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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
Australian Human Rights Medallists
An Open Letter from Australian Human Rights Medallists
We appeal to the humanity, decency and sense of fairness of our fellow Australians in respecting the human rights of men, women and children escaping persecution.
We urge all Australians to remember that:
In 1954, under the Menzies Government, Australia adopted the International Convention on the Status of Refugees as part of the law of this land. Since then, we have had a proud and compassionate tradition of accepting a flow of asylum seekers fleeing persecution. We have been glad to accord them refugee status after due process. Such people are neither 'illegals' nor migrants for they have a right to claim asylum as refugees.
This Refugee Convention is part of our international law obligations, but it has now been undermined in two ways. First, by the withdrawal of some Australian territory from the application of the processing provisions of the Australian Migration Act; and secondly, by the active removal of asylum seekers to Pacific nations where the Refugee Convention does not apply and the processing of their applications for refugee status will be carried out by the United Nations at our expense.
This is not our normal policy towards refugees. Our multicultural society formed over the past fifty years, has been founded on the non-discriminatory entry of people who have arrived either through the official migration program, or from the relatively small number of asylum seekers granted refugee status. There is no queue in Australia for admission as a refugee because our refugee quota remains unfilled. Both of these groups, migrants and refugees, have always been a major factor in helping the Australian economy and community life to expand and grow in wealth and diversity.
We urge the Australian people:
- Not to turn away
asylum seekers from our shores but, with compassion, to imagine their
despair. Let there be no more inhumanity to man, woman or child in our
land.
- Not to approve
the setting up of detention camps in neighbouring countries where all
refugee applications for asylum will be processed by the United Nations
at enormous cost to the Australian taxpayer, with the result that many
of those accepted as entitled to refugee status will either remain stranded
or eventually be admitted here anyway.
- Not to discriminate
against a particular racial and religious grouping of people (including
children) fleeing from persecution and seeking asylum with us. We now
add to their suffering, instead of helping them as was previously our
normal practice. Why treat in this way a group of refugees whom we used
to welcome? It may be discrimination that breaches Australian anti-discrimination
law. Such
negative stereotyping of a particular racial and religious group of
people can be a warning of a disastrous future for our country. Is there
any 'fair go mate' left at all?
- To call upon the government to reform the conditions and treatment of asylum seekers held in detention centres run by punitive regimes, and seek alternatives to the policy of mandatory detention itself. These camps have been described by Malcolm Fraser as 'cruel' and 'brutal'; some are extremely isolated and some, due to lack of facilities, are filthy and unhealthy. Such treatment by Australia of these people, particularly of the children, is both unwarranted and avoidable. Let us once again be a nation that is held in high repute by the international community because of our respect for the dignity and human rights of all those people who seek our help. We did not fail them in the past as we are failing them now.
We call for:
- the immediate
removal of all children and their families from mandatory detention
- a judicial inquiry
into the conditions and treatment of asylum seekers held in detention
camps inside and outside Australia
- a change in present government policy towards asylum seekers and a return to the normal non-discriminatory welcoming policies adopted by past Australian governments.
Signatories:
Australian Human Rights Medallists
- 1987 - Rose Colless
- 1988 - Reverend Dorothy McRae-McMahon
- 1989 - Reverend Robert Ridley
- 1992 - Father David Passi and James Rice.
- 1993 - Barbara Hocking
- 1994 - Dr Robert Sykes
- 1995 - The Hon. Elizabeth Evatt AC
- 1996 - Rebecca Peters
- 1997 - Dr Faith Bandler AM
- 1998 - Vivi Germanos - Koutsounadis
- 1999 - Helen Bayes
- 2000 - The Rt Hon Malcolm
Fraser
