Dr Emilie McDonnell
LightNews LightNews
banner
dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
Dr Emilie McDonnell
@dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
400 followers 190 following 7 posts
Specialist Adviser in Immigration & OPCAT at the Australian Human Rights Commission. All views are my own.
Posts Replies Media Videos
dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
💡 Excited to share I co-drafted the 1st @rli-sas.bsky.social Policy Brief on "What is Externalisation?" with Sreetapa Chakrabarty.

📰 Read it: rli.sas.ac.uk/sites/defaul...

A pleasure to work with NOVA Refugee Clinic and eds Mariana Gkliati & Stephen Phillips!

#Externalisation #Asylum #HumanRights
July 3, 2025 at 11:19 AM
dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
Across the Seas is a beautiful and powerful article from SBS, marking 50 years of migration stories. It shares the journeys of five people who crossed the seas in search of safety, freedom, education and a better life in Australia.

www.sbs.com.au/news/creativ...
Refugees, foreign students and 'boat people': What it's really like to migrate to Australia
As SBS celebrates 50 years of storytelling, we share the stories of those who made the at times perilous journey across the seas in search of freedom, safety and a sense of home.
www.sbs.com.au
June 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
kaldorcentre.bsky.social
This World Refugee Day, we're excited to share news of a landmark new international declaration on refugee participation.
You're invited to feed back, share the news & join the global effort to advance meaningful participation as a right, not a privilege.
youtu.be/46Xwk2dmWK0?...
The Right to Participate
YouTube video by UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
youtu.be
June 20, 2025 at 12:04 AM
dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
Being awarded the Tasmanian Rhodes Scholarship in 2016 changed my life—studying at Oxford, lifelong friends & deeper sense of purpose.

2026 applications are now open! I especially encourage young Tasmanians to apply!

lnkd.in/exbf74Jz #RhodesScholarship @rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk @utas.edu.au
June 2, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
njpjustice.bsky.social
On National Sorry Day we honour the Stolen Generations survivors on the anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report. But nearly 30 years on, most recommendations are still outstanding. Urgent action is needed to support survivors to age with dignity and respect.
May 25, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
drtracywesterman.bsky.social
Brilliant to be able to chat with Nick Bryant about the incredible #ChangeDirection Indigenous suicide prevention campaign that’s capturing the nation.
Pls donate

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Change Direction film to support Indigenous mental health - ABC listen
A new short film by Australian director Warwick Thornton is at the centre of ‘Change Direction’, an initiative focused on raising awareness of the rate of suicide in Aboriginal communities and the rol...
www.abc.net.au
May 24, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
kkarapanagiotidis.bsky.social
Today is National Sorry Day. I want to say sorry for the Stolen Generations. Sorry for the record numbers of First Nations children in out of home care today. We need to understand this is not the past, the injustices and trauma continue. We must Listen. Learn. Act

#SorryDay
May 26, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
elainepearson.bsky.social
As a follow up to its report on Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, the 🇦🇺 government has established a website in Dari and Pashto to facilitate compensation claims for family members of victims of unlawful killing, those who suffered unlawful assault or property damage
www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...
Afghan War Crimes Victims Still Awaiting Justice
Family members of Afghans unlawfully killed by foreign military forces during the 20-year war in Afghanistan have been waiting a long time for justice. Last week revealed two quite different approache...
www.hrw.org
May 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
kaldorcentre.bsky.social
Govts are drafting the first-ever global treaty on disasters –
but without key changes, it risks leaving displaced people behind.
In a just-released Policy Brief, @profjmcadam.bsky.social & Dr Thomas Mulder explain how small changes to the text could protect lives.
📘 Learn more: bit.ly/3Zn17hB
New global treaty must address disaster displacement: Kaldor Centre Policy Brief
The latest Kaldor Centre Policy Brief highlights how States can cooperate to protect people caught up in disasters – including when disaster drives them from their home.
bit.ly
May 21, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
hrw.org
As we mark Nakba Day on May 15, millions of Palestinian refugees are languishing in camps as Israeli authorities accelerate the forced displacement of Palestinian communities.

Governments should press Israel to honor Palestinian refugees' right of return.
May 15, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
idmc-geneva.bsky.social
🌊 Disasters are driving record levels of displacement

In 2024, disasters triggered 45.8 million forced movements of people, nearly double the annual average of the past decade.

Governments must invest in preparedness & resilience to reduce disaster displacement.

More in #GRID2025👇
bit.ly/3YIDHTP
May 14, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
kaldorcentre.bsky.social
While the challenges of addressing climate change and disasters are immense, much can be done to alleviate displacement and its human costs – if we act now, as @profjmcadam.bsky.social explained to the Royal Society of NSW: youtu.be/oyBMbtQdBHM?...
Rethinking Mobility in a Changing Climate
YouTube video by Royal Society of NSW
youtu.be
May 14, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
tanjabueltmann.net
My letter to the Prime Minister. #immigration
Slightly amended so I can fit this here: I am writing to you as an immigrant who chose to make the UK my home. As someone who is now also a British citizen. And as a German-born historian who understands where the complete normalisation of the far right can end. I write to say: For shame! I first came to the UK in the 1990s for a visit with my grandmother. Objectively, much was backwards here. No mixer taps in the bathroom; awful ‘bread’; and strings had to be pulled to switch on lights. But however I felt about this, my own string had been pulled: I loved this Cool Britannia. It was quite possibly then that I decided that the UK was to be my home. When I arrived to settle here permanently, I made a choice: to contribute my skills, my knowledge—all I have to offer—to this country rather than another one. I am deeply disgusted by your comment today that immigration has done ‘incalculable damage’ to the country. This is the language of the far right. It is insulting, hateful & will fuel xenophobia. And it is just wrong. Migration is a normal part of the human existence. None of us would be where we are without it. Open your fridge and you will see migration. Immigrants help make the UK tick every single day, whether we clean toilets in our hospitals or provide care for the elderly; whether we empty our bins or carry out cancer research. We are mothers, sons-in-law, aunts and uncles, friends, neighbours and colleagues. I ask you not tell me that you do not mean me. I know that you do not—at least not primarily—mean a white woman from Europe who has a PhD. But who do you mean? And, much more importantly, who do you think those racists who were engaged in riots on our streets last summer think you mean? Anti-immigration narratives have defined UK policymaking for the best part of two decades. And fundamentally so. They were the key driver in delivering Brexit, for example, and, as such, have directly limited the rights and opportunities of British citizens. This obsessive focus on immigration as the ‘problem’—that is the real problem. And it is consistently delivering poor outcomes for the UK. Instead of tackling this, you are choosing to consolidate it, sowing divisions along the way. You may point me to polling and tell me that this is what voters want. Do they? I am not surprised at all that over 50% of voters might say they want to see immigration reduced if that is the question they are being asked. What we need to know is what they would answer to the question: “Would you like to see immigration reduced? What this would mean for you and your local community is XYZ.” That is not how surveys can ask questions, but governments absolutely can choose to make policy using such a more informed position. Prime Minister, you continue to talk a lot about making the tough choices. But let’s be clear: setting immigrants up as the ‘other’, as a scapegoat—describing us as a threat ‘pulling the country apart’, a ‘squalid chapter’, a risk that might make the UK an ‘island of strangers’—these are not tough choices at all. These are the easy choices. They are the choices that populists make who have no solutions to the real problems a country faces. What I would like to know, Prime Minister, is what you will do when your policies lead to the implosion of the UK’s Higher Education sector. What you will tell communities when they can no longer provide any care for the elderly. The policies you announced today will not solve anything at all. They will have exclusively negative impacts. For those immediately affected; for our communities; and for our economy. Being pro-immigration—it is progressive, yes, but the much more crucial point is that it is also the most pro-UK policy approach that any politician in the country can pursue. And you are choosing to do the opposite. This, Prime Minister, is the real damage—and it will be very calculable indeed. Tanja Bueltmann
May 12, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
rli-sas.bsky.social
NEW Expert Witness Training 👇 👇 👇 The #RLI is launching training on how to write expert witness country reports to in relation to asylum claims.

First session: 30 June 2025. Register by 5 June: rli.sas.ac.uk/study-us/sho...

#ExpertWitnessReports #Immigration #AsylumClaims #AsylumTribunals
April 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
rli-sas.bsky.social
Apply now for a full scholarship to the MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies!!!

We are delighted to be partnering again with Commonwealth Scholarship Commission to offer 10 full scholarships for the October 2025 intake.

Learn more here: rli.sas.ac.uk/news/apply-a...

#Scholarship
May 1, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
theecre.bsky.social
Some facts:
👉 Research consistently shows no correlation between migration and crime
👉 Framing migration as a crime is a prejudiced narrative designed to divide communities
👉 Higher crime rates are often the result of factors such as poverty, social exclusion, and lack of opportunity, not migration
April 23, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
kaldorcentre.bsky.social
🛑 In Australia, tens of thousands of people are waiting for asylum decisions.
New piece in @theconversation.com by @danghez.bsky.social, Mia Bridle and Keyvan Dorostkar outlines 5 ways to fix it: theconversation.com/5-ways-to-ta...
#RefugeeLaw #AsylumSeekers #Fairness=Efficiency #AusPol
5 ways to tackle Australia’s backlog of asylum cases
Overall, Australia needs a fundamental shift that recognises fairness contributes to, rather than detracts from efficiency.
theconversation.com
April 24, 2025 at 9:05 AM
dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
For #IWD2025, the AHRC's Commissioners and President have called for urgent action to ensure that ALL women and girls—of every background, age or disability—can live free from violence, discrimination, and inequality. Read the full statement here: loom.ly/ZJwt5w0
Australian Human Rights Commission. For ALL Women: Rights. Equality. Empowerment. #IWD2025
March 7, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
andrewstroehlein.bsky.social
#Sudan - "More than 500 people may have been tortured or starved to death and then buried in a secret mass grave north of Khartoum, according to evidence seen by the Guardian."
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Evidence of torture found as detention centre and mass grave discovered outside Khartoum
Exclusive: What appears to be a vast burial site found at former Rapid Support Forces base in Sudan, while rescued detainees speak of torture, starvation and deaths of fellow inmates
www.theguardian.com
March 7, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
hrw.org
Did you know more than 400 migrants have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe in the past 3 months? The EU’s policy of deterrence by drowning is abhorrent. #WithHumanity

Join thousands calling on the EU to save lives: hrw.org/WithHumanity#sign_the_petition
#WithHumanity
We are calling on the European Union to protect the lives and rights of people on the move. Take Action.
hrw.org
March 7, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
profjmcadam.bsky.social
We’re looking for outstanding PhD candidates to study with us at the Evacuations Research Hub @kaldorcentre.bsky.social! You must have a demonstrated interest in disaster law, human rights law, international humanitarian law, or diplomatic and consular law. www.unsw.edu.au/law-justice/...
ARC Laureate Fellowship: PhD Scholarships on Evacuations | UNSW Sydney
UNSW Law & Justice offers two PhD scholarships for researchers who are part of the Evacuations Research Hub . Join our community of scholars today.
www.unsw.edu.au
March 4, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
kaldorcentre.bsky.social
🔍 Climate change is reshaping global migration. How will rising temperatures, disasters & displacement impact communities?

Explore expert insights, research & solutions at climatemobility.unsw.edu.au.

#ClimateMobility #ClimateChange #Migration
Kaldor Centre Climate Mobility Hub
NEW! Understand how people move in the context of disasters and climate change. Get the facts, solutions, voices and resources. https://bit.ly/47OJ4Da
climatemobility.unsw.edu.au
March 7, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
njpjustice.bsky.social
The Voice referendum had a profound impact on reports of racism to the Call It Out First Nations Racism Register in the latest annual report. ‘If you don’t think racism exists come take a walk with us’ includes 453 reports of racism against Indigenous people. Read more bit.ly/3QJMBft
March 6, 2025 at 6:13 AM
dremiliemcdonnell.bsky.social
Today, 16 environmental protesters are back before the #UK courts contesting their "unduly harsh" sentences.

Four received a collective 21 years in prison for their peaceful #climate activism.

This case is an important test for 🇬🇧 democracy & the rule of law @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...
Protesters’ Appeal Hearing Tests the Health of UK Democracy
On January 29, the United Kingdom Court of Appeal will begin an appeal hearing for 16 environmental protesters from the group Just Stop Oil who are contesting their “unduly harsh” sentences for a rang...
www.hrw.org
January 29, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Dr Emilie McDonnell
stacysullivan101.bsky.social
The #ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu. The US doesn't like that and is threatening to sanction court officials. Can the ICC Survive 2025? Tune in to @hrw.org's latest Rights & Wrong's podcast and find out.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Can the ICC Survive 2025?
Podcast Episode · Rights & Wrongs · 01/27/2025 · 30m
podcasts.apple.com
January 27, 2025 at 9:46 PM