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The Forum > Article Comments > Where to for immigration detention? > Comments

Where to for immigration detention? : Comments

By Anna Saulwick, published 7/8/2008

After many years, mandatory detention, a policy that offered only despair to those who sought our help has been overturned.

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Anna Saulwick's article demonstrates that the old shameful order of mandatory detention in hell-holes is almost over. The proposed new values-driven policy is to be applauded for its return to national honour and dignified treatment of people in desperate straits.

Anna's throwaway line that the policy shift "tries to come to terms with a humane solution to a political problem. Or a political solution to a human problem" is worthy of more discussion than a mere play on words. You could argue that it doesn't really matter why a policy shift is introduced - the important thing is that things will be much better than they were.

For my part, I hope the motivation is a humanitarian one and not a political one because if it's the first it represents a real shift in the way politicians view people. The Howard/Ruddock/Andrews view was cynical and immoral - people were demonised and ill-treated because that won more votes than it lost. They didn't give a stuff about the documented harm that was done to asylum seekers, including and especially children.

I agree with Anna that "the scheme outlined by the Minister is far from perfect". For example, the legal fiction excising Australian territory from the migration zone is unjustifiable and should have been scrapped. Unauthorised arrivals have been shown to have a higher chance of being genuine refugees than those who arrive with a valid visa. Yet those who flee without valid documents will continue to be worst treated.

The reforms are welcome but do not yet go far enough to allow us as a nation to hold our heads up with a fully restored international reputation.
Posted by Spikey, Thursday, 7 August 2008 11:17:00 AM
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I agree with the humanitarian tone of the article and Spikey's post.

However, it should also be noted that problems also exist when refugees are let into Australia. Some Iraqis who recently came here have been reported as saying that the promises they were given by the authorities were not met and that they now have a harder and more uncomfortable life and are struggling to make ends meet.

So, getting rid of mandatory detention may, in some cases and to some degree, be getting rid of a cultural quarantine station in which people can slowly get accustomed to Australians and the way they think without being thrown headlong into the hurly-burly of Australian life. As more of these problems come to light, it may also dawn on society in general that there are cultural limits to the assimilation of migrants into Australian society. The follow-up question then is how to solve that problem. Obviously, the only one is to improve conditions in other countries so that people do not feel the need to flee in the first place. But, I imagine we are some way off finding a solution to that one.
Posted by RobP, Thursday, 7 August 2008 1:50:04 PM
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The changes to mandatory detention are politically expedient.

Labor introduced MD in the 1990s and if the boats start coming in large numbers again or failed asylum seekers abscond in significant numbers (as happens in other western countries) it will be re-toughened.

The global trend is towards a crackdown on asylum seekers.
Posted by grn, Thursday, 7 August 2008 2:28:28 PM
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RobP,

It's a strange argument that you use: 'Some Iraqis' haven't found things to be as expected. So we'll lock up all new arrivals in detention centres (but we'll call them 'cultural quarantine stations' - that sounds nicer). We'll keep them out of the 'hurly-burly of Australian life' so that they 'can slowly get accustomed to Australians and the way they think'.

Please tell me how Australians think.

When you've done that, please tell me how locking up newcomers out of society (it will be Christmas Island now) enable them to get accustomed to how we think?

Your cultural (racial?) determinism does you no credit. 'As more of these problems [what problems are they exactly?] come to light, it may also dawn on society in general that there are cultural limits to the assimilation of migrants into Australian society.

Australia - except for Indigenous people - are all immigrants or the offspring of immigrants. So you must have a particular sub-set of people in mind?

Your solution, the 'only one' - to improve conditions in other countries so that people do not feel the need to flee in the first place - defies world history.

grn

The changes to mandatory detention may be 'politically expedient' but are they morally right?
Posted by Spikey, Thursday, 7 August 2008 3:23:13 PM
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<<... a cultural quarantine station in which people can slowly get accustomed to Australians and the way they think without being thrown headlong into the hurly-burly of Australian life.>>

But detention centres never operated like this. What you are suggesting would need yet another new system. A good halfway house, with appropriate support, and with connections to the refugees own ethnic group, can better achieve a gradual introduction into Australian life.

<<Unauthorised arrivals have been shown to have a higher chance of being genuine refugees than those who arrive with a valid visa. Yet those who flee without valid documents will continue to be worst treated.>>

Well said Spikey. Many people fail to realise that almost all of the boat arrivals were genuine refugees.
Posted by Veronika, Thursday, 7 August 2008 4:07:49 PM
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Australia’s mandatory detention policy was never shameful. It was absolutely necessary.

Mandatory detention in this country evolved from open asylum-seeker centres from which people absconded, to closed centres which they were required to stay but still absconded, to high-walls and razor wire.

We tried the gentle friendly approach. It failed.

It was also absolutely necessary that the deterrence factor be very strong, in the face of a massive build-up of intending arrivals in August 2001 at the time of the Tampa incident which indicated that the policy before that time was not working!

However, those whose documentation was in order and whose claims could easily be determined didn’t stay long in these centres.

Now that onshore asylum seekers have stopped coming, many would argue that it is time to relax the whole business a bit, just as long as it doesn’t lead to another lot of boats heading our way.

It could do, as people will quickly realise that if their documentation is in order, they don’t have criminal record and they are healthy, they will not be detained for long at all.

It would only take a small number of arrivals to flare this whole issue right up again. We don’t need that.

I would argue that it would have been better to have left the policy as it was and not risk it.

I wouldn’t have minded if all those still in detention at this point in time were given amnesty and just accepted as Australian citizens and a lid was put on the whole saga.

We should uphold the strongest border protection policy…..and put our efforts into refugee and humanitarian issues entirely through our offshore programs.
Posted by Ludwig, Thursday, 7 August 2008 4:22:17 PM
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