Asylum Seekers In Australia

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Following the tragic death of Reza Barati at the Manus island detention centre in February, raised concern about the treatment of asylum seekers. The ABC exposed the lawlessness of the Manus island centre and the vulnerability of the asylum seekers to violence. Australia’s policy to asylum seekers is debatably ‘inhumane’ and on the island has seen 62 men seriously injured in the care of either Australian and Papua New Guinea authorities. Mark Cormack, the immigration department deputy secretary said that the Australian government is

Some of Australia’s legal responsibilities in regards to asylum seekers come from ratifying the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights (ICCRP). When ever Australia exercises power of effective control …show more content…

International law consists of international agreements to which countries have approved upon to be bound. Customary principles, which have been recognized by the international community as being ‘law’ and general principles of that law, are accepted by nations. However the problem lies when unlike domestic law, as there is no system of punishment or police to enforce international law if a country acts unlawful. If a country breaks international law, The international community has two options; they can chose to wither take military force against it, but evidently this happens extremely rare in practice or act through …show more content…

However the courts can not fully monitor the legality of the governments actions as they can only enforce the governments actions under domestic laws compared to international laws. Section 198A of the Migration Act, set out the foundation of the High Court ruling that Australia could relocate asylum seekers to a country that meets certain humans rights standards, when overturning the previous Gillard government ‘Malaysia Solution’ in 2011. As a consequence of the High Court ruling saw an amendment to the Migration Act. The amendment was to eliminate the obligation for Australia to declare that a country will meet before transferring asylum seekers abroad. This amendment to the wording of the Migration Act resulted in difficulty to enforce in the courts Australia’s International obligations. The High Court is currently testing Australia’s extraterritorial processing regime under the new law. If the challenge presented were successful, Australia will perhaps have to cease the detention and processing of asylum seekers in

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