The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, September 10th,
2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010
Australia.
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Refugees still behind razor wire
Almost two years to the day since the Howard Government's high-seas act
of piracy against the Tampa, the first planeload of refugees have
finally set foot on Australian soil.
by Jules Andrews
The arrival of 14 of the refugees from Nauru - amongst a group of 21 in
total - cannot be used to justify or soften one's attitude to Howard's
illegal and immoral refugee policy.
Drowned out by the media fanfare are the cries of the over 200 Tampa
refugees remaining on Nauru, and more hundreds languishing behind
razor-wire fences in camps scattered across the continent and on Pacific
and Indian Ocean islands.
Escalating the terror
In the coming spring sitting of Parliament the Howard Government will
press forward with new changes to the Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs)
in a bid to further strip refugees of their human rights.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock proudly announced that “These
balanced changes will ensure Australia's onshore protection arrangements
are consistent and fair, and will assist in upholding the integrity of
our humanitarian resettlement program”.
Under existing legislation people who apply for asylum who are already
in Australia - having arrived on tourist, business and education visas -
are able to access Permanent Protection Visas.
The Government now seeks to remove this right, offering them only the
same Temporary Protection status as the so-called "unlawful arrivals".
Even more heinously, Mr Ruddock intends to repeal the guaranteed
three-year tenure of the TPVs, allowing him to expel genuine refugees at
any time.
And why is he making this change? To protect the unity of families!
"This change would provide the ability for the grant of TPVs and
Temporary Humanitarian Visas for shorter periods than those currently
stated in the regulations", explains Mr Ruddock.
"This removes the problem of visas expiring at different times for
family members who had arrived separately, and will help them to be
considered for further protection as a group."
No excuses
Mr Ruddock says the raft of changes "will align Australia's protection
arrangements with international protection objectives which emphasise
that for most refugees the appropriate response is to provide interim
protection until they can return home in safety".
This statement is a most twisted interpretation of the United Nations
Convention on refugees, and a deliberate misrepresentation of Government
policy.
The Convention does not say a Government need only provide temporary
protection, and is most strongly worded against the forced removal of
refugees who have been at any time recognised as genuine.
However, Mr Ruddock never mentions “forced repatriation”, he
sugar-coats the Government's policy thus: "Where TPV holders are no
longer in need of Australia's protection, their places are reassigned to
the Humanitarian Program to resettle refugees and others of concern who
are in the greatest need".
Our obligations
The Howard Government's continuing campaign of terror against refugees
must be brought to an end.
Australia must fulfil its obligations under the United Nations
Convention on Refugees, which must be strictly adhered to in both letter
and spirit.
The internment camps must be closed - both those in the Australian
outback and the ones on far-flung islands in the Pacific and Indian
Oceans. The remaining refugee processing centres in urban areas must be
brought under government control with full transparency of processes.
On arrival refugees must be held only for the minimum time necessary to
allow for security and health checks. They must have full access to
social services, legal assistance and their local communities.
There must be no forced removal. Once accepted as genuine refugees they
must be given Permanent Protection Visas, the current policy of
Temporary Visas must be scrapped.
Refugees must then be accorded all the applicable rights ─ the right
to public education, health care and social security benefits, and the
right to full-time permanent employment.
Specifically, it must be recognised that the family members of refugees
may also face harassment, torture and death in their home countries and
should also be allowed to migrate to Australia as refugees or on family
reunion visas.
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