By Prue Powell
Copyright Hamilton Spectator - Published Sat 6th July 2002
Three speakers, David Pargeter, David Manne and David Hawker, disseminated information on the refugee situation and answered questions that people felt were not being answered by the government or the media.
David Manne, who is the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre coordinator in Melbourne, said he was heartened to see that people were not accepting the official line on refugees from the government. He said Parliament had been passing laws on refugees which were in essence turning Australia's back on its values of decency, fairness, justice and helping those in real need. Even if people in their day-to-day lives were able to form a balanced view and question what was happening, this was an important part of redressing the problems. It was a lot about reaffirming values held dear, such as family, and applying that to others. "It's about treating people as we would like to be treated ourselves," Mr Manne said.
Australia had seen some of its strangest and most disturbing times in relation to refugees in recent times. After World War Two it was decided that human rights needed to be protected from such atrocities as seen during those years and agreements and declarations were drawn up including the Refugee Convention in 1954. Mr Manne said Australia signed this, which meant it would give safe refuge to people fleeing from countries in fear of their lives because of religious or cultural persecution. However, in September last year, eight new Acts had been passed to restrict the rights of asylum seekers in Australia and something had gone terribly wrong with Australia's treatment of people who had come here in fear of their lives. Excised territories had been created off Australia where refugees who landed there had no right to apply for refugee status.
It had created a dehumanised zone where human rights applied a little bit or not at all, he said. Two myths that were being pushed about refugees were queue jumping and illegality.
Queue jumping supposed that there was a queue, and illegality meant the refugees had to have done something illegal, and most had not committed any crime. They were just trying to escape intolerable living conditions or death. The route for Afghan refugees to apply for asylum through Pakistan had been cut off with the closure of the UN office, and they were told that they would have to go to Bangkok to apply. This advice was given to people who were desperately fleeing their homes and had all their worldly possessions in what they could carry.
Mr Manne said Australia's detention system for refugees did not have any mechanism of review for the people it detained. They were not allowed to go to a court and ask why they were being detained, or if it was more appropriate to wait for a decision on refugee status on a community release situation.
Member for Wannon, Mr Hawker, said the refugee situation was very difficult for Australia and the government, particularly as it was not just refugees but people smugglers who were the main problem. He said people smugglers were ruthless criminals who fleeced refugees of all their money, exploiting their hopes of getting into Australia through the back door, and then left them to flounder in the seas off Australia.
As of June 21, there were no actual refugees in detention because 11 people were waiting to hear if they had been accepted as refugees, 334 were awaiting deportation, and 351 were waiting for a review on the decision made on their status.
Mr Hawker said the government had just increased its immigration number to 105,000 this year and of these, 12,000 were allowed to be refugees. It had the second highest number per capita for an OECD country in taking in refugees. Australia was not saying no to refugees but telling them they had to come in the front door, not the back door, helped by criminals, he said. The United Nations said a refugee was someone who went to the first country where they could be safe, but now there was forum shopping where refugees were deciding they wanted to go to other countries, such as Australia.
Parliament had passed extra laws on refugees because over the years the courts had gradually been rewriting the rules of what a refugee was. Mr Hawker said mandatory detention, introduced in 1992, was necessary to assess people's criminal records, health and suitability, and it had been found in Britain and France that releasing people on temporary visas into the community did not work because they absconded.
Uniting Church Justice and International Mission director, Rev Pargeter, who had earlier spoken about the need to welcome refugees into Australia as guests in need of looking after, replied to Mr Hawker's statements, saying he was getting increasingly frustrated sitting listening to government rhetoric. He said Australia did not have one of the best records for taking in refugees and two years ago Australia had failed to meet its quota of 12,000.
In a heated rebuttal he referred to the Minister for refugee deterrents and the thousands of Afghan refugees languishing in Pakistan, of which Australia had processed only 21.
Mr Manne said that in 1999-2000, only 9960 places were filled by refugees, well below the quota.
He also said that people smuggling was not the issue, as the smugglers were merely the facilitators of flight for people in desperate situations.
At the end of the day it was about the people who, through their religious or cultural beliefs, were being forced out of their countries to seek refuge elsewhere. A question from the audience suggested that if it was open slather for refugees to come into Australia there might not be enough work and money for everyone.
Rev Pargeter said it was not so much a matter of population numbers increasing in Australia as the sustainable use of the resources by those people, and it was generally accepted that Australia could double its numbers over the next 25 years without a huge impact.
He said it might come as a surprise, but most refugees would rather live where they were born, where their culture, religion, language, landscape and people were familiar. It was hard work to try to assimilate into another country.
He also suggested that Australia did not do enough in trying to resolve international conflicts, to which Mr Hawker replied that Australia had upped its defence force and peace keeping activities in various locations including East Timor.
Mr Hawker sidestepped a question on what he would do for his family if he found himself having to flee his country in fear of his life, by saying the government was doing its best in difficult circumstances and was working on making it better.
Mr Manne suggested that reforms in the detention system could include a community release system, as it had been proved in Australia that people did not abscond.
"A number of my clients say to me, 'I fled in fear of being arbitrarily detained and then I came to Australia'," he said.
One of the organisers of the forum from the Hamilton Social Justice Group, Rev Peter Cook, said it was hoped that a larger group would form from people who had attended.
He said the night had indicated to him that people were still caring and thinking and the Australian heart was still beating.
Anyone interested in being part of a group can contact Richard and Jan Street, or Rev Cook at the Uniting Church.