The decision to suspend asylum seeker applications for six months represents a superficial attempt to appear both hard-line and compassionate on people smuggling, and just in time for the Federal election.

Too many people are forced to live in camps like this one. Picture: AP.

It has been less than a month since with dry-cleaned suits, a full stomach and make-up for the cameras, three senior federal ministers announced a suspension of asylum seeker claims from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan for three and six months respectively.

Ever since then though, the policy has continued its descent into a shambles with over a thousand asylum seekers in a detention centre designed for just four-hundred on Christmas Island – in tents and demountables – and the reopening of Curtin Detention Centre.

In none of the announcements however, was any mention given to the underlying conditions in refugee camps, which are within the government’s reach to improve through greater UNHCR funding. These legal channels need to be made more efficient.

Refugee camps are overcrowded, disease-ridden, and poverty-stricken; often nothing more than mere tents on the border of conflict zones for those lucky enough to even get shelter. Rape, hunger and crimes plague the camps, which are often filled to the brim with hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees. Security is non-existent, and at night, the only protection is prayer.

Faced with these conditions, those without wealth are stuck in limbo, waiting to be processed and hoping to survive throughout the night. For those with wealth, a few skip the queue in these camps by soliciting the help of people smugglers to risk the dangerous journey to Australia.

And yet the Rudd Government’s policy does not address this. By Stephen Smith’s own admission, “we are not asserting or suggesting that this will stop the flow of boats in the short term.” Chris Evans was also quick to make that clear, “we still expect boat arrivals”, but “over-time” boat arrivals will decrease.

These statements represent the perfect election benchmark, an election fix of the most hypocritical kind. Do not expect results anytime before the election is the message these ministers are keen to get out.

And by any measure, this policy is far less humane than anything John Howard was ever criticised for introducing. Remember that Kevin Rudd was the first to vehemently condemn the Howard government for supposedly breaching human rights with indefinite, prolonged detention.

However under the scheme announced this month, those arriving from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, regardless of whether they are legitimate refugees (and of course, we will not find out until the suspension is over) must wait in detention centres.

In three or six months, the Rudd government will review the suspension to determine whether it should be lifted, whether these asylum seekers should be processed, or whether they should continue to wait. How’s that for indefinite detention?

But the suspension’s major problem is that far from alleviating pressure on the Rudd government from increased boat arrivals, this policy is destined to increase pressure from two sides.

As boats arrive, not only will the result be increased anxiety amongst Australians, but spiraling fiscal constraints on the government.

Where in the past, processed asylum seekers have been determined to be either refugees or illegal immigrants and dealt with accordingly, thereby alleviating costs on the system, under the Rudd government’s new policy all arrivals will simply wait in detention centres.

The Rudd government would be wise to remember, that detention centres cost money. And this is a cost which accumulates as more arrivals come, a running cost, which will put even more pressure on the government to abolish the policy.

Instead of a turnover, every new asylum seeker from Sri Lanka or Afghanistan will wait in our detention centres - on overcrowded Christmas Island and the Mainland – each day the bill will increase, and each day the underlying problem of refugee camps will continue to serve as push-factors for asylum seekers.

Because the unfortunate reality is that this policy was never meant to send a genuine message to people smugglers. It was tailored to the Australian people, to anyone with voting rights.

And just in time for polling day.

Alex Dore is the Policy Director the NSW United Nations Youth Association, and Vice-President Policy of the Sydney University Liberal Club.

29 comments

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    • BTS says:

      05:40am | 20/04/10

      ‘It has been less than a month since with dry-cleaned suits, a full stomach and make-up for the cameras…’

      As Christine Nixon has established, ‘I had to eat!’

      Are we suggesting it’s best to skip lunch, before making any policy announcements on refugees?

    • Mitchell Grde says:

      09:20am | 20/04/10

      I think you quite missed the point.

    • BTS says:

      09:35am | 20/04/10

      Thanks Mitchell Grde,

      I was trying to…

    • Kelly says:

      05:54am | 20/04/10

      Kevin Rudd is disgusting, such a cynical move on his policy all to try an sure up his popularity. And the gutless wonder can’t even front the media or take questions on the matter, sends out 3 Ministers to cover for him, while he hides in hospitals. The media need to track him down and ask some long overdue questions on this and other issues. There is more going on than health Kevin, do you have anything to say? This guy is the weakest, ego maniac of a PM Australia has ever seen.

    • Anonmiss says:

      02:52pm | 20/04/10

      We have the dole bludgers and the single mums of 4 and 5 who get the handouts and civil libertarians for voting him in… if he stays in after the next election it’ll be thanks to the same idiots as well as the new idiots whom buy into his “we handled the GFC better than any other country” to which he always forgets to add… “Thanks to the surplus the Liberal Party left us”

    • Ryan says:

      03:04am | 21/04/10

      @Kelly: that wouldn’t be the same media that Kevin gave each $250 million a year of taxpayer funds to recently perhaps? The very same media who have clearly happily accepted that $250 million a year and have effectively been bought off to give Kev and Labor a dream run. I am sure the last time I saw this sort of thing going on, it was under a communist reigeime heading for a one party state.

    • tmlc says:

      06:25am | 20/04/10

      How Australia treat immigrants and people in camps will be a shame we will realise only in time. 

      We call ourselves a ‘christian’ based country or a ‘fair go’ culture…but our actions speak louder than our words.

    • Eric says:

      10:33am | 20/04/10

      It’s true that future generations will condemn our lax attitude to border security, if we don’t do something to fix it.

      Uncontrolled waves of unassimilable, unwanted immigrants could very well destroy the peaceful and prosperous Australia that we know. Our few remaining grandchildren would be right to despise us for failing to stop the invasion.

    • franklin says:

      01:46pm | 20/04/10

      The most most desperate and vulnerable refugees in the world are single women and children who live in abject poverty in squalid refugee camps in Africa and Asia. They are forced to deal with hostile locals, an almost total lack of economic opportunities, frequent gender based violence, high rates of crime and food shortages. However, as a group they are not represented among the clients of people smugglers as they are obviously unable to pay the many thousands of dollars required. The great majority of the asylum seekers using people smugglers to come from Afghanistan are able bodied men with access to substantial financial resources. They are able to find $15,000 per person required to pay people smugglers, even though Afghanistan has a per capita income of about $800 per year or around $2 per day. Refugee advocates frequently cite racism or xenophobia or anti-muslim sentiment or fear as the reasons for so many Australians being strongly against “queue jumping”, but could it not be that many Australians have great sympathy for the women and children refugees who cannot afford to pay people smugglers, and it greatly offends many Australian’s sense of a “fair go” that able bodied men coming from countries where the per capita income is $2 - $3 per day can pay many thousands of dollars to people smugglers and thus take preference to desperate and vulnerable women and children places in Australia’s refugee resettlement program.

    • angry annie says:

      03:12pm | 20/04/10

      The most desperate to me franklin and the people we should be looking after first are the people who live in squalor and third world conditions in the North of this great land. Where 50% of children die before reaching age 5 and life expectancy for male adults is 58 years. Bugger the asylum seekers in my book they come last.

    • the apologist says:

      08:34am | 20/04/10

      “The decision to suspend asylum seeker applications for six months represents a superficial attempt to appear both hard-line and compassionate on people smuggling, and just in time for the Federal election.”

      Key words ‘appear’ and ‘superficial’. It would be nice if our politicians actually showed some conviction and acted on it - whether disagreeable or not.

      Unfortunately the main conviction they seem have is that they must appear to have conviction and thereby win votes.

    • Mitchel Gade says:

      09:17am | 20/04/10

      Fantastic article, Alex.

      The PM has backtracked on this isue so quickly, it’s actually unbelievable.

    • iansand says:

      09:28am | 20/04/10

      The problem is that all sides have decided to play politics with human misery, as Mr Dore points out.

      Contemptible.

    • Ken says:

      09:33am | 20/04/10

      You would have to say the Libs have always stood by their policy whether you like it or not. The cynical move by Rudd and his ever changing policy shows he stands for nothing either way you like to look at it.

    • tmlc says:

      09:41am | 20/04/10

      Ken (below) - the problem is that both parties are playing politics - and not acting compassionately.  Both their policies reflect populist, low-brow, reactionary positions - and not intrinsic, courageous compassion.

    • iansand says:

      10:12am | 20/04/10

      I did enjoy the irony of a comment putting a political slant on my comment.

    • Vikas says:

      09:48am | 20/04/10

      Nice article.  Labor is clearly trying to outflank the liberals on the right on this particular issue.

      There is a broader issue here in why arriving on the boat is more desirable than processing their applications through the legal way.  A large component to this is that it takes years to process through a refugee camp, while it takes weeks to process through tax payer funded detention centers (obviously we dont want them to spend so much time on the tax payer in these detention centers).

      I’ve always seen the problem as a shallow bureaucratic issue, not the great population debate every politician seems to be eager to make it into, because in reality, 4000 refugee’s hardly make a dent on the 200000+ a year growth rate in this country.

    • Mark says:

      10:03am | 20/04/10

      Thanks for changing the photo caption.

      I agree with the new one by the way.

    • Mark says:

      10:18am | 20/04/10

      Totally agree Ken.

      That is the defining point.

    • Casey says:

      10:50am | 20/04/10

      Excellent article Alex.

      I also very much agree that these knee-jerk election moves which are superficial but deeply affecting do not actually seek to fix the real issue. If our Governments (and I’m not just referring to the current one) really want to ‘stop the boats’ we should not only be further assisting UNHCR to improve the currently bleak situation in refugee camps (which I have spent some time in as an aid worker), but we need to step up our humanitarian and development obligations around the world.

    • Andrew Mace says:

      02:01pm | 20/04/10

      Could not agree more.

      The Coalition have maintained a consistent policy here, and yet every election the Rudd Governmetn dons a Howard coat and puts up a hardline policy to deceive the electorate.

      This time they’ve gone too far. It’s hypocritical and it’s inefficient.

    • Frederika Steen says:

      03:34pm | 20/04/10

      Alex thank you. Good point. Under Ruddock Australia’s contribution to the UNHCR to run its camps etc was halved- From !6 million as I recall. Rudd Govt has restored some, but there is a long way to go to meet even basic human needs in those camps. No parent would stay if they could beg and borrow enough to get out of the hopeless situation. Ironically, Australia established the UNHCR Office in Jakarta and pays about 70% of its budget. It pays millions to IOM to keep asylum seekers and confirmed refugees in subsistence mode. Not great for kids.

      At least in our region we should be doing more, and assisting Malaysia and Indonesia which become holding centres, warehouses for refugees by resettling a few thousand more - the 6000 we take a year is a drop in the ocean.

    • AdamC says:

      05:40pm | 20/04/10

      This processing suspension is a very clever move by Rudd. He can neutralise any direct criticism by merely debating the situations in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Indeed, while his volte-face is a cynical, political exercise, I think it has some merit. In essence, how do we define persecution? Are Sri Lankan Tamils being discriminated against to the point of persecution justifying the granting of asylum? I am not sure, but believe it is arguable.

      It is no secret that the protection regime was established in response to the horrors of the holocaust. However, its reach seems to have extended way beyond that kind of extreme persecution. How far it should extend is a valid question for Australian policy-makers. The fact that asylum has become a criminal racket makes it even more important that Australia take a robust position.

    • colleen says:

      09:05pm | 20/04/10

      We need politician (s) with the courage and integrity of William Wilberforce to lead on this issue - not only is this situation devastating for the assylum seekers but as a nation we are losing our humanity.We desparately need politicians who have the strength of character to not pander to our baser instincts but lead us from the front to be a nation of courage and generosity - to lead us in a way that encourages the best in us as a nation and as individuals

    • Ryan says:

      03:11am | 21/04/10

      @colleen: so you are donating your house for the resettlement of refugees? While you are at it, why lead by example and donate all your money and every last asset you have, no claiming on public funds either there colleen, if we are to be truly “humane”, we need to cut all public funding to all Australians and reserve those funds for refugees.

    • Julian Chu says:

      09:48pm | 21/04/10

      Perfect combination of wit, observation and explanation.  The Young Libs would be better placed to govern than Labor.

    • Andrew says:

      09:21am | 22/04/10

      Wow Liberal club?  your a student? impressive

    • david i says:

      09:52am | 22/04/10

      I’d actually consider voting liberal if you were in charge of policy

 

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