Social Justice Network acknowledges the following facts in regard to the current debate on refugees and asylum seekers and the latest Rudd government’s announcement on unauthorized arrivals:
1- Australia does not face any crisis of unauthorized arrivals as the numbers of people arriving unauthorized by boats constitute very tiny numbers if compared to unauthorized arrivals received by Western countries.
2- The issue of boat arrivals was made as big problem when this humanitarian issue was politicized to become issue for political score-pointing to win votes and power.
3- Arriving by boat without any visa is not illegal under Geneva Convention on Refugees Status, if arrivals found to be genuine refugees.
4- Rudd government’s announcement is no more than a cheap election stunt to win back deserted voters but will not achieve any positive outcome, including stopping boats arrivals.
5- The proposed policy change, in addition to being highly inhumane and impractical, is highly likely to fail if tested in Australia’s legal system. It is highly likely that this policy will have the same fate of the “Malaysian Solution”.
6- The prospect of any success in implementing this policy is very grim.
7- The new announcement will further deteriorate Australia’s reputation on respecting human rights.
As for the claim that the policy change came for two main reasons: to save lives from drowning in the ocean and to break the people smugglers module, we can suggest Labor to adopt one of the following two solutions to achieve these targets:
1- Introduce “ Jakarta solution”, where Australia can negotiate to sign regional agreement with Indonesia to establish processing centres in Jakarta operated by Australian authorities in cooperation with UNHCR to receive and process all applications for protection and then resettle genuine refugees in Australia within increased quota (within the proposed 27,000 refugees quota).
2- Adopt European solution for the issue of unauthorized arrival: detain unauthorized people for the shortest period until health and security checks made and then release them to community awaiting decision on applications for protection.
The network notes here that the new policy changes announced by Rudd’s government are not only inhumane and violate Australia’s commitments under international treaties, but also creates high discrimination among asylum seekers based on their unauthorized arrival mode. If unauthorized arrivals happen by plane, the asylum seekers’ applications will be processed as normal. But if the arrivals happen by boats, they will be denied any rights to lodge application.
The SJN believes that the Australians’ vulnerability towards this issue is a direct result of the complete secrecy around the whole issue. If Australians will be told the full facts and the real humanitarian reasons for people to risk their lives on leaky boats, we believe that public opinion on this issue would be changed dramatically.
The SJN supports dealing with this issue as humanitarian issue, not political. If European countries like Britain can cope with more than hundreds of thousands of unauthorized arrivals every year without the need to resort to inhumane policies of mandatory detention of all arrivals and deport them back to third world countries lacking basic needs for their own people, Australia can do the same.
Our PM and his minister for Immigration can consult our neighbouring NZ on how to manage unauthorized arrivals without detention centres or deporting genuine refugees to other countries in a clear violation to international treaties.
For media comments, you can contact Jamal Daoud (network spokesperson) on 0404 447 272
Sunday, July 21, 2013
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