Closure over Australia's Refugee Deal in Sight

Published on Mar 16, 2017 by Luke Hunt

Issues involving countries as far afield as Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Costa Rica still need resolutionBy Luke HuntClosure for Australia and its controversial Pacific Island refugee camps is finally looming with teams of contractors deployed by the United States kick-starting the resettlement programs amid lingering doubts over hundreds of asylum seekers who could be left behind.A team from the Bangkok-based Resettlement Support Centre East Asia have wrapped-up initial interviews on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, a month-long process which initiated the first stages in the resettlement of up to 1,250 refugees.Another two teams from the Department of Homeland Security in the US have also arrived on Nauru and Manus to follow-up on those interviews and begin the “extreme vetting”....

Malaysia's Refugee Crisis

Published on Nov 1, 2016 by Luke Hunt

The Indonesian-Malaysian border is often home for refugees who have settled here on Sebatik Island and are constantly on the move across the two countries. Malaysia on the left is separated from Indonesia on the right by a narrow creek which proves highly porous and difficult to secure. Luke Hunt travelled to border region on Borne for this report. Click here to view photo essaySebatik Island, just a kilometer from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, is home to thousands of illegal and U.N. recognized refugees. Children without U.N. or Malaysian papers recognizing their refugee status are denied access to schools and health facilities while their parents are forced to work illegally while Muslim girls recognized as refugees attend better schools on....

Rodrigo Duterte Condemned for Rape Comments

Published on Apr 19, 2016 by Luke Hunt

The frontrunner to be elected president of the Philippines has joked about an Australian missionary who was raped and had her throat slashed during a jail siege. The comments by tough-talking mayor Rodrigo Duterte​ – a self confessed womaniser – provoked immediate condemnation only three weeks before Filipinos go to the polls in an election seen as crucial to the nation’s future.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age.

Detained Christians in Thailand: ASEAN’s Latest Refugee Issue

Published on Mar 8, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Southeast Asia, with its ten countries squeezed into an area half the size of China and a volatile mix of politics and old-fashioned hatreds, has no shortage of issues with refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, smugglers, and traffickers.Its porous borders and overstretched police mean there is no shortage of people prepared to try their luck in search of a safer, and perhaps more prosperous, life, as witnessed by the exodus of Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar last year which left thousands stranded at sea.Their story holds a familiar ring. BBC News has detailed the plight of thousands of Christian refugees from Pakistan, arrested and detained in Thailand after fleeing persecution in their own home. Some were....

Laos in the Spotlight Over Human Rights

Published on Oct 10, 2015 by Luke Hunt

Human rights violations are again an issue in Laos – and a thorn in the side of a government more concerned with centrally-planned economic policies – following the death 61-year-old Tiang Kwentianthong.Tiang was originally arrested for praying for a sick woman without government approval. Reports say he was denied medicine for diabetes. He was jailed nine months ago, released in March after his condition had deteriorated substantially, and died on September 17.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..