Desert Camp - Outsourced
Asylum seekers, once intercepted, are sent to remote pacific islands and to detention
camps in the Indian Ocean; but now they could be sent to somewhere a bit drier.
A former gold-mining town in the middle of the Australian desert is being inspected to establish its suitability as a detention facility for asylum seekers. Why? Well a storm of boats, mostly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have led to massive overflow at Australias main detention centre, on Christmas Island. The government as a result are in desperate need of alternatives.
The latest detention centre being inspected is an abandoned mining camp near Leonara, the historic site of the gold rush of Western Australia. Leonara was a bustling town once but now the howling wind and scorching sun are the only residents. That is all set to change though if the site passes its inspection.
The refugee question has long been an issue for Australia. During John Howards government it was at its most controversial. In 2001, John Howard turned away the Norwegian ship, the Tampa, which carried ship wrecked asylum seekers.
Following this, John Howard then implemented the pacific solution. This involved intercepting boats while at sea and paying impoverished nations such as Nauru and Papau New Guinea to house the asylum seekers whilst their applications were being processed. Howards hard-line measures proved so effective that they substantially reduced the number of asylum seekers attempting to make the journey.
But in 2007, the pacific solution was scrapped when Kevin Rudds government came into power. Over the past 18 months, the number of asylum seekers has increased, but mainly due to global events such as the civil war in Sri Lanka rather than a change policy.
The Rudd government recommended the use of Christmas Island, but the numbers have ballooned to the point that it has become impossible to expand further. Hence the search for further detention centres.
Asylum Seeking in Australia.
Australia, like so many other nations, is a signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1951 and the 1967 protocol to the Convention, both of which are the main legal protection for refugees. Australia as a result use the definition that is located within those documents to determine what is a refugee.
This definition is that a person is a refugee if:
- He or she is outside their own country
- Has a well founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality or membership to a social or political group,
- And cannot rely on protection for their country of origin from this persecution.
Upon arrival, asylum seekers must apply for a protection visa, while those who attempt to enter the country illegally are subject to compulsory detention. However, because of the nature of the plight of refugees, they often have to forge travel documents or be smuggled out of their own country. This means that practically every asylum seeker is an illegal entrant.
This produces the unsavoury result of individuals who have fled their own homes out of fear and upon attempting to reach the shores of freedom are thrown into detention centres and camps for as long as four years.
Australia is actually only one of two industrialised countries that have offshore detention centres, Italy being the other.
But as per international convention, refuge must be given to those fleeing persecution in their own countries. The Rudd government and more specifically, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Evans, have shown their willingness to establish a fairer system so that the international obligations that come with humanitarian issue are fulfilled.
by: Antonia Torr
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