Posted
| UpdatedThe Coalition is maintaining its tough stance on border protection heading into the election.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told ABC Radio that he was very proud of the Government's "outcomes" in his portfolio.
"I can say hand on heart that I've got every child out of detention, I've brought record numbers of refugees in by plane, nobody has drowned at sea under Operation Sovereign Borders," he said.
Is he correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, federal-elections, refugees, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedIndependent Senator Jacqui Lambie has singled out the number of 457 visas as a reason for what she sees as a lack of employment opportunity in Australia.
"We have over a million 457s out there, and that's another reason why we don't have jobs here," Senator Lambie told ABC TV's Q&A on May 30.
Are there over a million people with 457 visas "out there" as Senator Lambie suggests? ABC Fact Check runs the numbers.
Topics: work, immigration, federal-elections, minor-parties, australia
Posted
| UpdatedEmployment Minister Michaelia Cash has attacked Labor's record on imported workers.
"457 workers account for less than one per cent of Australia's workforce. Under the Coalition Government, the number of 457 people coming to Australia has declined from that under Labor, where it effectively doubled when Labor was in office," she said on the ABC's Q&A on March 7, 2016.
Is she correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: work, immigration, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedPrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says there were 2,000 kids in detention when the Coalition took office and now "there's less than 100. . . About 75."
He says the number is reducing.
Is he correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, children, refugees, turnbull-malcolm, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedIndependent federal MP Andrew Wilkie says that the small island nation of Nauru is "virtually a failed state".
But is the situation really that bad?
ABC Fact Check takes a closer look at the situation on the ground in Nauru.
Topics: foreign-affairs, federal-government, immigration, refugees, international-law, nauru
Posted
| UpdatedThe Government has announced Australia will resettle 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict this year.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said this means Australia's refugee intake for this year will be the largest single refugee intake since World War II.
ABC Fact Check investigates Australia's historical refugee numbers.
Topics: 20th-century, world-war-2, immigration, bishop-julie, australia, syrian-arab-republic
Posted
| UpdatedThe Abbott Government says Australia leads the world in resettling refugees on a per capita basis.
But how does Australia's refugee intake really stack up against other nations?
ABC Fact Check takes a look at the most recent available statistics.
Topics: immigration, refugees, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedLabor says it's critical that staff employed in immigration detention facilities are free to speak out when they see something wrong.
But at the same time the party voted for a bill making it a criminal offences for detention centre employees to speak to the media. Labor argues existing whistleblower laws will protect staff, should they speak out on issues of abuse or misconduct.
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, federal-government, alp, health-policy, healthcare-facilities
Posted
| UpdatedHuman rights advocates are challenging the Abbott Government's spending on offshore processing. They claim money spent on offshore detention could be much better spent on developing 'safe pathways to protection' for refugees.
Advocates say that Australia's offshore processing spending is five times the UNHCR budget for South East Asia. ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, budget, government-and-politics, world-politics, refugees, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAllegations that the Abbott Government paid people smugglers to turn a boatload of asylum seekers back to Indonesia have raised questions about the legality of doing so.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the allegations were serious, and that if they were true the Government had broken the law.
ABC Fact Check takes a look at possible breaches of the law.
Topics: international-law, law-crime-and-justice, greens, immigration, richard-di-natale, australia
Posted
| UpdatedImmigration Minister Peter Dutton says proposed changes to Australian citizenship law that targets citizens who fight with named terrorist groups will not put Australia "ahead of the pack".
The Government has repeatedly used the example that other nations are implementing similar laws to defend the plan.
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, terrorism, liberals, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Human Rights Commission's controversial report into children in immigration detention was tabled in the federal parliament in the first sitting week of 2015.
Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs said the inquiry was necessary because children had been spending too long in detention in the months after the Abbott government was elected.
ABC Fact Check investigates whether the length of time children were held in detention increased after the Coalition took office.
Topics: immigration, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedPrime Minister Tony Abbott says a system needs to be put in place so that "hate preachers" are "red carded", and banned from entering Australia.
His comments followed publicity by the Sydney arm of global Islamic political organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir about a public lecture on October 10.
ABC Fact Check examines the rules around banning people from entering Australia.
Topics: federal-government, world-politics, abbott-tony, religion-and-beliefs, immigration, law-crime-and-justice, terrorism, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe recent baby Gammy case has exposed the pitfalls of the international commercial surrogacy trade.
How easy is it to bring overseas-born surrogate babies home and what happens once they're back in Australia?
ABC Fact Check takes a look at the laws that affect surrogate children and their parents.
Topics: family-law, international-law, laws, federal---state-issues, surrogacy, reproduction-and-contraception, community-and-society, immigration, australia, india, thailand
Posted
| UpdatedIn his campaign launch speech on August 25, 2013, Tony Abbott pledged: "We'll build a stronger economy so everyone can get ahead. We'll scrap the carbon tax so your family will be $550 a year better off. We'll get the budget back under control by ending Labor's waste. We'll stop the boats."
See how the promise is tracking.
Topics: scott-morrison, immigration, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAs part of a suite of border protection measures in the lead up to the 2013 federal election, the Coalition promised that no asylum seeker who came to Australia by boat would be granted permanent residency.
Topics: federal-government, liberals, alp, immigration, australia
Posted
| UpdatedA surge in asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat through people smuggling operations led the Labor government to suspend immigration processing for people arriving by boat in 2010 and again between August 2012 and July 2013. By the time of the September 2013 election, more then 30,000 asylum seekers were awaiting final determination of their cases.
Topics: abbott-tony, scott-morrison, immigration, liberals, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Federal Government has confirmed the existence of two boats carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
The passengers of one have been returned to Sri Lanka. The others are under the control of Australian officials.
Fact Check takes a closer look at the situation and why the fate of 153 asylum seekers is now in the hands of the High Court.
Topics: immigration, federal-government, australia, sri-lanka
Posted
| UpdatedAustralia is on the verge of resettling asylum seekers on Nauru who are found to be refugees in Cambodia.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has defended criticism about the move, saying "resettlement is not a ticket to a first-class economy".
But human rights lawyer David Manne says Cambodia is "engulfed in a human rights crisis", and is in no position to accept Australia's refugees. Fact Check examines the evidence.
Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, federal-government, immigration, law-crime-and-justice, rights, australia, cambodia
Posted
| UpdatedDuring the 2013 election the Coalition released a series of policies aimed at restoring "integrity to our borders".
Topics: immigration, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe president of the Australian Human Rights Commission says Australia is breaching international law by keeping children in immigration detention.
"As a matter of very clear international law children should not be detained for anything more than what is absolutely necessary for health checks and security checks," Gillian Triggs said.
Topics: immigration, government-and-politics, international-law, federal-government, human, australia, nauru
Posted
| UpdatedQuestions about Australia's legal responsibility to asylum seekers detained on Manus Island have arisen after one person was killed and others were critically injured during a violent confrontation in the detention centre.
The president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, says Australia is responsible. ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: federal-government, rights, law-crime-and-justice, immigration, refugees, australia, papua-new-guinea
Posted
| UpdatedIn the ongoing debate over Australia's asylum policies, the question of how many refugees Australia accepts and how that number compares to other countries is often not addressed.
Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer says Australia has one of the highest per capita refugee intakes in the world. ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, government-and-politics, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedPrime Minister Tony Abbott has tried to discredit a group of asylum seekers who allege they were mistreated by the Navy, by claiming they were attempting to break Australian law.
"Do you believe Australian naval personnel or do you believe people who are attempting to break Australian law? I trust Australia's naval personnel," he said.
Fact Check investigates whether asylum seekers who come to Australia are attempting to break Australian law.
Topics: abbott-tony, liberals, immigration, federal-government, australia
Posted
| UpdatedImmigration Minister Scott Morrison says the Coalition's border protection policy has resulted in an 80 per cent reduction of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat.
ABC Fact Check examines the data and finds there's more to the story.
Topics: immigration, scott-morrison, liberals, federal-government, australia, indonesia, papua-new-guinea