming Yu Hah told AFP.

Australia doctors demand children be freed from #immigration detention http://t.co/oSHkZyvn5V pic.twitter.com/s9yLBKHA2Z

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 12, 2015

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Australia doctors demand children be freed from immigration detention

Yahoo – AFP, Martin Parry, 12 Oct 2015

A woman holds a banner at a rally in support of refugees and asylum seekers,

in Sydney, on October 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

Australian doctors on Monday ramped up pressure on the government over its hardline policy on asylum-seekers, saying children they treat from immigration centres should not be returned to detention where conditions could harm them.

Thousands of Australians rallied over the weekend urging Pacific island detention camps be shut, and medical professionals at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne are reportedly refusing to discharge asylum-seeker patients if they are to be locked up again.

The stance was backed by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).

Ethnic Syrians attend a rally in support of

 refugees and asylum seekers, in Sydney, on

October 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

AMA president Brain Owler said children behind bars suffered psychologically and doctors faced an ethical dilemma.

"Doctors are put in a very difficult position," he told national radio.

"If we had a child that comes into our hospital that we feared if sending them back to an environment which we felt was going to be harmful, where they were at risk of abuse, we would be negligent if we sent them back to that environment.

"And that is what the doctors at the Royal Children's Hospital are saying. We cannot send children back to an environment where they're going to be harmed."

RACP president Nick Talley added in a statement that "time and again, the Australian public has seen inquiries and heard excuses for the wrongs committed against children inside these detention centres".

"The health and well-being of children should never be open to compromise. No child should be held in detention," he said.

All asylum-seekers coming by boat to Australia are now sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru and ultimately denied resettlement in Australia even if they are found to be genuine refugees.

Although the tough policy, which also includes turning back boats, has stopped frequent drownings, human rights organisations have slammed the prolonged detention, particularly of children, as a breach of Australia's legal obligations.

Canberra has also been accused of drawing a veil of secrecy over its treatment of asylum-seekers with new laws introduced this year criminalising the disclosure of information about boatpeople in its care, including by doctors.

Harsh policy

Owler estimated some 200 children were being held, about half in Australia and the rest offshore. Government figures recently said 86 children were on Nauru.

Distressed about the welfare of dozens of patients brought to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne while in immigration detention, staff on Sunday penned an emotive opinion piece for the Herald Sun newspaper.

A demonstrator (L) representing the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association, 

seen at a rally in support of refugees and asylum seekers, in Sydney, on October 11,

2015 (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

"As health staff at a leading children's hospital, our duty is to support child health. We cannot accept or condone harm to children. Detention causes harm and it must end," it said.

"We call for moral leadership on this issue to find a solution, quickly -- to use alternatives to detention and to stop the harm."

The numbers of children in immigration detention peaked at 1,992 in mid-2013 under the former Labor administration, but they have been significantly reduced since the conservative government was elected in September that year.

Since ousting Tony Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party and the government last month, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has admitted to concerns about the Pacific camps. But he has given no indication of immediate policy changes.

"Nobody wants to have children in detention ... we have been working very hard to reduce those numbers," he told parliament Monday, while advocating a tough asylum-seeker policy as a necessary deterrent.

"We recognise that our border protection policy is tough, we recognise many would see it as harsh. But it has been proven to be the only way to stop those deaths at sea and to ensure that our sovereignty and our borders are safe."

Australia doctors demand children be freed from #immigration detention http://t.co/oSHkZyvn5V pic.twitter.com/s9yLBKHA2Z

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 12 oktober 2015

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University installs prototype 'pee power' toilet

Urinal at University of the West of England can generate electricity to power indoor lighting, which Oxfam says show potential for use in refugee camps

The Guardian, Rebecca Smithers, Thursday 5 March 2015

A toilet at the University of the West of England is proving urine can
generate electricity. Photograph: UWE Bristol

A prototype toilet has been launched on a UK university campus to prove that urine can generate electricity, and show its potential for helping to light cubicles in international refugee camps.

Students and staff at the Bristol-based University of the West of England are being asked to use the working urinal to feed microbial fuel cell (MFC) stacks that generate electricity to power indoor lighting.

The project is the result of a partnership between researchers at the university and Oxfam, who hope the technology can be developed by aid agencies on a larger scale to bring light to refugee camp toilets in disaster zones.

“We have already proved that this way of generating electricity works,” said research lead Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre, which in 2013 demonstrated MCF stacks generating enough electricity to power a phone. “The project with Oxfam could have a huge impact in refugee camps.”

The technology uses microbes which feed on urine for their own growth and maintenance. “The MFC is in effect a system which taps a portion of that biochemical energy used for microbial growth, and converts that directly into electricity - what we are calling urine-tricity or pee power. This technology is about as green as it gets, as we do not need to utilise fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply,” said Ieropoulos.

The urinal - conveniently located near the Student Union bar - resembles toilets used in refugee camps to make the trial as realistic as possible. The equipment that converts the urine into power sits underneath the urinal and can be viewed through a clear screen.

Andy Bastable, Head of Water and Sanitation at Oxfam, commented: “Oxfam is an expert at providing sanitation in disaster zones, and it is always a challenge to light inaccessible areas far from a power supply. This technology is a huge step forward. Living in a refugee camp is hard enough without the added threat of being assaulted in dark places at night. The potential of this invention is huge.”

An estimated 6.4tn litres of urine is produced by humans across the globe every year, so researchers believe it has great potential as a cheap and readily available source of energy. Ieropoulos said the unit installed at the university would cost around £600 to set up.

A solar powered toilet designed by the California Institute of Technology for
 the Reinvent the Toilet challenge. Photograph: Michael Hanson/Gates Foundation 

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Germany plans trauma center for 'Islamic State' rape victims

German Development Minister Gerd Müller has told a newspaper of the government's plans to create a care facility for the victims of "Islamic State" violence. Germany has the highest number of aslyum seekers in Europe.

Deutsche Welle, 22 Dec 2014

German Development Minister Gerd Müller told the mass-circulation newspaper Bild on Monday that Berlin has plans to create a trauma center in Germany for the victims of mass rape carried out by "Islamic State" militants (IS) in Syria and Iraq.

Müller said while on a visit to Iraq he spoke to five young girls who had been captured by IS and raped. Three of them were pregnant as a result.

"We have to take care of such girls," Müller told the paper, saying that a care facility in Germany could serve at least 100 women and girls.

He did not provide a timetable for the project nor did he say where in Germany such a facility would be established.

Müller's statements came after a United Nations report revealed last month the extent of the crimes perpetrated by IS on the people living in the cities and towns they capture. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a document full of harrowing descriptions of massacres, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy.

Influx of asylum seekers bring right-leaning protests

Germany is Europe's top destination for asylum seekers. Around 230,000 asylum applications are expected in 2015, up from an initial estimate of 200,000.

The increase in the flow of asylum seekers has spawned populist a movement, often called PEGIDA ("Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West"), which has held demonstrations against what they see as the Islamization of Germany in cities like Bonn, Düsseldorf, and Kassel.

In Dresden, the group has held protests some thousands strong every Monday for weeks. The movement is often accompanied by counter demonstrators under the banner of No-PEGIDA.

es/pfd (AFP, epd)

Australian Sailors’ Trauma Pulling Dead Asylum Seekers From Sea

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Dec 03, 2014

In this photograph taken on Feb. 8, 2014 an empty Australian lifeboat that carried
 asylum seekers turned back by Australian navy is docked at Pangandaran wharf
in West Java. (AFP Photo/Timur Matahari)

Sydney. Serving and former Australian navy personnel have described the trauma of stopping asylum seeker boats and pulling dead bodies from the water as the government ramps up its deterrence policy on migrants arriving by sea.

The sailors, some of whom have been discharged suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), told ABC television on Tuesday their health conditions were not treated seriously by commanders.

The men and women said the distress they suffered during the naval operations, which took place when the Labor party was in power from late 2006 to September 2013, was exacerbated by secrecy surrounding the country’s border protection policies.

A serving navy officer, who was given the name “Michael” to protect his identity, told ABC how his ship was delayed by 15 hours from boarding an asylum-seeker boat, only to find out that it had sunk 13 hours earlier.

“All we found was probably a line about 70 miles long of bodies,” he told the national broadcaster. “We fished them out for as long as we could, ’til we were full. And that wasn’t uncommon.”

Their insights came as Immigration Minister Scott Morrison sought to gain support Wednesday from the Senate for a bill widening the government’s maritime powers.

The bill reflects the hardening attitudes Australian governments have taken against asylum seekers attempting to enter the country by boat.

Only one boat has reached the Australian mainland since December, compared to almost daily arrivals previously under the Labor administration, when hundreds of people died en route.

Troy Norris, a sailor recently discharged for PTSD, spent 13 years intercepting and boarding asylum seeker boats and said his commanding officer “showed no compassion at all for my situation” when reading his termination letter.

“And that’s the kind a treatment I received. Getting rushed through because we were a liability.”

In a statement Wednesday, Australia’s chief of navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett acknowledged the “arduous” nature of border protection work and said a tailored mental health support program had been set up for those involved.

“This program includes regular screening and follow-up mental health support where required,” Barrett said. “I believe it is a first-class system that is part of a broader approach to mental health across the Australian Defense Force.”

As part of the current conservative government’s tough policies, several asylum seeker boats approaching Australian waters have been turned back in a move it said would stop people from dying at sea while undertaking the treacherous journey.

The most recent case involved a people-smuggling boat carrying 38 Sri Lankans that was stopped northwest of the Cocos Islands two weeks ago as it made its way to Australia.

Agence France-Presse

Ahmadiyah refugees to take risk, return home

Panca Nugraha, THE JAKARTA POST, MATARAM | Sat, 02/28/2009 9:12 AM  

After living in uncertainty at a refugee center in West Nusa Tenggara for three years, 68 members of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect have decided to risk returning home. 

Syahidin, coordinator for the refugees, said the 68 people from 17 families would move from the Transito building in Mataram back to their homes in Ketapang hamlet, Gegerung village, Lingsar district, West Lombok regency, on March 14. 

“We the 17 families, including mine, have decided to return to our homes in Ketapang, whatever the risk we might face, after having lived here in uncertainty for three years. We want to live like any other citizens,” Syahidin said Friday.

He added at least four people had died at the refugee center, while nine babies were born there during the same period.

At least 160 Ahmadiyah members from 33 families were driven from their homes after hard-line Muslims attacked them and destroyed their homes and belongings in early February 2006.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) previously issued an edict calling the Ahmadiyah heretical. The edict was seized upon by other hard-line Muslims to attack the sect’s followers elsewhere, including in West Java.

Based on the edict, among other factors, the government then banned Ahmadiyah followers from spreading their teachings.

The MUI said Ahmadiyah followers had deviated from mainstream Islam by believing that sect founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet. 

Human rights activists have long deplored the attacks against the sect’s followers and criticized the MUI for issuing the edict that triggered the widespread violence.

Syahidin said the 17 families decided to return home because their houses were still habitable, while the remaining 16 families chose to stay because their homes were completely destroyed.

He added he hoped the police and local administration would accompany the refugees on their return.

“But if they don’t, we will still go back home. On the security front, we believe the police are responsible for security,” he said.

The Social Services Ministry previously stopped donating rice to the refugees, saying they could no longer be considered refugees because they had lived at the center for three years. The ministry said the rice stock would be prioritized for victims of natural disasters.

Jauzi Djafar, West Nusa Tenggara chairman of the Indonesia Ahmadiyah Group, said his group had sent a letter to Governor M. Zainul Majdi to inform him of the planned return.

He added copies of the letter were also sent to the President, Vice President, home minister, religious affairs minister, social services minister, National Police chief, attorney general and the National Commission on Human Rights.

“We sent the letters on Feb. 20 to high- and low-ranking officials, including in Gegerung,” he said.

He added the planned return was the Ahmadis’ own initiative since the government had seemingly forgotten their plight.

More Rohingyas Arrive in Aceh

The Jakarta Globe, Nurdin Hassan & Ismira Lutfia, February 4, 2009 

Banda Aceh. A boat carrying 198 ethnic Rohingyas from Burma, who claim to have been set adrift by Thai soldiers 21 days earlier, was found in the Malacca Sea on Tuesday. An Indonesian fishing vessel towed the boat to a port in East Aceh, bringing the number of Rohingya boat people stranded in Aceh Province over the last few weeks to 391, officials said. 

The 15-meter long boat, which did not have a name, a flag or an engine, was towed to the small Kuala Idi harbor in East Aceh district, according to Abubakar, a port official there. 

“Upon arrival at the harbor, around 4 a.m., some of them collapsed because they were very weak. Local fishermen helped them, giving them food and drink,” Abubakar said. 

The Kuala Idi marine outpost commander, Second Lt. Tedi Sutardi, said the men claimed they had previously tried to land in Thailand. 

“But Thai soldiers towed them back to the sea and cut the rope, so that they were left to drift for 21 days without food or drink. There are clear traces of beatings on them,” Tedi said. 

That incident spurred an outcry by human rights groups claiming that the Thai soldiers had disregarded the rights of the displaced people, whom they consider as refugees. 

Leaders of the Rohingyas, residents of Burma’s western Arakan State, have long claimed persecution by the country’s military government, with tens of thousands having fled to Bangladesh and other places in recent years. 

The Thai government has said the Rohingyas are merely seeking economic opportunity and are illegal immigrants. 

Volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross and local residents took survivors to a hospital in Idi. “The people of Idi are very concerned for them because [the Rohingyas] are fellow Muslims. Many of the people took some of the survivors to their homes to provide them with food, clothes and allow them to clean themselves,” Abubakar said. 

Abdul Munir, an East Aceh district official, said that the Rohingnyas would be temporarily sheltered in a vacant house owned by the Idi Rayeuk subdistrict chief. Local district authorities also set up a soup kitchen there. 

“One of them, Rahmat, can speak Malay. According tho him, they had numbered 220 but that 22 had starved to death. They had been adrift at sea for 21 days,” Abdul said. 

“As long as they are here, their food and other needs will be covered by the East Aceh district administration. But the local population are also very enthusiastic in helping. They have contributed clothes, rice and other food,” he added. 

Idi general hospital director, Edi Gunawan, said that 91 of the Rohingyas were being treated for dehydration. 

“All patients, including a 13-year-old, have been given intravenous treatment to restore the liquid level in their body, but in general, they are all in good condition. They are mostly weak because of not having eaten for days,” Edi said. 

A boat carrying 193 other Rohingyas was found off the northern tip of Aceh on Jan. 7. That group had also been adrift at sea and most were too weak to disembark on their own. 

The 193, which included 19 Bangladeshis, have been sheltered at a Navy base on the island, but have since been off limits to the media.  

Photo: Nurullah, a 20-year-old Rohingya from Myanmar, receives medical treatment Wednesday at a local hospital after being rescued off the coast of Aceh Province. (Tarmizy Harva, Reuters)

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