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15 myths and facts about refugees

By James Harper - posted Monday, 15 October 2001


1. Australia is being "invaded" or "flooded" by refugees.

In 2001, Australia will admit up to 12 000 refugees. That official quota has been static for three years, despite the increasing refugee numbers worldwide, and Australia has, in fact, admitted fewer than 12 000 each year in that time. This number combines the numbers of offshore and onshore arrivals.

In the early 1980s, Australia accepted 20 000 refugees per year.

According to Amnesty International, one in every 115 people on earth is a refugee, and a new refugee is created every 21 seconds. Eighty per cent are women and children.

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In 2000, 300 000 refugees sought asylum in Europe. Just over 4000 reached Australia by boat or plane.

The heaviest burden of assisting refugees is borne by poor nations.

  • There are nearly four million Afghans in refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran.
  • Tanzania is hosting 680 000 refugees, Yugoslavia 484 000, Guinea 433 139 and Sudan 401 000.
  • Of industrialised nations, only Germany (906 000) and the United States (507 290) play host to large numbers.
  • Tanzania hosts one refugee for every 76 Tanzanian people (1:76)
  • Britain hosts one refugee for every 530 British people. (1:530)
  • Australia hosts one refugee for every 1583 Australian people. (1:1583)

(Source: Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education)

2. Asylum seekers who arrive without prior authorisation are "illegal".

Under International law anyone is entitled to apply for refugee asylum if they are escaping persecution, and Australia, as a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention Regarding the Status of Refugees, has an obligation to consider their claim.

"A person is entitled. . . to make an application for refugee asylum in a country when they allege that they are escaping persecution or would be persecuted if they returned. That is simply the law."

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(Former Chief Justice Marcus Einfeld)

The Commonwealth recently passed legislation that amends the Migration Act and Border Protection Act, allowing it to refuse to fulfil its obligations to people who make requests for asylum in some Australian territory.

Thus the Federal Government has excised Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands and Ashmore Reef from Australia’s Immigration Zone — reducing the territory within which we may be obliged to respond to pleas for aid.

3. Indonesia should accept Muslim refugees.

Indonesia is racked by internal strife and economic instability. It already has a million internally displaced people.

The Refugee Review Tribunal has repeatedly stated that asylum seekers should not be sent to Indonesia, as Indonesia is likely to send them back to their home country regardless of the danger they may face there.

(Indonesia has not signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or related Protocol which obliges signatories to consider claims for asylum.)

Wealthy, stable countries can, and should, shoulder more of the burden. Norway has a population of 4.5 million, a quarter that of Australia, but granted asylum to 10 000 refugees last year.

4. People who arrive unauthorised are not "genuine" refugees

On average, 84 per cent of people arriving in Australia unofficially, by boat, are found to be legitimate refugees. In 1999, 97 per cent of applicants from Iraq without valid visas, and 93 per cent of those from Afghanistan, were found to be genuine refugees.

(Source: Department of Immigration & Multicultural Affairs)

The Australian Government’s approach seems premised on the view that only those who apply for asylum offshore, under its Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program should be considered more truly "deserving" than those who arrive unauthorised — a totally unrealistic approach, considering the dangers and bureaucratic hurdles that most asylum seekers face.

5. Refugees will create unemployment and "steal" Australians’ entitlements.

Refugees may require initial settlement support, and are entitled to such support under the UN Refugee Convention. Like migrants, refugees create demand for goods and services, stimulating the economy and generating growth and employment. Many are well educated, bringing skills that may be in short supply.

6. Boat people are "queue jumpers", stealing the places of "genuine" refugees waiting patiently in camps.

Many boat people have come from the refugee camps. There are more than 1.2 million Afghans people in refugee camps in Pakistan, and about 1.3 million in camps in Iran.

Refugees in the camps often find they have to pay large bribes to processing officials, to have their claims assessed.

In many of the countries generating high numbers of refugees, including Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no Australian diplomatic presence and no "queue" for would-be emigrants to join. Even to express a desire or intention to leave can be dangerous.

7. Boat people are rich because they can afford to pay people smugglers

A truly well-off person can afford other methods of getting to Australia than by making a perilous sea journey in an unreliable craft.

Families in strife-torn areas may sell everything they have to buy a passage out from smugglers.

Many families end up with large debts to the smugglers. A study by the French agency Medecins Sans Frontieres in refugee camps on the Iranian border found that nearly all families were in debt, with members held hostage by smugglers until the debt was paid. (Source: SMH September 14, 2001)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that payments made to people smugglers range from $4000 to $5000 AUD.

8. The atrocity in New York shows that Australia must stop allowing people from Afghanistan to enter the country "holus bolus".

"Do we in Australia need or want residents or citizens who are part of a religion glorifying or supporting acts like the World Trade Centre?"

Contributors to Margo Kingston’s Webdiary, 14 & 18 September

This distortion of logic and fact that has rapidly become prevalent since the attack on the World Trade Centre and other American targets.

Australia does not allow, and has never allowed, "holus bolus" entry of Afghans or anyone else, as the preceding points amply demonstrate. Nor have any of those who speak on behalf of refugees advocated any such policy.

Most are found to be genuine refugees.

The fact that the recent terrorist attacks may have been committed by people with connections to the Taliban has no relevance to whether or not Australia should admit Afghans.

9. Refugees are too "culturally different" to fit in with the Australian way of life.

This accusation has been labelled at just about every minority immigrant group for the last 150 years, starting with the Chinese during the Gold Rush. It has been claimed of the Catholic Irish, Jews, Greeks, Italians and Vietnamese.

All of those groups have settled successfully in Australia. The process has not always been smooth or easy, but compared with the strife and hatred elsewhere, Australian multiculturalism is a demonstrable success.

At present the emphasis is on Muslims and their "religious fanaticism".

Muslims are not typically "fanatical". They live according to many different interpretations of their faith, which has, historically, had easily as much, or more, concern with justice, tolerance and humane conduct as Western religious and philosophical traditions.

Afghan people, as it happens, have had a presence in Australia for over a century, and played an important role in the opening up of trade routes through some of the country’s most inhospitable areas.

11. It is not safe to let asylum seekers into the community

Many fear that if asylum seekers are allowed to stay in the community they will commit crimes, spread disease and disappear from view without being cleared by the authorities.

Those concerns are expressed around the world, however Australia is the only Western country that mandatorily detains asylum seekers while their claims are being heard.

Article 31 of the UN Refugee Convention, entitled Refugees unlawfully in the country of refuge, specifies that states contracting to the Refugee Convention "shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened … enter or are present on their territory without authorisation. . . "

Countries that do not have mandatory detention have not seen crime waves, the spread of disease or other social problems, indeed in some countries the rules are becoming more humane.

12. Australia is a "soft touch" because of its "generosity" to refugees

Life in Australia for many refugees is hard even after their status has been officially endorsed.

People arriving without authorisation, who are detained and subsequently found to be refugees, are given a Temporary Protection Visa (TPV). That entitles them to very limited support, and the right to apply for permanent residency after 30 months.

They are ineligible for all federally funded employment programs, English language tuition and for the settlement services provided to offshore entrants, such as assistance with orientation, accommodation etc.

People who arrive in Australia with a valid visa and apply for asylum are refugee claimants.

If refugee claimants lodge an application for protection more than 45 days after arriving they are ineligible for Medicare or social security, or to work. Their children are not allowed to attend school. The same conditions apply once their applications enter the review stage.

13. Refugee detention centres are like holiday camps

During 2000–2001, 8401 people were held in six immigration detention facilities in Australia, the largest number (1288) in Woomera, a remote region of South Australia.

The facilities resemble medium security prisons. Length of imprisonment varies from person to person. Over half are detained for longer than three months, while some remain in detention for as long as six years. It is not unusual for people to be detained for longer than a year.

Refugees often exhibit chronic and acute health problems, originating in experiences of torture and trauma, or years in refugee camps. Emerging medical evidence shows that the experience of being in an Australian detention centre often exacerbates such problems.

Denial of English language tuition and employment assistance are major barriers to TPV entrants’ participation in society.

". . . I prefer to go back and be killed. … You die and suffer for one day and it’s all over. Every single day here I feel I am dying gradually."

Asylum seeker, who remains in detention after two years.

14. Refugees cost too much

Mandatory detention is the most expensive way of dealing with asylum seekers. The high security and remote locations of the centres adds considerably to the cost.

There is potential for large savings if asylum seekers were allowed to live in the community while awaiting their hearing.

At $104.00 a day per head, detention is very expensive. Community-based alternatives to mandatory detention can be found internationally and within the current Australian parole system.

A select committee of the NSW Parliament has costed alternatives to incarceration including home detention and transitional housing. The average cost of community-based programs are (per person, per day): Parole: $5.39. Probation: $3.94. Home Detention: $58.83. These options are clearly more economically efficient, and much more humane.

"With regard to the desire of people from the poorer nations breaking the ‘rules’ in coming to Australia, why not change the rules to our medium-term advantage? Wouldn’t it be a positive and sustainable use of our immigration and security resources to facilitate a greater number of arrivals, and use the millions of dollars currently being spent delaying or resisting their arrival by assisting their eventual contribution to our country?

Mark Kelly, Margot Kingston’s Webdiary SMH 10/09/2001

15. Australia has to get tough with people smugglers

The people smugglers are not listening. They have been paid, and the fate of those on the boats is of no interest to them as long as they can fill the next boat. The smugglers will not be discouraged by measures that make life even more difficult for their victims.

Prohibition failed to stop people drinking alcohol, it is failing in the "drug war" (as many former proponents now admit). Why should it succeed with people smuggling as long as conditions persist that produce refugees? Improving those conditions is a massive worldwide problem. Australia will not contribute to any solution by becoming isolationist and throwing up (mainly for show) barriers.

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This is an extract from a fact sheet complied for the Multicultural Development Association by Brisbane City Council in September 2001. An updated version of full paper can be downloaded here (pdf, 100kb).



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About the Author

James Harper is a researcher for the Brisbane City Council.

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