One of the most polarising documents of the year in Australian politics was released a month into 2015 and impacted the asylum-seeker debate for the rest of the year.
The document was the Australian Human Rights Commission's The Forgotten Children .
It found one in three children detained on the Australian mainland and Christmas Island required psychiatric support and suffered from mental-health issues.
The report was based on interviews with more than a thousand children in asylum detention and their parents, medical experts and detention-centre workers.
And it called for a royal commission.
Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs called the findings horrific.
"One parent told the inquiry team, 'My son thinks we're robbers.' Another said, 'My child only takes orders from the Serco guards.' Many children are wetting the bed again, long after being toilet-trained. Children are especially frightened of the nightly head counts with officers flashing torches on them at 11pm and 5am the next day."
But the Federal Government called the report partisan and targeted Ms Triggs, eventually calling for her to resign.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the commission should be ashamed of itself and claimed its report ignored Australia's efforts to prevent drownings at sea.
"I reckon that the Human Rights Commission ought to be sending a note of congratulations to Scott Morrison saying, 'Well done, mate, because your actions have been very good for the human rights and the human flourishing of thousands of people.'"
But while the Government condemned Ms Triggs and her report, Australia's asylum-seeker policies faced criticism again in the ensuing months.
In March, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture released a report saying Australia may be in breach of the International Convention Against Torture.
He cited the indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island and poor conditions in Australian detention centres.
Around the same time, an independent review into sexual-abuse allegations at the detention centre on Nauru found dozens of cases of abuse of asylum seekers.
And the review, by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss, cited guards for allegedly trading drugs for sexual favours.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre chief executive Kon Karapanagiotidis called the findings worrying.
"It's is deeply, deeply troubling. The independent Moss review paints a horrifying picture, especially for women and children on Nauru. In summary, what does it say? One, that there is credible and compelling evidence of the sexual abuse and rape of women and children. Two, a culture of fear and intimidation, where sexual abuse is actually underreported by women out of fear that it will (affect) their refugee outcomes. Three, sexual favours are being traded in return for marijuana, people trying to get some relief from the horrors of being in that place."
In June, reports surfaced that Australia had paid people smugglers to turn back an asylum-seeker boat to Indonesia.
The boat's captain, Yohanes Humiang, told Al Jazeera Australian officials personally handed over $6,000 US out of a total of around $40,000 paid to the crew.
"I told the Australian man we needed money so we could return to our wives and children. He said 'Okay, we'll help you.' As captain, I got $6,000. The five crew got $5,000 each."
The Australian Government refused to confirm or deny it, with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton offering this response:
"The Government's been very clear from day one under Operation Sovereign Borders, and that is that we don't comment in relation to operational matters."
As the civil war in Syria escalated, the flow of displaced peoples out of the country caused a refugee crisis of near-unprecedented scale.
At first, Australia refused to alter its refugee intake.
But as public pressure mounted, Tony Abbott announced Australia would increase its intake by 12,000, on top of the 13,750 places available in the humanitarian program for 2015.
"Our focus for these new 12,000 permanent-resettlement places will be those people most in need of permanent protection -- women, children and families from persecuted minorities who have sought temporary refuge in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. I do want to stress, women, children and families, the most vulnerable of all."
Refugee advocates insisted the intake was too small, and the Government's references to Christian minorities as the most persecuted group in the Middle East drew criticism.
The Lebanese Muslim Association's Widyan Fares condemned the language.
"We are obliged to condemn in the strongest of terms the suggestion that priority should be given to people of one faith over another."
And she suggested there was more involved.
"As Australians, we cannot and must not tolerate a rhetoric of discrimination and Islamophobia."
In October, there were allegations regarding a 23-year-old Somali refugee who had been raped and impregnated in detention on Nauru.
She allegedly was flown back from Australia to Nauru before being allowed to speak with a counsellor in Australia about an abortion she was seeking.
Peter Dutton said the woman, known by the pseudonym Abyan, was flown back because she refused treatment in Australia.
In Senate Estimates, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young grilled the Department of Immigration's Neil Skill.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticised the Government's handling of the woman's welfare.
It said the incident highlighted a broader issue regarding sexual assault and rape at Australian detention centres.
The woman was ultimately flown back to Australia for medical treatment.
In November, Australia faced its periodic review by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
More than a hundred member states took the opportunity to scrutinise Australia's human-rights record.
Its treatment of asylum seekers, particularly the detention of children, drew the most criticism.
German representative Franck Jarash was one of those articulating the view.
"Germany wishes to offer the following recommendations: To remove children and their families and other individuals at risk -- in particular, survivors of torture and trauma -- from immigration detention centres. To review the policy of offshore processing of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island. And to review the implementation of the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment Bill, making sure that the international obligation of non-refoulement* is strictly upheld."
That same week, riots broke out at the detention centre on Christmas Island after the death of Kurdish refugee Fazel Chegeni.
Riot police were deployed, and, in the aftermath, several detainees were sent to a high-security prison in Western Australia.
A detainee on the island, requesting anonymity, described the scenes there to SBS.
"People are basically destroying everything that can be destroyed. The fires are going on in all the compounds. The medical centre has been destroyed, the canteen. Basically, the place is a disaster zone. All the compounds have been smashed up. They've gone through the walls of the compound.. The Serco officers have virtually left the site. There's no-one around. In terms of security, there is none. That's why I'm trying to stay away from everything and stay safe."
It all helped keep the asylum-seeker issue in the spotlight in Australia as the year came to a close.
