Deterrence policies and asylum seekers: the case of Australia

The basic tenets of the international refugee protection regime, set out in the UN's 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, grant individuals the right to seek asylum, but do not provide for laws obliging signatory states to grant asylum. This inherent paradox allows signatory states ongoing manoeuvre to prevent would-be asylum seekers from accessing protection in their territories. To this end, countries of the global north have designed and implemented a range of measures aimed at deterring onshore asylum seekers - privileging border control over refugee protection. This paper examines the effectiveness of deterrence measures taken by Australia. It argues that deterrence measures and attendant political rhetoric are not only contrary to international humanitarian obligations, but obscure empirically grounded understandings of forced migration as a complex social phenomenon, and as such are problematic in terms of meeting their publicly stated objectives of stopping on-shore asylum seeking in the long term.

Temporary protection and the refugee convention in Australia,Denmark, and Germany

This paper reports on a comparative study of temporary protection (TP) mechanisms in Australia and selected European jurisdictions. Specifically, it analyzes policy developments and trends in the use of TP mechanisms in Denmark, Germany, and Australia through a systematic examination of the evolution of “substitute protection” mechanisms; their implications for “effective protection” and their impacts on key stakeholders. The policy analyses are augmented by interviews and survey questionnaires with key NGO service providers in the three target jurisdictions. The paper argues that the traditional link between Refugee Convention protection and national territorial jurisdiction and responsibility is being undermined by extraterritorial processing and offshoring arrangements.

"Disturbing practices":dehumanizing asylum seekers in the refugee "Crisis" in Australia, 2001-2002

Throughout late 2001 and 2002, the Australian Government, seeking re-election, campaigned on a tough line against so-called "illegal" immigrants. Represented as "queue jumpers," "boat people," and "illegals," most of these asylum seekers came from Middle Eastern countries, and, in the main, from Afghanistan and Iraq. This paper explores the way particular representations of cultural difference were entwined in media and government attacks upon asylum seekers. In particular, it analyzes the way key government figures articulated a negative understanding of asylum seekers' family units--representing these as "foreign" or "other" to contemporary Australian standards of decency and parental responsibility. This representational regime also drew upon post-September 11 representations of Middle Eastern people, and was employed to call into question the validity of asylum-seekers' claims for refugee status. Manufactured primarily through the now notorious "children overboard" incident, these images became a central motif of the 2001 election campaign. This paper concludes by examining the way these representations of refugees as "undeserving" were paralleled by new Temporary Protection Visa regulations in Australia.

Refugee law: the irrelevance of the framers` intentions

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 ("the Convention") is over fifty years old. It is the most comprehensive legally binding international standard for the treatment of refugees.' The Convention governs the rights of refugees and the obligations of ratifying State parties towards refugees. The key aspect of the Convention is article 1A(2), which sets out the Convention definition of a refugee. It provides that a refugee is a person who: Owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.2 At the international law level the definition has remained (effectively)3 unchanged during this period. However, there has been a considerable amount of uncertainty at the domestic level concerning the precise meaning that should be given to important aspects of the definition, such as "particular social group" and "persecution". Given that the Convention is the principal international instrument dealing with the rights of refugees (since it was ratified by Denmark in 1952, 140 states have acceded to the Convention)4 and the importance of the interests and indeterminate nature of several aspects of the definition of refugee, the interpretive approach adopted in relation to the Convention is of considerable importance.

The psychological impact of extended temporary protection

Against the background of the recent international trend of a greater reliance on deterrence measures in managing the flow of asylum seekers, this paper discusses the implementation of the temporary protection visa (TPV) in Australia. It focuses on the psychological impact of the TPV policy on individual asylum seekers and how this unlimited temporary status affects the overall process of settlement. This study is based on personal narratives constructed by individual asylum seekers during one-on-one interviews aimed at sketching the mental and psychological manifestations of stressful events in their lives as TPV holders. What is particularly revealing among many of these TPV holders is the fact that their pre-migration traumatic experiences are compounded by a post-migration condition of being in indefinite "temporary" protection. This is further exacerbated by a prevalence of racialized discourses and exclusionary policies advocated by the host government. Past trauma and persecution, combined with present family separation and social exclusion, and further compounded by uncertainty about the future, had resulted in almost chronic states of anxiety and depression among a significant number of TPV holders.

Critical perspectives on refugee policy in Australia : proceedings of the Refugee Rights Symposium hosted by the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Faculty of Arts, Deakin University, December 5, 2002

Keynote addresses: What next for Australia's refugee policy? / Peter Mares -- One year after Tampa: refugees, deportees and TPVs / Chris Sidoti -- Academic papers: The tension of re-other-ing bodies / Snezana Dabic -- Acting for asylum: the nexus of pro-refugee activism in Melbourne / Helen Hintjens & Alison Jarman -- Biopolitics and the 'problem' of the refugee / Matthew Holt -- Temporary protection of refugees: Australian policy and international comparison / Fethi Mansouri & Michael Leach --The not-so-special benefit and non-mutual obligation: refugees on a TPV and income support arrangements / Greg Marston -- Family separation: Somali women in Melbourne / Celia McMichael & Malyun Ahmed -- Embodying exile: protest, performance, trauma and effect in the formation of East Timorese refugee identities / Amanda Wise -- Personal and Community Sector Perspectives -- A personal experience of the TPV policy / Mueen Al-Breihi -- A city of refuge?: protecting the social and cultural rights of refugees in Brisbane / Renae Mann -- Temporary protection visas, recovery from trauma and personal identity / Helen Martin -- All I ask for is protection: young people seeking asylum in Australia / Samira Mohamed.

Lives in limbo : voices of refugees under temporary protection

Lives in Limbo contains the words of 35 recognised refugees languishing in Australia on temporary protection visas. But it is not merely a succession of stories. It locates these experiences solidly within the historical, political and legal context in which they are endured.

Constructing meanings and identities in child protection practice

Examines a contemporary and contentious social problem, child maltreatment, and the policy and practice in response to it, child protection.