Asylum+Seekers

__//**Hello and welcome 2 Jamie's page!**//__

** ASYLUM SEEKERS - MANDATORY DETENTION ** **// The Public Health Association of Australia recognises that: //** 1. According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." 2. Under the United Nations (UN) 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, an agreement signed and ratified by Australia, we have a legal obligation to provide asylum to genuine refugees. 3. Australia's policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers directly contravenes our commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which states "(e)veryone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution" (Article 14, UDHR). 4. Seeking asylum in a country other than one's own is not illegal, nor is it 'queue jumping', but rather a fundamental human right of any person experiencing persecution in their country of origin. 5. Asylum seekers may be traumatised by experiences they have lived through prior to their arrival in Australia, often chronic and repeated with cumulative psychological effects. Such experiences may include torture, rape, witnessing the death of family members, separation from family and community, extreme material hardship and food scarcity, exploitation by border officials and camp guards, and appalling conditions during their passage to Australia. 6. Trauma experienced by asylum seekers is exacerbated by being placed in detention centres and the uncertainty about their future, resulting in reports of para-suicide, completed suicide and self-mutilation. Evidence of the psychological harm from long-term incarceration in Australia’s Immigration Detention Centres is overwhelming, and has been accumulated over the years from public health researchers (Silove D, Steel Z and Mollica R (2001)). 7. Australia's treatment of asylum seekers violates international human rights standards. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) prohibit arbitrary detention particularly of children.

8. As at September 2005 there were a total of 714 people, which included 43 children in detention [ref: __ http://www.immi.gov.au/detention/facilities.htm __]. A proportion of these are asylum seekers, the others being held for breach of visa conditions or other immigration matters. 9. The detention of children in particular is a serious concern. It violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed and ratified by Australia, and poses long-term risks to children's psychological and social development and well being, and to their ability to successfully resettle in the Australian community. The HREOC 2004 report //A Last Resort//, based on the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, comprehensively details the negative impact on children, and highlights the overwhelming need for policy change. 10. The mandatory detention of asylum seekers is an excessive response that arbitrarily denies people of certain human rights; prolongs and exacerbates the trauma they have experienced before and during their flight; denies them the possibility and security of normal family life; impairs their successful resettlement; and severely affects their mental health and well being. 11. The trauma and uncertainty of detention upon arrival is exacerbated by the denial of Permanent Residency visas to asylum seeking refugees who can obtain Temporary Protection visas for three years only, with limited access to resettlement services and inability to sponsor vulnerable family members. This places extreme pressure on those men who have left wives and children in situations of danger, in either situations of ongoing conflict in home countries or in unsafe refugee camps. 12. Australia has one of the lowest intakes of refugees of the developed world, yet it is the only one to mandate detention of all individuals entering the country without valid visas irrespective of whether or not they are seeking asylum.1 **// The Public Health Association of Australia believes that: //** 13. Australia should fulfil its international legal obligations to protect the human rights of asylum seekers by fully implementing all Convention and Treaty obligations to which Australia is signatory. **// The PHAA welcomes: //** 14. The recent (2005) changes to legislation that in theory will reduce the time families will spend in detention, and which may place additional scrutiny of the reasons for long-term detention of adults. However, the PHAA believes these measures do not adequately address the multiple issues raised by the mandatory detention policy. **// The Public Health Association of Australia therefore recommends that: //**

15. The conditions in current detention centres and the treatment of asylum seekers within these centres are continually monitored by independent organisations. 16. The Federal Government establish an intersectoral collaborative working group that seeks to develop a model responding to asylum seekers that conforms to its international human rights obligations. 17. The Federal Government abolish the current policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers. **// Until such time as the recommendations above are implemented, the Public Health Association of Australia recommends, in the interim, that: //** 18. The determination of an applicant’s refugee status be expedited to minimise time in detention centres. 19. The Federal Government should require from, Global Solutions Limited, the private contractor administering Immigration Detention Centres, standard reporting in a transparent manner, to meet robust quality of care guidelines, in particular regarding health care. Immigration Detention facilities should be immediately improved, including full access to medical, dental and psychological health care. DIMIA should ensure that all personnel working within IDC’s have received sufficient training on working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, on refugee trauma issues, and on peaceful methods of conflict resolution. 20. The Federal Government should abolish the routine use of Temporary Protection Visas, and provide permanent protection to persons seeking asylum in Australia who are found to be refugees, allowing access to the full range of human services available to the community. **NB**: The International Health Special Interest Group has also developed a policy on Refugees and Asylum Seekers and Access to Health Care; and a Border Protection and Public Health policy, which will address related issues to this policy on Mandatory Detention. **// References: //** For further information contact: Anna Whelan on __ a.whelan@unsw.edu.au __or (02) 9385 3593. 1. UNHCR. Asylum levels and trends in Industrialised Countries, 2004. Geneva. 2. UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, __ http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/legal/instrume/asylum/1951eng.html __ 3. UN, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, __ http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html __

4. UNHCR's Guidelines on applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers, 10 February, 1999 __http://www.unhcr.ch/issues/asylum/guidasyl.html__ 5. Pittaway,E. (1999), Refugee Women the Unsung Heroes in Nobody Wants to Talk About It, Refugee Women's Mental Health, Transcultural Mental Health Centre, Sydney, Australia. 6. Silove D, Steel Z and Mollica R (2001) Detention of asylum seekers: assault on health, human rights, and social development, Lancet, vol 357:1436-1437. 7. Amnesty International, 1998, Australia, A Continuing Shame: The mandatory detention of asylum -seekers. 8. Refugee Council of Australia Report. __ http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/ngraph2.htm __ 9. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 37(b) For example, in the USA, numbers of people seeking asylum have increased from fewer than 3,000 a year prior to 1980 to a peak of 154,000 in 1995. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service, Annual Report: asylees (1997). Available at: __ http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/statistics/index.htm __ 10. Silove D, Steel Z and Watters C (2000) Policies of deterrence and the mental health of asylum seekers, JAMA, vol 284:604-611. All those asylum seekers arriving in Australia without documents, including women, men and children are either deported or detained. 11. HREOC (2004) A Last Resort. Summary report of the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. **// Adopted at the 2000 Annual General Meeting of the Public Health Association of Australia, revised in September 2002 and revised at the AGM of the PHAA in 2005 in Perth. //** []