The new year of 2005 does not look promising for humane outcomes for asylum seekers in detention or for refugees on temporary protection visas in Australia. The beginning of the year saw the Howard Coalition Government deporting the well-known Bakhtiyari family to Pakistan as well as two Iranian Christians back to Iran.
Is this indicative of what the Government has in store for refugees and asylum seekers in the future? Time will tell but both these deportations show a government that is feeling confident in making these extreme and uncompassionate decisions. The reaction by the public as well as refugee supporters to these deportations has been strong but the government has not wavered.
In fact they have communicated very little as to the motives behind the decisions and the actual details of the forced removals. The removal of the Bakhtiyari family was a cloak and dagger affair, under cover of darkness with no prior warning to either the family or their friends and supporters. Is this the way Australians want to treat people, let alone people who have been through so much trauma and hardship? I would hope not but the removal of the family was done in the middle of the night in the midst of a world disaster, the South Asian Tsunami, as a cover to avoid public attention.
Some will call me a cynic, but the reality is that the family were deported in an undercover operation so as not to alert the public to their departure. This has left a huge loss for many of the family's friends and supporters in the South Australian community. Apart from the emotional and psychological scarring this has caused to both the family and the South Australian community, the high cost of a chartered jet to take them to Bangkok and then another flight to Pakistan needs to be explained to the Australian taxpayers.
The Bakhtiyari family have argued that they are Afghanis and the Government, stubbornly maintaining the family are from Pakistan, has ignored the substantial proof of this. On arrival in Pakistan the family, without Pakistani passports or identification, could not even obtain accommodation, and left for Afghanistan to return to their homeland. Now the family face the arduous and dangerous task of being accepted back in Afghanistan and trying to resume some sort of `normal' life, after years of trauma and uncertainty that has left them scarred for life. Will the Howard Government acknowledge they could have been wrong and say SORRY? The Howard Government does not have a credible record in acknowledging their mistakes or saying SORRY, so we should not hold our breath.
I argue, and have done so for over a decade now, that the Australian Government is mismanaging the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in Australia by boat to seek sanctuary. While this mismanagement of the treatment of asylum seekers has been by successive governments the Howard Coalition Government with Immigration Ministers Ruddock and Vanstone, have taken an exceptionally hardline and inhumane approach to asylum seekers. They have maintained the draconian detention policy and introduced the Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) regime. The TPV results in people who have been determined as refugees having an uncertain future and having to reapply for refugee status after three years, an appalling situation that only happens in Australia.
Australia has been, and will continue to be, criticised for its mandatory detention policies and I am calling on the Government to adopt a more humane approach in line with Australia's obligations to the human rights treaties we are signatory to. For a more humane approach to refugee determination the Government must:
· end the use of mandatory detention of asylum seekers, close the existing detention centres and place asylum seekers out into community housing similar to the system New Zealand and Sweden have adopted while the refugee determination process is taking place. This is a much more humane and cheaper method of looking after asylum seekers;
· convert refugees on TPVs to permanent protection visas and abolish the TPV regime;
· provide adequate services to those asylum seekers on Bridging Visas who are now dependent on community and non-government support to survive;
· increase overseas aid to countries that are in desperate need. This will help alleviate some of the problems that push people to become refugees and seek asylum.
Until these are realised Australia will not be honouring the human rights treaties it has signed. Australia is a compassionate country as shown in the response to the South Asian tsunami and this compassion and common sense must be now shown to asylum seekers and refugees who turn to us for help and sanctuary, they also deserve a `fair go'.
Dr Don Mc Master
Visiting Research Fellow
School of History and Politics
The University of Adelaide
Chair of Justice for Refugees SA
