End mandatory detention - community processing is the solution
COMMUNITY PROCESSING
On the 13th of October, the Government announced the withdrawal of proposed amendments to the Migration Act which, if passed, would overrule the recent high court decision and would allow asylum seekers who arrive in Australia to be sent to countries like Malaysia or Nauru. The Government announced that, for now, Labor will process asylum seekers onshore, with about 2,500 places currently free in detention centres and community detention.
Once those places are exhausted bridging visas will be granted, allowing asylum seekers to live and work in the community and apply for limited welfare support.
The ASRC supports community processing of all asylum seekers with access to adequate levels of support. Now is our chance to seize on the Government's announcement and inform your local MP, friends, newspapers, colleagues etc that community processing is the solution.
After initial health and security checks asylum seekers should be processed in the community with access to a safety net. To read more about a safety net and the current challenges facing asylum seekers living in the community and what the ASRC recommends, please read the findings from our recent Welfare Paper.
1. It works – we’re doing it now!
2. It will save billions of dollars.
3. It will save people from suffering and self harm.
We are therefore asking all supporters of the ASRC to take action today to make your vioces heard.
Please call your local member and local newspaper and tell them you support community processing.
How to take action
To find out how to contact your local member, please click here
Stay informed
Read our latest factsheet on Community Processing. Read our factsheet on the model of support required for community based asylum seekers. Read our latest mythbuster on people smuggling.
End Mandatory Detention - get kids out of detention
The Australian government recently announced its continued committment to the Malaysia swap. If you want to learn more about the problems in Malaysian detention, read our special Malaysia people swap Mythbuster, read Amnesty's Brief here or read our press release on the Malaysia deal announcement.
"Children in detention exhibited symptoms including bed wetting, sleep walking and night terrors. At the severe end of the spectrum, some children became mute, refused to eat and drink, made suicide attempts and began to self-harm, such as by cutting themselves. Some children also were not meeting their developmental milestones" - A Last Resort?: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (HREOC) 2004
Children in detention
Click here to read our updated children in detention fact sheet.
Click here to read our 29 June 2011 press release on children in detention. On the 29th of June the Government announced that will release 62% of children from detention by their June 30 deadline - leaving 329 children in detention. That's 329 too many.
Click here to read Chillout's latest report (June 2011) into conditions facing children in immigration detention on Christmas Island.
Click here to read the 2011 Child Rights NGO Report - Listen to Children
Villawood Mythbuster
To keep up to date with the latest facts on what is happening at the Villawood Detention Centre, please read our special Villawood Mythbuster (PDF 95.8 KB).
No one chooses to be an asylum seeker
For asylum seekers, leaving is a matter of life or death – not choice.
- "I cannot go home because of what happened to me. I have no family left. I have no male protection. My father was arrested and my brothers too. The government is after me and my family. They can kill me. I wish sometimes I was dead." (Ethiopia)
- "I was severely prosecuted for the belief of Falun Gong. The police just arrested me, put me away, put me into the detention centre, several times. The longest period was two years in their forced labour camp." (China)
It is not illegal to seek asylum:
- Asylum seekers are neither 'illegal' nor are they immigrants. Immigrants leave by choice and can return at any time. Asylum seekers are forced to leave and cannot return for fear of persecution - such as torture, imprisonment and execution.
- As a signatory to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Australia must provide protection to people fleeing persecution, regardless of whether they arrive by air or by sea.
- For the small number of asylum seekers that make it to this part of the world, Australia and New Zealand are the only possible destinations. They are the only two countries in the region that are signatories to the UN Refugee Convention, have a strong human rights record and have the resources to host asylum seekers.
- The detention of children should be used only as a last resort and for the shortest period of time as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Detaining already vulnerable children has been shown to have catastrophic consequences on their development. Therefore there is a need to incorporate into the Migration Act the rights of children that Australia already recognises through being a signatory to the CRC.
- Currently, the Minister for Immigration is the legal guardian of all unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, which creates a clear conflict of interest seeing that the Minister represents at the same time the detaining authority and the visa decision-maker. The current situation needs to be changed so that the unaccompanied minors seeking asylum could have a legal guardian whose primary consideration is the best interests of the minors. An independent Commissioner for Children and Young People could fulfill this role.
Key Issues
1. Mental health impacts: "Identification and Support of People in Immigration Detention Who are Survivors of Torture and Trauma" - 3 April 2009, Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC): Immigration Detention Torture and Trauma Policy. Read this report to see what the Government recommends should happen to those people who have been tortured and suffered trauma in their countries of origin. Have they not suffered enough to be released as this report recommends? Click here to read the latest new story where the Australian Medical Association criticizes the Government.
2. Children in detention: On the 18th October 2010, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that the majority of asylum seeker children and their families would be released by mid 2011, prioritising unaccompanied minors and vulnerable children. By 30 June 2011, the Government released 62% of children into community detention leaving 329 children in detention. This is 329 too many. See below for our latest fact sheet on children in detention. Click here to read Chillout's June 2011 report into conditions facing children in immigration detention on Christmas Island.
3. Our human rights obligations: It is not illegal to seek asylum. As a signatory to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Australia must provide protection to people fleeing persecution, regardless of whether they arrive by air or by sea.
4. Putting things into perspective: Asylum seekers are one of the smallest immigration intakes in Australia (0.3%), from birth rates to visas given for student, skilled, or general migration. Student and travelers on temporary visas are the greatest contributor to this population boom, and birth rates the greatest contributor to population growth.
5. Humane alternatives: There are humane alternatives available in the community for the care and support of asylum seekers. Visit the International Detention Coalition website to read all about the viable alternatives to immigration detention.
Aims
What this campaign is aiming to achieve:
- Abolish mandatory detention and employ the more cost effective community settlement alternatives.
- End indefinite detention of asylum seekers. Ensure the grounds for detainment are continually assessed and justified, by making sure the detention of asylum seekers is subject to judicial review within the first 28 days and every 7 days thereafter.
- Change the Migration Act to state that detention of children should be used only as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.
- Establish a Commissioner for Children and Young People, to act as legal guardian for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.
- Abolish offshore processing.
What else can you do?
PASS IT ON
Help make this new short clip viral by sending it on to all your friends and family. 'Give them a voice' was put together by concerned Australians aiming to increase the awareness of conditions facing people, especially children, in detention.
WRITE
Help us by writing to Minister Bowen to ask him to support the legislation change to exempt children under the age of 18 years from detention. See below for a proforma letter to download, personalise, print, sign and send. Please add your own thoughts to your letter to the Minister. This makes your letter much more powerful and your concerns likely to be considered.
CALL
Make a phone call to your local member and ask them to stand up for kids by voting to support the legislation. Find your local member by visiting http://apps.aec.gov.au/esearch/
DOWNLOAD
Download our "Proforma letter to Minister Bowen" for you to personalise, "what the new changes mean for kids in detention", "kids in detention mythbuster" and "get kids out of detention" brochure for more information.
VISIT
Keep up to date with the most recent cover on this issue by visiting ASRC in the news and reading our latest blog on why detention is no place for a child.
DONATE
Donate to ASRC's get kids out of detention fund to help us lobby for and campaign to make our next Federal Government promise that no children will be in detention.
Success so far
- Playing a pivotal campaign role in helping see the release of 62% of children that are in detention (there are still over 300 children in detention).
- An end to the policy of children in detention.
- The end of Temporary Protection Visas.
- An end to detention debts.
- The end of the 45-day rule (leading to the right to work for a greater number of asylum seekers).
- The closure of Manus Island and Nauru detention centres.
