refugees and asylum seekers of australia |
The scale of this operation requires the discipline and focus of a targeted military operation, placed under a single operational and ministerial command and drawing together all the necessary resources and deployments of government agencies. |
Australia has the international obligation to protect the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in the country, regardless of how or where they arrived and whether they have a visa in their possession or not.
While asylum seekers and refugees are in Australian territory and are under Australia's jurisdiction, the Australian Government has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that their human rights are respected and protected.
These treaties include:
As a party that signed the Refugee Convention, Australia has agreed to ensure that asylum seekers who meet the definition of a refugee are not sent back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. This is known as the principle of non-refoulement.
Australia also has obligations not to return people who face a real risk of violation of certain human rights under the ICCPR, the CAT and the CRC, and not to send people to third countries where they would face a real risk of violation of their human rights under these instruments. These obligations also apply to people who have not been found to be refugees.
While asylum seekers and refugees are in Australian territory and are under Australia's jurisdiction, the Australian Government has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that their human rights are respected and protected.
These treaties include:
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),
- The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
- The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). These rights include the right not to be arbitrarily detained.
As a party that signed the Refugee Convention, Australia has agreed to ensure that asylum seekers who meet the definition of a refugee are not sent back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. This is known as the principle of non-refoulement.
Australia also has obligations not to return people who face a real risk of violation of certain human rights under the ICCPR, the CAT and the CRC, and not to send people to third countries where they would face a real risk of violation of their human rights under these instruments. These obligations also apply to people who have not been found to be refugees.
Myths that have been DECEIVING the Australian Public
MYTH 1: Asylum Seekers are ‘Illegal Immigrants’
The term illegal immigrants have been used on both sides of politics and it is incorrect. Asylum Seekers leave out of fear of persecution and cannot or will not return to their country of origin. The right to enter the country without a valid visa is still not illegal under Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. They are also allowed to travel through another country to get to Australia as clarified by UNHCR’s. Their emergency situation gives them a bypass through the usual application of the law towards immigrants that take the usual approach. Therefore treating asylum seekers as illegals is highly misleading which gave incentive for the Australian Press Council to release a guideline stating that “ great care must be taken to avoid describing people who arrived by boat without a visa in terms that are likely to be inaccurate or unfair … “ But the government has the right to detain unauthorised asylum seekers base on administrative grounds for processing. However, the long process in which they are detained has proven to cause physical and mental harm especially to children. MYTH 3: Asylum seekers who arrive by boat present a security threat to Australia.
Around 70-90% of the population of asylum seekers who arrive on boats, have been proven to be refugees who have fled their original country in hope of escaping the war, and 40-45% arrive to Australia with some form of visa. During the 2009 and 2010 financial year the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation resulted that after assessing the number of visa applicants amongst asylum seekers, they concluded that the security threat was very low. Also before being provided with protection from Australia, all asylum seekers must go through a course of thorough investigation by officials to check for any criminal background an individual may hold. Therefore decreasing the chances of a criminal or terrorist being allowed into Australia. We must think about the odds of a terrorist choosing the most dangerous form to get to Australia. As well as asylum seekers undergoing a larger amount of identity checks and background checks before being allowed on Australian soil. This only decreases the odds of a terrorist choosing to arrive to Australia via sea as it provides them with more background checks by officials and no guaranteed chance of making it into Australia. Myth 5: “If someone can afford to pay a people smuggler thousands of dollars to travel to Australia, they cannot be a ‘genuine’ refugee.”
According to the Refugee Council of Australia a refugee is defined as “someone who has a well founded fear of being prosecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Therefore, as you can see from this definition we can justify the fact that a refugee is not classified according to their financial status.No matter how much money that refugee has, if he/she is at a great potential risk due to any of the above reasons then they still are a “genuine” refugee. |
MYTH 2: Australia is losing control over its border
This is obviously not true as shown in the statistics that Australia has the greatest control over its borders out of any first world country. Australia’s isolation makes border protection a whole lot easier. Therefore, Australia has only around 60,000 people unlawfully in the country at any one time, while the UK has 310,000 and 570,000 and the States have 11.2 million. Recent study actually shown that does unlawfully entering the county are actually coming by plane and not the dangerous seas. Australia’s intake of refugees only constitute for 4% of Australia’s total immigrant intake. Even the asylum seekers that arrived unauthorised go through the original processing intended for them. While they get an identity, security check and health check the authorities have complete control over the whole process. Which means AUSTRALIA HAS THE LEAST TO FEAR Myth 4: “ Refugee camps are perfectly safe. Why can’t these people just go there?”Refugee camps usually hold thousands of people at a time, from countries neighbouring the country that the refugees fee to. For the thousands of refugees in the camps, the average time an individual spends in the camp is 17 years. During this period of 17 years, food and water supplies are uncertain at time and therefore many refugees are allowed to leave the camp grounds and work outside the camp. Inside the camp, violence is highly common.
Aswell, due to the high number of residence in the camps, there is no room for new asylum seekers seeking protection by the Australian Government. |
Popular opinon
A great amount of Australians use the term “boat people” when referring to refugees. This signifies the negativity expressed towards the refugees entering Australia via boat because of racial connotations to the first boat people, Vietnamese.“Illegal entrants” is another name used. People believe this because some arrive to the country through unauthorised channels and without travel documentations. However, we know now that most people who arrive illegally arrive through authorised channels with falsified travel documentations or stay here after their visa has expired.
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Many would argue that many of the people are not highly educated to be able to separate the term ‘illegal’ from ‘asylum seeker’ or ‘refugee’. However, in fact an Australian politicians have used the world illegal to connote to asylum seekers and refugees. This might explain why so much people believe it.
Even though it is illegal for a person to enter Australia without a valid visa, it is not the same case with asylum seekers. The UN Refugee Convention which Australia has an agreement with, allows unauthorised arrival to those seeking asylum. |
Permitting asylum seekers to entry a country without travel documents is similar to allowing ambulance drivers to exceed the speed limit in an emergency – the action would be ordinarily be considered illegal, but the under the circumstances it's reasonable to make an exception.” |