All the info on this venture comes from official authorities sources. They embrace solutions to questions at Senate estimates, annual studies, Operation Sovereign Borders public updates, submissions to parliamentary inquiries, solutions to questions at parliamentary inquiries, weekly statistics from the Division of Dwelling Affairs launched below freedom of data legal guidelines, and month-to-month detention statistics and different paperwork periodically revealed on the division’s web site. A small variety of the statistics on launch from detention in Nauru are sourced from Nauruan authorities media annoucements.
Among the statistics publicly supplied by the Australian authorities are inconsistent. The place an inconsistency arose, we usually most well-liked the later doc. Information on returns is commonly inconsistent and now we have handled our methodology individually under. The statistics are additionally incomplete. The kinds of knowledge revealed by the federal government has modified over time. The place there was a niche in knowledge for a time frame, now we have left the quantity on the final identified quantity moderately than making a guess.
One exception to this method is in third-country resettlement. The huge bulk of third-country resettlement is to the US, although a small variety of folks have gone elsewhere. All through 2017 and 2018, the federal government has shared the numbers of individuals resettled within the US month by month however not the numbers resettled in complete. We solely know what yr resettlements to Germany, Norway and different international locations occurred; we have no idea what month. Somewhat than counsel that no resettlement was occurring in any respect by leaving the quantity static as a result of we didn’t have an official complete quantity, we included an approximated guess with a small margin of error.
The final knowledge included within the timeline is from 14 October 2020 as that’s the final date for which knowledge on most classes was supplied, within the newest Senate estimates session.
This venture focuses on the three,127 folks despatched to offshore detention after 19 July 2013. On the time of that announcement, there have been already a lot of asylum seekers detained on Nauru and on Manus Island. A few of these folks essentially seem in our early inhabitants counts of Manus and Nauru, as the federal government knowledge doesn’t distinguish between individuals who have been transferred after 19 July and individuals who have been there earlier than. However the authorities rapidly transferred the overwhelming majority of the individuals who have been already there again to Australia to make room for individuals who arrived after 19 July. The exception was a small variety of folks going through legal prices or serving sentences. These folks have been all returned by April 2015.
We’re grateful to the Kaldor Centre for Worldwide Refugee Legislation and the Refugee Council of Australia for his or her help in finding and understanding the info.
Returns
The least constant and dependable knowledge is in relation to returns. Australian Border Power supplied figures on returns to dwelling international locations in its Joint Company Process Power Operation Sovereign Borders month-to-month replace and in its common Operations Sovereign Borders month-to-month replace. These numbers have been persistently totally different to one another — generally by as much as 17, however extra usually by two or three. These numbers are totally different once more to numbers measuring the identical factor supplied to Senate estimates in 2018. Now we have most well-liked the Senate estimates knowledge as it’s newer.
Authorities knowledge on returns is offered in two methods: a worldwide variety of returns or the variety of returns that occurred in every month. This venture examines what occurred after 19 July 2013. Within the month of July 2013, there was one return from Nauru and 15 from Manus Island. To approximate the numbers of returns since 19 July 2013, now we have assumed that the Nauru return occurred after 19 July 2013. We assumed that 10 of the Manus Island July returns occurred earlier than 19 July and that 5 occurred later. The result’s that the numbers of returns offered within the venture are approximate however inside a reasonably slender margin of error.
The place the federal government gives a worldwide variety of returns, it’s usually measured both since regional processing resumed in 2012 or since Operation Sovereign Borders began in September 2013. Neither of these classes measures what this venture appears to be like at: what has occurred since 19 July 2013. Solely a few times have the numbers of returns been supplied for the precise cohort this venture appears to be like at.
In an announcement supplied on 5 December 2020, the Division of Dwelling Affairs stated that since 2012, 644 transitory individuals in Papua New Guinea and 111 transitory individuals on Nauru have voluntarily returned to their dwelling nation.
The Papua New Guinean authorities didn’t reply to a request for the variety of returns from PNG. The Worldwide Group for Migration, which facilitates most of the returns, referred a request for knowledge to the Division of Dwelling Affairs.
