Stephen Garvey, Melbourne

One hundred and twenty people attended a forum on September 27 to discuss the treatment of refugees in the global social and political context. Melbourne QC Julian Burnside, Green Left Weekly’s Sarah Stephen, former Manus Island detainee Aladdin Sisalem and the Refugee Action Collective Victoria’s Kalinda Ashton addressed the audience.

Stephen said the Coalition government’s claim that its refugee policies have stopped asylum seekers from coming to Australia is a myth. Aside from the fact that most asylum seekers have no knowledge of their destination, other government policies, such as assisting the US government’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, have created more refugees, she said.

Stephen argued that global solutions to escalating social and environmental crises must be found based on identifying the underlying causes if the need for people to flee poverty, persecution and environmental vandalism was to end.

Burnside described the cold-blooded rationale behind the government’s mandatory detention policy. According to immigration minister Amanda Vanstone, asylum seekers (even children) must be punished or “people smugglers” will be given a green light, he said.

Burnside explained what this “punishment” entails by telling the tragic story of a 10-year-old Iranian girl who attempted suicide in 2002 in the Maribyrnong detention centre after she stopped taking care of herself and lost her will to live.

Linking the mandatory detention policy to the government’s broader attacks on civil liberties, Burnside observed that those deemed a “national security threat” under new “anti-terror” laws could have their citizenship revoked. Because the Australian constitution does not protect citizenship rights, dissidents who have their citizenship revoked could be imprisoned in a detention centre unless they obtain a government visa.

Sisalem, who spent 18 months in solitary detention on Manus Island, agreed that a global solution to the problem of refugees must be found. Noting that refugees are created by economic and political decisions, he argued that more humane treatment of asylum seekers is not enough.

“I was a refugee before I was born”, Aladdin said, adding that unless Western governments act more humanely towards the Third World as a whole, the flow of refugees to the West will increase.

Commenting on the Australian government’s recent attempts to make its immigration policies appear more humane, Ashton pointed out that PM John Howard’s “Pacific solution” remains intact, as does the immigration minister’s discretionary powers to deport refugees.

Further, she said, the so-called policy reforms passed in June ensured that the ombudsman’s powers to assess long-term detainees are not legally binding and established a return-pending visa, which is granted on the condition that applicants agree to be deported whenever the government decides. “Refugee activists cannot be fooled into thinking that the fight is over”, she said.

From Green Left Weekly, October 12, 2005.
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