The past few weeks have been enormous for asylum seekers and refugees in Australia's overseas detention centres, whose futures' just last week reached a new level of uncertainty when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull proposed a lifetime visa ban for all who had arrived by boat since 2013.
Later in the week, a potential refugee 'swap' with the US was announced. An agreement which, if ever actualised, would potentially separate families.
Whilst this deal could receive a green light from the US, it's unclear if will carry through to Donald Trump's term, who commented that the agreement would most probably be "be dead on arrival", further putting refugee's futures into a limbo.
Contrary to Donald Trump's comments, former Immigration Minister Peter Dutton today announced that he thought that "the Trump administration will respect the fact that this is a very important issue to the Australian people and to the Australian Government."
If you're feeling confused about the whole situation, then spare a thought for asylum seekers and refugees in detention who don't know what to make of this news.
AWSWN's Pamela Curr yesterday told Fairfax that she had been inundated with phone calls from detainees who were both fearful and confused over the situation, saying that "There is a mother here who has a husband and two little children stuck on Nauru; another mother and daughter whose husband and son they have not seen for 23 months stuck on Nauru. There are families separated through the system. Now what is going to happen to them?"
And this is a very good question amongst many others that we have. What will happen to the families that are separated? What is the time frame in which this will all happen? What happens if Donald Trump is able to renege on the deal? What about people who are left behind or who may even be rejected by the US?
In the midst of this huge political minefield, which incredulously, even includes Donald Trump, we remain resolute in our objective - to tell the true story of Nauru and to represent those whom Australia's policies have silenced.
Tomorrow two of our representatives, Claire O'Connor SC and Pamela Curr, will be doing just that.
After having made a Senate submission which relies on our report, witness accounts, ABC 4 Corners, The Guardian Australia and other media outlets' fastidious work, we have been invited to speak on a panel at the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee in Victoria, where we will be giving evidence on the serious allegations of abuse, self-harm and neglect of asylum seekers detained in Nauru's Regional Processing Centre and Manus Regional Processing Centre.
Tomorrow Claire O'Connor, a prominent human rights barrister, and Pamela Curr, one of Australia's most outstanding, experienced human rights and asylum seeker advocates, will draw attention to the high levels of abuse, sexual assault and neglect of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru.
Whether our evidence will make a dent in Australia's policies may not be revealed for some time after tomorrow's hearing. It's also uncertain if the Government will act with any immediacy or provide further information on their new proposal, but nevertheless it's vital that this evidence exists on the public record, because the more that does, the less the Australian Government can deny or cover up abuse as it has done all too frequently over the years.
We will be sharing our submission publicly following the Senate proceeding. Transcripts will also be published in The Hansard. In the mean time you may read our report here: www.awswn.org/the-report