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The facts
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention a refugee is a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group. Australia is a signatory to the Refugee Convention, and is therefore obliged to protect refugees in Australia, regardless of how they arrive.
A refugee cannot arrive in a country unlawfully, because it is generally not possible for a person fleeing persecution to obtain a visa to enter another country. This is why they are applying for protection. The right to apply for asylum is a fundamental human right.
There are no 'queue jumpers', because there are no queues for refugees seeking asylum in Australia. Refugees with no connection to Australia have only a remote chance of ever being resettled as refugees in Australia.
Australia is the only Western country with a policy of mandatory detention for all asylum seekers who arrive without a valid visa. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International, and Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission have condemned Australia's policy of mandatory detention as a blatant breach of our international obligations.
Most of the refugees arriving in Australia by boat who are imprisoned under the mandatory detention policy come from Iraq and Afghanistan. Regimes in both these countries routinely torture, execute, rape, and imprison their citizens on account of their race, religion, or political opinion. The Department of Immigration has found that 85% of Iraqi asylum seekers arriving in Australia are refugees. The Refugee Review Tribunal has found that 78% of Afghan asylum seekers are genuine refugees. Australia's detention centres therefore are full of people fleeing persecution; many have been tortured, and have witnessed murders, or lost family members.
Many of these people are detained incommunicado. They are denied access to legal advice, assistance from human rights organizations, and contact with members of their communities in Australia. They are not permitted to contact relatives overseas to tell them they have arrived in Australia safely.
Refugees subjected to prolonged detention are much more likely to develop long term personality difficulties and psychiatric problems, than those not subjected to detention.
Many other Western countries have successful and humane policies of registering asylum seekers and accommodating them in open camps, hostels or communities whilst their claims are being processed.
These refugees, even when granted refugee status, are denied the permanent visas available to refugees with visas. Instead, they are given only Temporary Protection Visas, valid for 30 months, with no rights to family reunion. This means there is a refugee underclass, with no security, and no chance of seeing their families.
There is no legitimate basis for discriminating between types of refugees in Australia. All refugees deserve to be treated equally.
There are tens of millions of refugees in the world. Iran hosts over 2 million, Pakistan 1.4 million. Australia accepts 12,000 per year - internationally, a low figure for Australia's population and size. Refugees are a global problem, one that all democratic countries have a duty to share.
All asylum seekers who arrive in Australia without a valid visa face mandatory detention. There is no attempt to evaluate the risk to Australia's security in allowing the person to live in the community: as in the mandatory sentencing laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, there is no consideration for individual circumstances. Many parents and children are among the detainees, and may remain in detention camps for months, even years, while their cases are processed.
Other similar countries manage without mandatory detention - Canada for example has a law requiring that asylum seekers be detained only once they have been shown to be a risk to Canada.
The numbers coming to Australia don't justify the detention centres: compared with Australia's paltry 10,000 or so arrivals a year without visas, Pakistan has over a million Afghan and Iraqi refugees.
Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has reported on the detention camps, with concerns raised regarding
The HREOC report also tells of a series of complaints of assaults and unreasonable use of force by staff, and suggests that the conditions in detention centres are in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 1999 the Liberal Government introduced new regulations limiting the rights of genuine refugees arriving in Australia without visas. These regulations contravene Australia's obligations under Article 31 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees which prohibits States from imposing a penalty because a refugee arrives illegally:
The Contracting States shall not impose penalties on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article (1), enter or are present in their territory without authorisation, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence.
The new laws violate basic protection standards recognized since 1948. Anyone who has spent more than 7 days in another country before arriving in Australia may be sent back to that country. This does not ensure their protection from human rights abuses.
The new laws prevent certain people from even lodging refugee applications, hence putting them at risk of becoming refugees "in orbit" or without any durable protection and therefore at great risk of expulsion to persecution.
Those who arrive here without proper documentation, but are recognised as refugees, will now be limited to a temporary protection visa valid for three years.
During this three year period, the refugee is not allowed to leave Australia and his or her family is not allowed to come to Australia. During the three years they will not be eligible for social security, except in exceptional cases.
At the end of three years, they must re-demonstrate that they continue to be Convention refugees.
The 1951 Refugee Convention was designed to ensure those with a well-founded fear of persecution received protection. However, it defines as a refugee only those fleeing persecution due to reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group and political opinion are recognised. Women who are fleeing specific gender based persecution find it difficult to receive protection in Australia as the authorities often do not consider that 'social group' includes women persecuted for their gender.
There are many examples where women's rights to safety are ignored. One terrible story is that of a Colombian asylum-seeker who was forced into prostitution in Australia who was refused a protection visa.
The woman was brought to Australia by another Colombian national, in the belief that she would work as a cleaner. When she arrived her passport was taken from her and she was forced to become a prostitute. The prostitution syndicate made specific threats to injure or kill her and members of her family if she did not work as a prostitute, or if she tried to return to Colombia. Before managing to escape Christina was also beaten by her "owner". Christina has given evidence against members of the prostitution syndicate to the New South Wales police but those responsible were never charged with an offence. In hiding, she believes that she faces persecution in Colombia. This persecution would be carried out in revenge against herself personally, and also to make an example of her to ensure the compliance of other young women within the group's control.
The persecution suffered by Christina was accepted by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and by the Refugee Review Tribunal, who found there was a real chance that on return to Colombia she might face further harm, amounting to persecution, but claimed this would not be for a "Refugee Convention reason", so denied her a protection visa.
Another case is that of Fatemeh Moradgholi, an Iranian accused of appearing in 'immoral' films by the fundamentalist Iranian regime. Despite the certainty of a death sentence in Iran for this 'crime', she too was denied a protection visa, as the persecution she faces is not covered by the Refugee Convention. The method of execution is by stoning.
Australia strictly interprets the 1951 Refugee Convention, meaning asylum seekers who might be tortured or killed for reasons other than those covered by the Convention can be, and often are, deported. The 1951 Refugee Convention covers persecution "for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion". Innocent people at risk of torture or killing for other reasons also deserve Australia's protection.
Examples include the following:
In Pakistan, many daughters and mothers and sisters have been killed for bringing shame on the family. A woman at risk of this so-called "honour killing" has no legal right to refuge in Australia, except at the discretion of the Minister of Immigration. Other refugees without protection include those accused of crimes which are regarded as normal behaviour in Australia, such as a dentist who has treated women in fundamentalist Muslim Afghanistan, and who would face severe punishment on being deported there. Women facing forced abortion in China, women facing female genital mutilation, have no protection!
A new class of visa is required, for those at risk of serious human rights violations, but who do not fall under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
"Varnee" is a Sri Lankan whose husband was abducted and disappeared in 1989, most likely because he was an activist with an opposition political party. She received death threats 8 months after his abduction, and continued to receive them until she fled Sri Lanka in August 1996. She testified at a Presidental Commission into "disappearances" in 1995 and gave evidence regarding her husband's abduction, and named those she believed to be responsible. Among those she named was an active member of the Sri Lankan Police. She claims to have continued to have received death threats after the inquiry, and fled Sri Lanka as a result.
While the Refugee Review Tribunal accepted her husband had been "disappeared" Varnee was rejected by RRT on credibility grounds because they did not believe she received threats after the Presidential Commission inquiry. They also claimed that if she revoked her testimony, she would no longer be at risk, something Varnee refuses to do because she is not satisfied that justice has been done in her husband's case. Most tragically, the RRT stated that she had no "Convention-based" fear since it is her individual efforts that have endangered her, not a political opinion or membership of a social group. They wrote in their decision "In this case the actions of the applicant can be characterised as the actions of someone seeking justice as a result of the death of her husband. They do not relate to her political opinion" so she is not covered by the Refugee Convention, and Australia can therefore deny her safety and asylum in Australia.
The husband: "They pushed me and my face hit the door. The top of my head just above the nose and on my forehead hit the door and started bleeding. They than pushed me to the floor onto the tummy. The nurse came and she had an injection in her hand and she tried to jab me in the arm. She tried three times". "The family was still nearby and seeing what was happening and my wife started screaming and my children started crying. They then put handcuffs on both my hands, the ones police use."
The wife: "At this point I was very afraid. I did not want to be separated from my husband. I was afraid I would drop my baby. The officer was pulling me by the left arm and I was holding my baby in the left arm. At this point my head cover became loose and started to come off. I became confused. I was worrying about my baby, I was worrying about my husband and I was worrying about my face becoming uncovered"
Their story: "Hagi" fled Libya with his family, fearing persecution by the Libyan Government, such as arbitrary detention, torture and the death penalty. He claims to be a member of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), an illegal opposition group which has confirmed Hagi's membership to Amnesty International.
In late 1999 Hagi and his family were facing forcible removal from Australia prompting Amnesty International to intervene on their behalf, issuing the only Amnesty International Urgent Action for 1999 in an effort to prevent their forcible removal.
Amnesty International describes the attempted deportation as follows: "Amnesty International was informed that the attempt to forcibly remove Hagi and his family was a terrifying, humiliating and violent experience for them. Following Hagi's resistance to attempts to sedate him at the airport, and the subsequent assaults inflicted upon him, the pilot of the plane refused to carry Hagi as a passenger due to the extent of injuries sustained by him. The officers had beaten Hagi on his head and hand and face, in the presence of his wife and children who were greatly distressed, and he was bleeding profusely from the top of his nose. The 3 Australian Correctional Management (ACM) officers, 2 Department of Immigration officers and 1 airport officer who were involved in the assaults, then pushed his wife who was nursing a three month old baby and ripped off his wife's headscarf , all in front of the terrorised children, one who was reportedly vomiting with fear."
"I wish I had not left my country, but I had to. I was forced to leave my motherland like millions of other refugees. Some of people could blame us for coming to this country. They call us 'trouble makers' or considering us an economic burden on this country. I ask these people that before saying anything about us once more try to see the underlying realities of being a refugee.
Countries where we come from, which are not as democratic as Australia, cause trouble if you are from minority. Having a different opinion or religions makes you guilty in these countries. Most of us went through persecution, torture, psychological and physical pressure. Also our families, friends and neighbours were killed or taken away and never come back again. If we had seen any opportunity to live in our countries we would never have left them. But there was not any light of hope for staying alive.
Do not misunderstand me, this is a great country and we could never ignore what Australia has offered us, but still we have been targeted by some groups and government who blame us for breaking rules or laws. Without seeing the trauma and dangers we have gone through. They do not interest to hear whether what happed to us in our own country. They only interest to learn how we came this country.
Do not see refugees different from other people. We are as human as everyone else with a heart and with emotions and passion. But we are really going through hard time, so I ask you to understand us. Refugees like flowers that were uprooted from their own pot and planted somewhere else. Help these flowers to recover by watering them, to rejuvenate them as they grow in their new soil." Mahmut Kahraman
Would you ever sign away your right to free speech?
How about your right to vote?
What if it was the only way to escape a war?
Who would be heartless enough to ask you to?
To come to Australia, Kosovar refugees were forced to give up a hard-won, fundamental human right - the right under the 1951 Refugee Convention to claim asylum. They were traumatised by the horrors of war, desperate to escape crowded camps, sleeping in tents, facing a seven hour queue for food. For three months in Australia free from the terrors of war they signed away a fundamental human right - because the Liberal government couldn't take the chance they would want to stay in Australia!
The Kosovars were given temporary "Safe Haven" visas, with no right to apply for asylum in Australia. Australian communities welcomed the Kosovars - into their schools, into their sports teams, into their hearts. They formed strong bonds of friendship and love. Their welcome won't wear out - but the temporary visas given to the Kosovars will. Some have already - many Kosovars have already been deported back to Kosovo, and have told of the violence, the killings, the lack of water and electricity, that is Kosovo today.
This email was received from Kosovo 8 June 2000:
"Here in Kosova the situation is not in control so please if you have any chance don't come back - try everything you can do just don't come here ... Kidnapping is happening everywhere usually the victims are young women, this happened to Shynette and my sister* too but they are alive thanks god. You can't work here and the life is very expensive, water and electricity is still missing, please Elma I'm talking to you like my sister, please try everything just don't come back. Every day the killing is still happening and none don't know wo is doing this. I don't know what I should do to come back there and not to be here ... The only thing which is in my mind is that here the situation will be the same for a long time as we can see. I wish I could write a letter to the government there and ask them why they forced us to come back here where you don't even have enough food."* the sister was deported from Australia recently to Kosovo, and kidnapped
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