Overview of asylum policy issues

Asylum Seeker issues can be broken down into 5 broad issues:

• Determination of visa status - the process by which people's claims for protection are assessed
• Detention - keeping people who have not committed any crime locked up when there is no compelling health or security reason to do so... and at far greater tax-payer expense.
• Deterrence - trying to stop asylum seekers from reaching Australia by repelling boats at sea or sending them to offshore processing camps and centres.
• Deportation and removals - are poeple removed to situations of danger
• Durable Solutions - working towards solving the problems at the source.

Determination
The refugee determination process (who gets protection)
Although the conditions of detention are very important, the visa determination system is the most important aspect to get right. If it fails, a person can be sent home to face danger, death or torture. The Commonwealth Ombudsman described serious and fundamental administrative weaknesses in the current system.Many people lack good legal and migration advice, don't understand the system and in many cases have fewer legal rights than in any other areas of government decision-making. Read more.

Detention
The conditions (legal and welfare) in which we detain people whose applications are being processed
The mandatory detention of asylum seekers who have committed no crime and pose no threat to the Australian community is unnecessarily harsh, breaks international law and is much more costly than more humane alternatives.Many asylum seekers in thecommunity are denied workrights, medicare or income support. This can mean thatchildren, elderly persons and single parents may be living in conditions of abject poverty. Read more

Deterrence
The actions taken to prevent people from applying for asylum onshore in Australia. This includes the navy blocking boats, excision and remote island detention and processing.
Currentpolicy allows for the Australian Navy to intercept boats suspected of carrying asylum seekers and force them out of our waters, endangering lives and avoiding our international protection responsibilities. In addition, current excision laws mean that asylum seekers who land in an excised zone are not given the samelegal rights as other asylum seekers and are sent to off-shore detention centres, where they are denied adequate humanitarian and legal support, with limited oversight and at a greatly increased cost. Read more.

Deportation
Do we deport people to unsafe areas or under inhumane conditions
Australia in the past has sent back to danger refugees who failed our system and were later found to be refugees by other countries. Australia has also sent failed asylum seekers back to situations of generalised danger such as war and civil unrest in Afghanistan and Iraq. In many cases the methods of removals are themselves inhumane, such as the use of involuntary sedation, physical restraints, removing people without notice to family or lawyers, or sending people to third countries with only a limited stay visa, from where they faced deportation if caught. We need better case management of asylum seekers by trained staff and abetter system of pre-removal risk assessments. Read more

Durable Solutions
Solutions that can reduce the need for forced migration.
The Australian Government needs to work co-operatively with neighbouring countries, urging them to sign and abide by the Refugee Convention and work with UNHCR to protect asylum seekers while conflicts in home countries are resolved. To credibly advocate such human rights standards by our neighbours requires that Australia must fully abide by our own international human rights obligations. Such approaches could minimise dangerous sea journeys on poor quality boats by asylum seekers seeking effective protection. Readmore