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.
Comments
Shame on Get Up
Shame on Get Up for this position. The statement "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." is the biggest fucking sell out. Stating we must accept this new policy as a "reality" is just outrageous. It is the moral equivalent of being in Germany in 1933 and asking people to lobby the Nazi's for better conditions for Jews in concentration camps. We might not like the idea of Jews being interned but we must all adapt to the "new reality" of live under fascism!
The ONLY principled position to reject the ideology "border protection" in its entirety. Refugees are not a "problem" that needs a Pacific or a Final solution, but people we should simply open our doors too. All people have the right to live and work where they wish but this particularly applies to those fleeig war, oppresion and abject poverty.
Get Up would never have pushed the "new reality" line if this was an Abbot led initative. They have revealed themselves to be moral and political cowards who in the build up to the next Federal election will clearly just act as an adjunct of the ALP.
This email from Get Up is not an attempt to lobby the government but an attempt by Get Up to lobby thier own membership base to accept the "new reality" of deporting and imprisoning refugees as a deterrent for others.
SHAME!