Changes to Australia’s asylum-seeker policies

There have been many changes in Australia’s policies towards asylum-seekers in the last six weeks. Some of them have been perceived as good for asylum-seekers that want to go there and some have been seen as bad. One thing that has not changed though is Australia’s commitment to break the people-smuggling business and to stop asylum-seekers making the dangerous journey to Australia by boat.

Tomorrow the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will present a new policy to deal with asylum-seekers. Media reports suggest that the government will now try to change the Migration Act – the law controlling immigration to Australia – so the deal with Malaysia will become legal and Australia will be able to process asylum-seekers off-shore.

On 31 August, the High Court rejected the deal, saying that under existing law, Australia could not transfer asylum-seekers to another country unless that nation was bound by law to protect them. Refugee activists that argued the case for asylum-seekers in court say they are disappointed the government could now change the law.

While the Malaysia solution is likely to be revived, the government also has a few other options to consider. While waiting for the High Court decision, the government signed an agreement with Papua New Guinea to reopen a detention centre on Manus Island to receive newly arriving asylum-seekers for processing. There has also been discussion of making a deal with Nauru to reopen a detention centre there.

If you are being told that now is the time to go to Australia then be careful because things can change quickly again. With all the options I described it could even get worse for asylum-seekers going there.