On 19 July Australia signed a Regional Settlement Arrangement with Papua New Guinea, meaning that unauthorised migrants arriving in Australia by boat will be sent to Papua New Guinea. Their applications will then be assessed and, if they are granted refugee status, they will be permanently settled in Papua New Guinea. Migrants whose application for refugee status is rejected will be either returned to their home country, to any country where they hold a right of residence or held in a transit facility. Bulletin readers may recall that Australia recently amended its Migration Act to facilitate redirection of migrants who reach the Australian mainland by boat.
The Refugee Council of Australia has called for clarity on the implications of the agreement for separated families and has queried how the best interests of children will be protected. The Council also expressed concerns as to whether the measure meets Australia’s international human rights obligations. At present no exemptions are foreseen for vulnerable categories of migrants such as children and pregnant women. All unauthorised migrants arriving by boat after 19 July will be transferred subject to medical checks and availability of accommodation. The agreement has immediate effect.
The Australian government has explained that the measures are designed to deter the practice of smuggling migrants into Australia on dangerously overcrowded boats. 242 asylum seekers drowned in 2012 while trying to reach Australia.
Refugee Council of Australia CEO Paul Power said, “We have heard so much from political leaders justifying deterrence policies as essential to breaking the people smugglers’ business model. In reality they are breaking the hopes of some of the most vulnerable people in the world who feel they have no other option but to risk their lives to find basic refugee protection in Australia.”
On 26 July the UNHCR released a statement criticising the Regional Settlement Arrangement stating that the “UNHCR is troubled by the current absence of adequate protection standards and safeguards for asylum seekers and refugees in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Australia’s Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) with the Government of PNG raises serious, and so far unanswered, protection questions”.
Australia’s asylum policy faced further international criticism last week when a whistle-blower revealed that a number of asylum seekers had been victims of rape and abuse at a processing centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. The whistle-blower said that the facilities were not even fit to "serve as a dog kennel". He added that victims were knowingly left in the same facilities as their abusers as there were not adequate facilities to separate them.
Click here to read a press release from the UNHCR.
Click here to read an article in the Guardian.
Click here to read a press release from the Refugee Council of Australia.