January 2009 - the high priority issues for 2009

?2.????? Community based asylum seekers?

Overhauling the system of community based asylum seekers to ensure the opportunity to live in dignity and safety, pending a fair, transparent and timely decision on protection applications.? Key reforms would include:

a.????? Roll existing community-based programs (CCP, ASAS, CD) into one holistic approach and expand so that all community-based needs are being met.

b.????? access to work rights with Medicare.

In order to ensure that the New Directions in Detention policy does not inadvertently result in ex-detainees being pushed onto under-funded non-government support programs, there needs to be an overhaul of the policy approach to community based asylum seekers. Community groups and welfare agencies are already faced with a funding crisis: an increase in their caseloads is unsustainable and will result in increased destitution and homelessness of vulnerable people.

3.??? Refugee Status Determination reform

a.?? Provision of credible, affordable legal advice to all protection visa applicants at all stages of the process by expanding and fully funding the IAAAS service and legal aid.

b.????? Reform of review procedures such as the RRT and removing legislated barriers to judicial review.

c.????? Improvement of the quality of DIAC decision- making. Start by appointing expert external panel to review current practice and systems.?

Good decision-making in refugee status determination relies on well-presented applications, which can be better ensured through an expanded IAAAS service.[1] While there have also been some significant steps taken to improve the protection decision-making system, such as the formation of the DIAC College of Immigration, there is still a long way to go. Forming an expert reference group to provide direction on the RSD reform process would be an excellent start.

4.????? Repeal excision laws and halt remote processing.

The sector remains opposed to remote processing of asylum seekers.

However, if this policy remains, as a matter of urgency there must be an overhaul of the detention regime on Christmas Island to ensure that the New Directions in Detention policy is fully implemented. Currently, health and security checks are delayed and there is a lack of community-based accommodation and services.?

5.????? Better protection of children in the immigration detention regime.

The majority of recommendations made in the Australian Human Rights Commission report into children in immigration detention A Last Resort have not yet been implemented. There remains a disturbing lack of child-specific immigration policies across a range of issues.

Policies towards children need an urgent overhaul to: ensure that children are not held in any secure immigration facility except on judicial order, enact child-specific time limits on ?accommodation? or detention, ensure that child protection agencies and experts form an advisory panel to oversee all aspects of DIAC work relating to children, enact new federal child protection laws that are enforceable in an immigration detention regime, appoint a Federal Children?s Commissioner.

6.????? Detention debts ? halting the practice of accrual of detention debts and a waiver of existing debts.

7.????? Advisory groups ? Overhaul of the Departmental/Ministerial advisory panels and consultation groups to update membership and to ensure a whole-of-issue approach is taken to asylum seeker policy advice.

Currently, the advisory panels do not adequately reflect the quality of expert advice that is available. An additional problem is that there is no overarching advisory body with a multi-disciplinary membership that takes a holistic policy approach.

8.????? Removal issues ? to introduce an open and transparent Pre-Removal Risk Assessment procedure and to provide people on a removal pathway with appropriate legal advice to ensure no humanitarian or public interest grounds remain unconsidered.