BY SARAH STEPHEN
An interim ruling by New Zealand's High Court has found that the Labour-Alliance coalition government's policy of routinely detaining asylum seekers who arrive without authorisation is in violation of the United Nations refugee convention and cannot be sustained. On May 31, Justice David Baragwanath ruled that asylum seekers were eligible to apply for release on bail.
Baragwanath stated that the refugee convention required that detention be "necessary" and applied to situations where there is a "real risk" that an asylum seeker might abscond or offend. Although there were difficulties in finding out who someone was if she or he arrived without proper documentation, that alone was insufficient to warrant detention, Baragwanath argued.
Between September 19, when the policy took effect, and January 31, 208 out of 221 people who arrived in New Zealand and claimed refugee status were held in jail or at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre. Prior to September 19, fewer than 5% of asylum seekers were detained.
The court held off on making a final decision because of law changes affecting refugees. The government argues that provisions for conditional release contained in the Transnational Organised Crime Bill, passed by parliament on June 12, will satisfy the High Court's concerns about the use of detention.
Greens immigration spokesperson Keith Locke disagrees. On June 3, Locke stated: "It would be an improvement to have some of the asylum seekers 'conditionally released' rather than imprisoned for many weeks, as they are now. But the conditional release clauses are only there to 'sugar coat' the policy of routine detention — which the judge has said was wrong."
"We should not be competing with Australia to see who has the toughest detention policy", Locke continued. "We should only be detaining asylum seekers in exceptional circumstances, when there is actual evidence that they have been involved in serious crime."
The May 27 New Zealand Herald reported that the latest budget provided money for fingerprinting all refugee-status claimants, supposedly to stop people leaving the country and re-entering with a different identity. Immigration minister Lianne Dalziel was quoted as saying that "people already brought in under false documents should not relax either, because residency and citizenship could both be revoked".
In another move to emulate the Australian government's strategies, the June 1 New Zealand Herald reported that the New Zealand government will distribute a pamphlet across Indonesia, warning people against making the journey by boat to New Zealand.
Despite being 8000 kilometres from Indonesia, the government is taking seriously "rumours" that boatloads of asylum seekers are soon to head south.
The pamphlet, printed in four different languages, warns: "The voyage will take at least a month and you would be cold, ill and miserable. But you probably won't even make it. You and your relatives will more likely drown in the attempt."
The pamphlet states that claims for refugee status are likely to be dismissed and threatens boat crews carrying asylum seekers with 20 years' jail.
From Green Left Weekly, June 19, 2002.
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