By Maire Leadbeater
AUCKLAND — A new group, Justice for Asylum Seekers, has been formed here to agitate against the scandalous treatment of those seeking refuge from persecution.
The inspiration for the group's formation was the hunger strike by 16 asylum seekers last October and November. The October strike was prompted by the late, unlamented, National Party government's legislative amendments to allow the imprisonment of many asylum seekers.
Some of the 16 had been imprisoned in Dickensian conditions at Mt Eden Jail since the APEC conference in early September. They included Sikhs, Pakistanis and an Iranian.
Most of the men had been turned down by the Immigration Service when they presented their initial applications for refugee status, but all were hoping for a more in-depth hearing by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority. They said that, in the prison environment, it was next to impossible for them to prepare their cases, meet freely with lawyers or make phone calls to seek documentation. At least one of the men bore marks consistent with his claims of torture, as confirmed by the prison doctor.
The minister of immigration at the time, Tuariki Delamere, publicly declared that the men's bids for refugee status were "manifestly unfounded". The 16 men hunger struck for 32 days, breaking their fast only when Auckland's mayor and deputy mayor personally delivered a hopeful message to them from the just-elected Prime Minister, Helen Clark. Two days later, on November 30, the men were released after the High Court ruled that the men should be given temporary visitor permits.
Just before Christmas, another asylum seeker, a young woman from Ghana, was also released from the women's jail.
Justice for Asylum Seekers has brought together human rights activists, Amnesty International members, people from the Sikh, Pakistani, Iranian and other immigrant and religious communities, left political groups and concerned individuals. It will build on the excellent work already undertaken by the Auckland Refugee Council, which provides the only hostel accommodation in the country for asylum seekers. The hostel receive no government funding and is being kept afloat by some emergency funding from Auckland City Council.
There were at least six demonstrations each week during last year's hunger strike, outside both the prison and immigration offices. The strikers told us later that such visible support was very valuable to them.
William Smith, an Amnesty International and Auckland Refugee Council stalwart, says we have a major task ahead to confront the perception that "quota refugees are good, asylum seekers are bad", and to put pressure on our government to provide adequate funding and resources to care for asylum seekers and ensure that their cases are processed without long delays.
[Maire Leadbeater is a member of Justice for Asylum Seekers and an Auckland City Councillor.]