Call to close detention centre in Australia

The Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network say there have been four attempted suicides at Australia’s Northern Immigration Detention Centre in three weeks. The asylum seeker support group is calling on the Federal Government to immediately close the detention centre.

The network’s spokeswoman, Fernanda Dahlstrom, says two Iranian men attempted suicide at the Darwin centre on Sunday morning.

Both men attempted to hang themselves in the same room at the same time before Serco staff removed them. After the men were taken to hospital, other asylum seekers in the centre commenced protests by chanting for their release from detention.

Fernanda Dahlstrom says both Iranian men were long-term detainees and she says they should have their asylum claims processed while living in the community.

“Waiting with uncertainty about their future, not able to have anything to occupy themselves to make themselves useful, just basically sitting around with nothing to do, separated from their families, and not knowing whether they have a future in this country,” she said.

Ms Dahlstrom says the centre should be closed down.

In the past three weeks in Northern Immigration Detention Centre one man attempted to kill himself by swallowing a light bulb, one man attempted to hang himself with a shower curtain and there have been a number of hunger strikes. The centre saw dozens of suicide attempts throughout 2011.

Dahlstrom said: “Mandatory detention does not work. It does not stop desperate people coming to Australia seeking safety, it is expensive and inhumane. Asylum seekers should be taken out of these factories for mental illness and placed in the community.”

The Immigration Department says the two detainees “threatened” self harm. It says the men were treated at Royal Darwin Hospital and have been returned to the centre. A spokesman says extra support staff have been assigned to take care of the detainees’ mental health.

Rioters turned out to be refugees

New data shows most asylum seekers detained during the Christmas Island and Villawood riots were later found to be refugees.

Refugees involved are not be allowed to leave detention because they are waiting to find out if they have been sentenced to jail terms for their involvement in the riots. If they are found to be guilty they will not be accepted into Australia, even though they are considered genuine refugees. Asylum-seekers must pass a character test to be allowed into Australia and if they get a criminal record it means that they will not be accepted.

A report into riots that broke out during March and April last year said 80 of 100 detainees involved in the Christmas Island riots had received initial rejections, and blamed the disturbances, and self-harm, on detainees ”receiving the wrong outcome in their eyes”.

The report’s author, Allan Hawke, told a parliamentary committee last week: ”The conclusion we were coming to was that these were not genuine refugees and they were reacting to the fact that they had paid a people smuggler to come to Australia … [and] they were going to vent their anger on the system”.

The government has repeatedly blamed the riots on large numbers of detainees being on ”a negative pathway”, rather than detention conditions.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has questioned Dr Hawke’s findings. “These statistics prove that the government’s rhetoric – that people who have been in detention long-term are not refugees and are on negative pathways – is simply not true. Most, in fact, are genuine refugees who have been unnecessarily detained for far too long while the government played politics with their lives,” she said.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, said riot ringleaders still faced having refugee visas refused by the minister if they were sentenced.

Overall refugee approval data should not be linked to specific individuals involved in the riots, ”many of whom have been charged, remain on a negative pathway and are still subject to new tougher character requirements”, he said.

The Hawke inquiry ”made clear the incidents were largely the result of the frustrations of a group of people on a ‘negative pathway’ not being regarded as refugees,” the spokesman said.

First Forced Deportation of Afghan Asylum-seeker from Australia Delayed

The Australian Government’s decision to force the deportation of a failed Afghan asylum-seeker for the first time has been temporarily stopped by Australian courts.

Ismail Mirza Jan, 26 years old, fled Afghanistan as a teenager in 2001, three years after his father was killed by the Taliban. He reportedly travelled to Pakistan, Iran and Greece before applying for asylum in Britain. His application was rejected in Britain and then in Ireland, but he was able to live temporarily in Ireland on humanitarian grounds. He arrived in Australia in February 2010 using a false Turkish passport.

He is currently in maximum security at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney after his refugee application was rejected. His application was also rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal and Australian courts.

Mr Mirza will be charged $2,000 to be flown to Afghanistan and another $30,000 for Australian officials who will need to accompany him.

The Australian Government ordered his removal to Kabul on 15 November 2011. This would have been the first time an Afghan asylum-seeker has been sent home against their wishes because of a deal to return Afghans between Australia, Afghanistan and the UN Refugee Agency. The agreement between them was signed in January 2011. Australia says the agreement allows Australia to force the deportation of Afghans who do not qualify for refugee status and protection.

On Wednesday 16 November lawyers for Mr Mirza applied to the Australian Federal Court to stop his deportation, planned for Saturday 19 November. His lawyer argued that deporting Mr Mirza would go against the Migration Act. His lawyer also says that his client was denied justice because the Government never informed him of the reasons for rejecting his refugee application.

The Court issued a temporary order to stop his forced removal to Kabul until his case can be heard. A refugee activist said the case would probably not be heard until next year.

It is believed that travel documents issued by the Afghan government will expire at the end of January. Documents shown at Court showed that the Afghan government has already approved the deportation.

There are currently 1,246 Afghans in detention in Australia. If this deportation goes ahead, it is likely that more Afghans will be forced to return to Afghanistan if found not to be genuine refugees.

Less people claiming asylum in Australia

There was an almost 20 per cent drop in the number of people applying for asylum in Australia in the first half of 2011.

The United Nations Refugee Agency reported that just under 5,000 people sought asylum in Australia in the first half of 2011.  This was 19 per cent less than a year ago.  UNHCR said that this was in ”sharp contrast” to the other Western countries, which had an average 17 per cent increase in the number of people seeking asylum.

The UN Refugee Agency reported that the drop was because less people tried to arrive in Australia by boat.  The UNHCR representative in Australia said that “the fall in the overall number of claims in Australia was largely driven by a drop of almost 50 per cent in the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat in the first half of this year.”

The Australian Government said the fall in numbers arriving by boat could be due to a number of factors, including their policies in the first half of 2011.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister said the drop could be the result of “the government’s announcement of the innovative Malaysia arrangement, increased co-operation through the Bali process … as well as the tragic boat crash at Christmas Island in December last year.”

The Opposition said the fall in the number of people arriving by boat had “come off an incredibly high level.”

Meanwhile the first boat has arrived in Australia since the Government’s Malaysian solution was put on hold.  There were 51 people on the boat, mostly from Iran and Iraq.  The boat was stopped by an Australian Customs boat and was running out of food and supplies.

The asylum seekers are being taken to Christmas Island for processing.  The Prime Minister said that the asylum seekers would be held in the Christmas Island detention centre for health and security checks and to confirm their identities.

People trying to reach Australia by boat do not have visas and are considered to be coming to Australia illegally.

In 2011 there were 13,750 places in Australia’s humanitarian entry program.  6,000 places are open for refugees identified by the UN Refugee Agency outside of Australia.  7,750 places are available for people who are the immediate family members of people already in Australia and people who come to Australia and then claim asylum.

A recent survey of Australian people found that most people support the humanitarian program but do not support people trying to reach Australia by boat.  Another survey found that most Australians support people arriving by boat being put in detention centres.

Australia Debates Migration Law Changes

Last week the Australian parliament opened a debate on the changes to the country’s migration laws. Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced the changes so that it would be legal to send asylum-seekers to another nation for processing.

The migration issue has dominated Australian politics since the High Court rejected the Government’s policy of sending asylum-seekers to Malaysia for processing. Ms. Gillard hopes that by changing the law her Government can continue with the Malaysia plan and stop the High Court from interfering.

Gillard told 2SM radio “People are sick of watching the politics around all of this, the most humane way to deal with asylum seekers and refugees is to do everything you can to deter people from getting on leaky boats where they can lose their lives.”

Opposition leader Tony Abbott says he will only support the legislation if the government accepts an amendment that would rule out Malaysia because it is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention. He says he will only support the changes to the law if the Government sends asylum-seekers to the Pacific Island of Nauru instead.

Nauru was a part of the Pacific Solution, the toughest set of asylum-seeker policies Australia has ever had, and in the 7 years the detention centre was open only 288 asylum-seekers came to Australia by boat.

Ms. Gillard does not want to send asylum-seekers to Nauru because when the detention centre was open there, it was thought to be psychologically damaging for detainees. The party she leads, the Labor Party closed it in 2008 for humanitarian reasons.

Both political parties agree that sending asylum-seekers to other countries for processing will discourage asylum-seekers from paying people smugglers who try to transport them across the ocean to Australia in unsafe boats. Where they disagree is over which country to send the asylum-seekers to.

Australia’s parliament has delayed a vote on changes to the migration law until October 11.

However currently, the recent arrival of two boats to Australia has added fire to the politics of the migration debate. Ms. Gillard blames Mr. Abbott for the arrivals saying that he is weakening the Government in the face of people smugglers.

One of the boats was found north of Christmas Island, initially thought to have 60 people onboard but further investigation revealed a “deck below the main deck” concealing 50 people, 49 asylum seekers and one crew member.

The second boat carrying 66 people sent out a distress signal after passenger concerns about overcrowding and had to be rescued by Indonesian and Australian authorities.

In total 175 asylum seekers will have health and security checks on Christmas Island.