An Asylum Seeker is a person who has fled from their country because they are afraid of being persecuted due to their race, religion, nationality, or political beliefs (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014).
Mandatory detention in Australia was introduced in 1992, by the Keating government to control the unauthorised refugees arriving in Australia by boats (Department of Parliamentary Services, 2013, p. 1). The policy allowed authorities to detain all unauthorised non-citizens, including children, until they have satisfactorily completed health, character and security checks and been granted a visa (Department of Parliamentary Services, 2013, pp. 5-6).
The Australian Migration Act was amended in 2005 to ensure that children should only
164) states that refugees can only enter Australia if they are selected and given permission by the Australian government. He identifies that every law and policy passed in regards to asylum seekers after 1996 was to strengthen this idea (Jupp, 2003, p. 164). Jupp (2003, pp. 164-165) argues that the best an asylum seeker can hope for is to be considered a refugee and be offered temporary protection as Australia expects all refugees to be able to return home when there is less conflict. In 2002, East Timor became independent and Timorese refugees were sent back because there homeland was deemed safe (Jupp, 2003, p.
104). Within that period 20 children, 17 years or under, attempted self harming mainly through hunger strikes 104. Six of these cases of hunger strikes were attempted by children under the age of 5 (Dudley, 2003, p. 104). Families in detention centres were found to have at least one psychological disorder for each family member 104. 80% of children and 86% of adults had more than one psychological diagnosis (Dudley, 2003, p. 104). In contrast, the LIFE and NYSPS programs built resilience and addressed stigma surrounding the issue while the stance taken in detention centres is to treat it as manipulative behaviour (Dudley, 2003, p.
Refugees are people who have been forced to leave their country because of things such as war or serious natural disasters. persecution, or natural disaster. They are held in places such as detention centres and are kept their to wait for month. They come seeking hope and a place to stay however they are treated as if they are not human or don’t belong in our country. They come facing problems in Australia but come anyway because they have no choice. These problems have a huge impact on the lives of these people. They can give them from post traumatic stress disorder to anxiety.
danger in their country. A Refugee is also a person or family who cannot return to fear of
An extraordinary 65.3 million Refugees have been displaced around the world. In 2015 Australia took 12,000 of them. But where are Australians placing these Refugees? Australia is deporting these Refugees to a third country, either on Manus or Nauru Island. These Islands have reports of inhumane and cruel treatment towards Refugees For those who aren’t fully aware of what Refugees are; they are people whom come to Australia illegally without the appropriate visas. They cannot obtain these visas because of the reasons they are fleeing their country … their Government. None the less it should be the Australian Government they fear. The concepts of refugees are kept hidden away from us by our own Government in reflection of their Governments own self-interest. This tragedy is classified as a modern day witch hunt.
Australia has had a long history of receiving individuals and groups who are seeking asylum as well as unfortunately a long history of turning those away who are perceived as different. (McKay,Thomas & Blood 2011).Even though the white Australia policy was abandoned decades ago it still lives on as a strong resonance in the conservative right of politics (Westoby & Ingamells, 2010). Community fear about Australia’s border seem easily triggered, which has prompted the term ‘paranoid nationalism’ to be used to describe the heightened refugee politics of the Howard years linked to discrimination and maltreatment of asylum seekers which still lives on today (Westoby & Ingamells, 2010). This paper will use the term asylum seeker to identify those who have arrived at Australian shores seeking refuge without a valid visa. I aim to consider throughout this paper this history of how asylum seekers have been constructed as the ‘other’ and to examine the role of public discourse and political, legal and media responses, such as the implementation of detention centres, as creating and reinforcing the position of asylum seekers as different and not belonging. It will be therefore argued that while we have come a long way from the treatment the Howard government gave asylum seekers, we have not come far enough. Two key areas being the use of ‘othering’ and the implementation of detention centres need to be challenged if we are to take the responsibility of providing refuge for asylum seekers seriously.
Liberty is a fundamental human right, recognized in major human rights instruments to which Australia is a party. People who are held in detention are particularly vulnerable to violations of their human rights.
The conditions on the boat were terrible and most of the immigrants went the whole trip without food or water and many died. Fraser's Government implemented a programme of controlled immigration and also started taking refugees from the camps in Southeast Asia. By 1978 Australia was involved in the Orderly Departure Program from Vietnam. Over ninety thousand Indo-Chinese refugees came to Australia in the ten years after the Vietnam War. But Australians did not take to the new policy very well at first. They had been told too much of the ‘yellow peril’ and many were fearful of what large numbers of Asians arriving would mean for Australian society. Assimilation had been government policy towards racial differences for many years, but that started to change in Australia in the late 1960s, as can be seen in the difference in the way the Indigenous peoples came to be viewed. In 1967 a referendum was held that gave the federal government shared power with the States to make legislation on behalf of the Indigenous people. This meant that Aboriginal people could no longer be restricted in their movements or kept on 'reservations' in their State. The referendum also meant that Aboriginal people were counted in the Australian Census for the first time. This meant that when the refugees from Indochina began to arrive in
In 2005 the Migration Amendment Act was introduced which relates to the notion that children must only be put in detention centres as a matter of last resort to ensure the safety of children as there had been many concerns from the Members of parliament. This new policy had given the opportunity for many children and their families to be released into community detention centres whereby there is higher security to ensure their protection. However, in Australia there had still been a substantial amount of children that had still been held in detention centres and often for lengthy periods. Although the Australian Government had attempted to comply with the new policy by gradually allowing children and their families to be released into the community
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
The Canadian Justice system has failed its mandate of creating a just and peaceful society for all in regards to treatment of immigrants. Our current system of operations of indefinite immigrant detention is in desperate need of revitalization for as it stands it is one of the weakest and most unnecessarily components of our legislature. As proven through differing worldwide policies a limitation can be applied effectively and national security may still be maintained. Clear limits to the practice of detention are in place in both the European Union and in the United States. In the EU, detention is capped at six months with the possibility of extending to 18 months in certain cases. In the U.S., the period of presumptive release is six months,
As a signatory to the UN 1951 refugee convention, we have already agreed, not to return asylum seekers or to detain them indefinitely. In 2001, the Tampa incident brought disrepute to us as we failed to take the right action. Another wave of backlash irrupted when Indonesian fishing vessel codenamed SEIV X sank in northern waters. The UN is highly critical on the practice of mandatory detention over long periods. As a law abiding nation, we need to keep our citizens well informed of our obligations under UN convention so that we can collectively meet our obligations in true spirit. Once Australians realise that we are providing over 200,000 migrant visas annually and the asylum seekers would occupy less than 2% of it and irrespective of the fears mongered by politicians, almost 93% of asylum seekers who arrived by boat in the have been recognized as “genuine” refugees by Australian authorities and the popular “country shoppers” or “economic migrant” stories do not represent the reality, it is not difficult to develop a national consensus on this ongoing, unavoidable issue in an overpopulated world with a massive imbalance in resource
Controversy has surrounded Australia’s boat arrivals since 2001, when the Howard government took office. Howard instituted Operation Relex, a policy directing the Royal Australian Navy to intercept and board suspected illegal entry vessels, or SIEV’s (Turning Back Boats). Initially widely accepted, this policy was designed to discourage people from arriving illegally by boat. However, turning back small, overcrowded boats, and returning them just inside Indonesian waters, quickly became a safety issue (Turning Back Boats). According to the “Senate Select Committee’s Inquiry into a Certain Maritime Incident,” of the 12 boats intercepted from September 2002 to March 2003, four were turned back and three sank, killing two people (Turning Back Boats). Although Australia has a right to protect its borders from illegal aliens, over 90% of these asylum-seekers qualify as refugees (Turning Back Boats). Such a low success rate is reason enough to end the hazardous practice, but even more concerning are the detention centers where the remaining 10% are held. In 2001, the Howard government passed the Pacific Solution, authorizing the transport of asylum-seekers to island nations and offshore detention centers (Turning Back Boats). Since then, countless human rights violations have occurred at the Christmas Island, Manus Island, and Nauru detention centers (Murray). The asylum-seekers, some children, are often detained in poor conditions for indefinite periods of time, subjected to enhanced screenings, and refused legal representation or the right to appeal (Australia). After Howard left office in 2006 the refugee policies stopped, and the Australian government worked to heal the damage done to the islanders and its international reputation (Turning Back Boats). However, under PM Tony Abbott, the asylum seeker policies returned in 2014 through Operation Sovereign
One of Australia’s biggest moral wrongdoings that has been continued to be overlooked is the providing of safety for refugees. Under the article 14, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. It is not in anyway, shape or form illegal to seek asylum from maltreatment. Australia is obliged under international law to: offer protection, give support, ensure that any individual is not sent back unwillingly to the country of their origin. A report made by
Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.
The conditions of Australia’s immigration detention policies have also been cause for concern for probable contraventions of Articles 7 and 10 of the ICCPR. Whilst in Sweden, asylum seekers are afforded free housing whilst their applications are being processed, Australia’s methods are much more callous. Under the Pacific Solution, maritime asylum seekers are sent to impoverished tropical islands with no monitoring by human rights organisations allowed (Hyndman and Mountz, 2008). The UNHCR criticised Australia’s offshore processing centres stating that “significant overcrowding, cramped living quarters, unhygienic conditions, little privacy and harsh tropical climate contribute to the poor conditions of… Nauru and Papua New Guinea” (Morales
The term refugee refers to persons fleeing their country due to religious persecution, war or violence. In the history of refugees there have been many instances in which thousands of refugees had to flee, or were forcefully evicted from their country. Among these instances include the Armenian Genocide, the expulsion of Germans from and the Syrian