By Zanny Begg
Minister for immigration Nick Bolkus is considering legislation that would legalise the illegal detention of asylum seekers between 1989 and 1992. The bill would retrospectively deny compensation to around 350 potential refugees who were unlawfully held by the Australian government in detention camps.
The main motive for the legislation seems to be the government's unwillingness to pay compensation claims that legal consultants estimate could reach $100 million.
The wave of asylum seekers who began to make the long, and often dangerous, journey to Australia in 1989 were initially detained under a section of the Migration Act that was designed to deal with stowaways. Under this provision, stowaways could be temporarily detained with the intention of placing them on the same ship for the return journey.
Most of the asylum seekers who came to Australia, however, arrived in leaking ships which were unable to make the return journey. Added to this was the fear of torture, imprisonment, starvation or execution that had driven many of them from their homes. "Temporary" detention for these people stretched to four years.
Eighty-eight of the people detained during 1989 and 1992 are suing for compensation for unlawful detention. In retaliation, the government passed amendments in 1992 which made the detention of refugees legal from that year. In December 1992, the government achieved bipartisan support for legislation that would limit compensation pay-outs to $1 a day. Bolkus' new amendment is an attempt to reduce compensation to zero.
Bolkus derides criticism of the ALP's handling of asylum seekers as the whining of "do-gooders". According to Bolkus, Australia's intake of 13,000 refugees a year is generous. If the government doesn't make a tough stand on immigration, he claims, there will be "boats by the bucket load".
Nick Poynder, the coordinator of the Refugee Advisory Casework Service, does not agree. Poynder describes the government's handling of onshore asylum seekers as "appalling".
"The current wave of asylum seekers began arriving from Cambodia in 1989", he explained to Green Left Weekly. "They were all locked up from day one. Most of them remained in detention for the entire process of their refugee application. We regard their treatment as outside the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"In fear of compensation pay-outs to these people, the government has been retroactively passing legislation to cover up mistakes they have made. In essence they just keep shifting the goal posts."
Poynder is critical not only of Bolkus's most recent legislative moves but of the entire manner in which asylum seekers are treated by the government. "Australia still has one of the toughest refugee processes in the world. We still accept only about 10-15% of all asylum seekers. In contrast, Canada accepts about 60%. Australia is still the only country in the world which has a policy of mandatory detention of undocumented asylum seekers."
Poynder also argues that the government's integrity has been severely compromised by its treatment of refugees fleeing a situation influenced by Australian actions.
"The government has made it clear that it won't budge an inch to help the Cambodian boat people. The ALP really compromised itself by its involvement in the Cambodian peace process. When the Cambodians first began arriving in Australia, the government found itself unable to grant them asylum, because to grant them asylum would be to admit that the peace process in Cambodia wasn't working. The Cambodians have been denied asylum because of political expediency."
Poynder has a case before the UN Human Rights Committee claiming that Australia has breached its international obligations on the human rights of refugees. Poynder is confident that this case will be successful, which he hopes will place increasing moral pressure on the government to release the remaining detainees and close the detention centres.
Bolkus faces stiff opposition to his legislation, with the Coalition, the Democrats and the West Australian Greens vowing to vote against it. But the ALP seems set to push on regardless, hoping to cajole the Coalition into returning to a bipartisan approach on asylum seekers with the threat of $100 million being lost on compensation. If this strategy fails, the government may be forced to settle out of court.
Lurking behind both the ALP and the Coalition's approach to this issue are similar anti-refugee attitudes. Labor Senator Jim Kiernan was recently quoted as saying that asylum seekers were "biting the hand that feeds them" and "that it is time for the Aussie taxpayer to get a fair go". The Coalition may vote against Bolkus's legislation, but has never voted against the detention of asylum seekers.
The real solution to the problem, according to Poynder, is to open Australia's doors to asylum seekers. Rather then throwing behind bars people who are escaping traumatic situations in their home countries, the government should institute a bail system which simply monitors their movements until their identity and refugee status can be assessed.
It is the asylum seekers, many of whom have been detained for over 1200 days, that Poynder believes deserve a fair go.