After having read the report by the three stand alone members of the ‘Expert Panel’ we have found no grounds to suggest that any lives will be protected or saved from returning to the Pacific Solution, and in a form and manner which evidences policy more draconian than John Howard’s Pacific Solution.
Vietnamese, Cambodian and other Indo-Chinese refugees were resettled between 1979 to 1996 predominately through regional camps, such as Galang in Indonesia, and Hei Ling Chau in Hong Kong, amongst others, however there were protections in place which the Panel’s report lacks. Importantly, these camps were overseen by the UNHCR and other government and non-government organisations, and nations such as Australia minimised bureaucracy and resettled expeditiously, comparatively, and in terms of resettlement numbers did not maintain a premise of quota however ventured by a needs-basis.
The regional camps are harsher in conditions, and in the taking of lives, than the Australian Detention Centre network, which in the last two years has cost 7 lives, 6 of them of very young men, and which has led to thousands of people enduring trauma, multiple trauma – acute and chronic, breakdowns – physical and mental – multiple breakdowns, self harm and multiple self harm, languishment in depressions, the onset of various clinical disorders, suicide attempts, multiple suicide attempts, and suicides. Regional camps have higher suicide rates, higher death rates than Australian detention centres – hopelessness is matched by the endemic illnesses and host of diseases, some borne from malnourishment.
The Panel’s report appears heading in the direction of turning back the boats when the boats will nevertheless come, and in the numbers they have been coming, which is in effect nevertheless only a trickle of humanity and of negligible impact upon the Australian society.
Australia’s nearly ten billion dollars, not five billion, of expenditure on mishandling and maltreating Asylum Seekers can be averted by leaving alone domestic legislation in relation to the Migration Act, by accepting those who come to our shores in pursuit of Asylum and by processing their applications through community within 60 days. The Australian Detention network should be dismantled, Australia should resettle no less than 30,000 people per year and preferably 50,000 each year and set an example to the rest of the world, and invest monies saved from the dismantling of the Australian Detention Centre network in resourcing and assisting regional camps that already exist and all round just help people and save lives.
People die waiting while Australia pontificates over preserving our standards of living and a selfish economy and puts humanity and what’s right last. The debate should not be skewed by racism and seen for what it is really about – that we are a small and selfish population and this is what we are trying to protect at all costs, and in do so we are trying to disconnect from humanity and the moral compass.
Gerry Georgatos
PhD Law researcher, Australian Custodial System and Deaths in Custody
Human Rights Alliance spokesperson
0430 657 309
gerry_georgatos@yahoo.com.au
info@humanrightsalliance.org
humanrightsalliance.org
Comments
Blame the Greens for not doing a deal with the government
It's bizarre that the group tasked with finding a solution to the refugee impasse have come up with something more draconian than the government was originally offering. Labor was left with noalternative but to adopt these recommendations, and the blame can be lain squarely at the greens party for failing to broker a deal with the government when it had the opportunity. This is a bad solution. The original gillard solution was much fairer and better targeted. We will all live with the consequences.
We?
We?
What consequences will you, Noel, or anyone of us in our comfortable lives have to live with?
I am sick to the back teeth of your making excuses for this sleazy, cowardly, opportunistic, inhumane government and your blaming their filth on the only party with a humane stand on this.
The consequence we really will all have to live with is the even worse bunch of fascists who are sure to sweep the ALP away on the same if not worse scale than in Queensland.
Stir the xenophobia deeply ingrained in 9 out of 10 Australians and you win every time. What a fearful people....
Diet
The worst of Howard's Pacific Solution
The worst of Howard's Pacific Solution
The ALP and Tony Abbott's Coalition are now working together to pass new laws to bring back the worst of John Howard's policies on refugees.
The new laws will bring back offshore processing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and bring back indefinite detention on island prisons for innocent men, women and children.
We're working in Parliament today to limit the damage that these laws can do to refugees by putting a time limit on detention, but even if we can limit the damage, these laws are cruel and they will not save lives.
The Greens are now the only party to stand against the return to John Howard's Pacific Solution. We remain the only party who won't expel vulnerable people to places where they have no real legal protections, like Indonesia or Malaysia.
We agree with refugee advocates, legal specialists, former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and refugees themselves: the way to save lives is to give people hope of a safer pathway.
Not long ago we shared Najeeba's story with you.
As a child, Najeeba fled the Taliban with her family. They ended up in Indonesia, with no legal status and no prospect for a safer life, so they boarded a boat to come to Australia.
She says, "We took our chances on a boat because nothing could match the horror we fled from. I passionately believe that the only way to save lives is by providing a safe alternative to boats."
The new laws from the ALP and Tony Abbott's Coalition won't do this. They will just allow the government of the day to expel vulnerable people to other countries indefinitely - to keep them out of sight, out of mind.
Please, get the word out: there is another way.
Our plan, backed by the evidence, is to provide refugees safer pathways to a secure life by giving them effective opportunities to apply for protection in Australia before boarding boats.
That means increasing the number of people we accept from our region, and reducing their waiting time, combined with investment in a New Regional Plan of Action to work with our near neighbours over the long term.
We know what will work. We'll keep working hard for it here in Canberra and across the country. We will never support laws that treat people with cruelty and contravene international laws in order to deliver a political fix.
Please, watch and share the video. Get the word out. We can’t go back to the Pacific Solution, and people need to know that there is another way.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah Hanson-Young
P.S. If you want to get the word out further, please write to your local newspaper about your views on the return to the Pacific Solution. You can read all of the proposals that we took to Parliament and the Houston Panel on our website.
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Thank the Greens for This.
The Greens had the opportunity to back the Gillard proposal and break the grid lock of the lower house of Parliament. The Greens chose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend it will all go away. Well it has not gone away. And now the greens are left with absolutely nothing they can do about it. This three person summit has been a disaster, but the Government was left with no alternative but to adopt its recommendations. The Greens could not have foreseen these recommendations, but it cannot now blame the Government for policy delivery. The Government wanted to deliver policy two months ago, and the Greens denied them. The Greens have to live with the consequences of their actions.
This is a merciless policy, without relief. It is much worse than the original Gillard model. The Gillard plan vouchsafed the rights of asylum seekers. Now they have no rights. We should all be thanking Adam Bandt and Co. or this terrible outcome.
RAC media release on legislation being passed
MEDIA RELEASE
LABOR’S SHAME: OFF-SHORE PROCESSING LEGISLATION RE-OPENS A HELL-HOLE
“The passing of off-shore processing legislation allowing asylum
seekers to be expelled to Nauru and Manus Island will go down as a day
of shame in Australia’s history,” said Ian Rintoul spokesperson for
the Refugee Action Coalition.
“The legislation allows for even greater mistreatment of asylum
seekers and refugees than was the case under Howard’s Pacific
Solution. The government is turning Nauru into a neo-colonial island
prison which will condemn recognized refugees to indefinite detention.
“While the government continues to demonise people-smugglers, it will
now be engaged in people trafficking on a grander scale. The same navy
ships that the government will use to take asylum seekers thousands of
kilometers to Nauru could be used to bring asylum seekers safely from
Indonesia to Australia. But the government is not really interested in
saving lives.
“The government is expecting Nauru and PNG to administer a policy that
will violate the Refugee Convention and would be unacceptable and
unlawful on Australian territory. Julia Gillard wants to keep them as
far away from scrutiny as possible.
“Under Howard, asylum seekers, many of them unaccompanied minors, were
coerced to return to danger in Afghanistan. Last time, Nauru collapsed
under its own contradictions – botched processing, hunger strikes,
dengue fever, and mental breakdown. The lack of reliable water and
electricity, the indefinite detention of innocent people will create
intolerable conditions on Nauru. Australia will again be the
international refugee pariah it was under Howard.
“The Labor government has surrendered control its refugee policy to
the Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party. Not only will Gillard’s Pacific
Solution not stop the boats, it won’t stop Labor’s slide in the
opinion polls either.
“The government’s refusal to accept Green MP Adam Bandt’s amendment to
limit incarceration on Nauru to a one year already shows that the
government is picking apart the Exert Panel’s recommendations and is
only committed to deterrence.
“The government could have given an undertaking to process and
resettle an expanded number of refugees from Indonesia, and those from
Nauru, within a year, but it has turned its back on the one
recommendation that could make a difference to refugee lives.
“Around 4000 UNHCR refugees and registered asylum seekers are waiting
in Indonesia to hear what the Australian government has to say to
them.”
Offshore can kill people if too long warns UN
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/refugees-must-not-be-left-t...
The complete capitulation of GeTUP, not suprising
The parliamentary deadlock over asylum seekers is over. On Monday the Government’s independent Expert Panel issued its recommendations, and the Gillard Government has said they’ll comply with all 22 of them, including a return to processing asylum seekers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Legislation is now before Parliament, and with the Coalition’s support, will pass within days.
For many of us, the idea of a return to offshore processing on Nauru and PNG is abhorrent. It’s certainly not the approach that GetUp and refugee advocates have championed. As former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said last night, this approach is in many ways tougher than John Howard’s Pacific Solution. GetUp and allies across the refugee movement argued strongly to the expert panel against a return to offshore processing – advocating instead for a humane, efficient and cost-effective processing in Australia.
However, that is not the political reality we now face. We must deal with this new reality, and focus on winning as many improvements as we can.
There is still progress to be won. Amid many recommendations we disagree with, the Expert Panel also stressed the need to improve treatment of asylum seekers in offshore centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, including:
treatment consistent with human rights standards;
appropriate accommodation;
access to education, and to mental and physical health services;
assistance with asylum applications;
merit-based review by senior officials and NGO representatives; and
monitoring of conditions by a representative group drawn from government and civil society.
There's every chance that without strong, consistent and informed public pressure, these measures will not be fully implemented - leading to conditions worse than those asylum seekers experienced under John Howard's Pacific Solution. It's for us to apply that pressure.
It's difficult to believe, but the Gillard Government's new policy will see us leave asylum seekers in offshore centres for indefinite periods. Even more shocking, families will be left in limbo in places like Manus Island, where 1 in 6 residents contracts malaria. That makes us angry, and it makes us ashamed. It also makes us want to fight for the best possible conditions in a bleak situation.
Click here to learn more, and email your MP that we expect any government of Australia to ensure the Pacific Solution Mark II does not needlessly repeat the mistakes of the past:
http://www.getup.org.au/pacificsolution
Many of us are weary, many are angry and many just want this issue to go away. But ultimately, we know that how we show up to address difficult problems, how we work across the political aisle and how we extend refuge to others needing our help, is far more a statement about who we are than who "they" are.
In hope,
the GetUp team
PS - There's some good news in the expert panel report. They recommend that Australia's Humanitarian intake of refugees be doubled from just 13,500 per year to 27,000 within five years, and that resources be doubled to improve the capacity of our neighbours to register, process, and protect asylum seekers in the region. Both are measures GetUp and allies in the refugee sector called for in our detailed joint submission to the expert panel. Click here to read more.