Changes urged to asylum seeker policy

Sydney
9 June 2002

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Changes urged to asylum seeker policy

The Norwegian vessel Tampa, which rescued asylum seekers from an indonesian smugglers’ boat, is shadowed by an Australian military craft off Christmas Island

By Kathleen Carmody

Unauthorised asylum seekers should be detained for only a limited time for the purposes of identity, health and security checks, and case workers appointed to provide information, referral and welfare support, according to Justice for Asylum Seekers.

This alliance of 25 Church and welfare organisations – including the Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and Peace, Melbourne – makes the recommendations in a submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry into children in immigration detention.

“We want to get out of the trench warfare that has characterised the situation with asylum seekers,” says the executive officer of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission, Marc Purcell

Justice for Asylum Seekers “has put some deep thought into modifying policy and practices with detention centres so that we can better manage people coming to Australia without visas who are seeking asylum, while at the same time improving the humane treatment of people and vulnerable groups such as children”, he said.

The key feature of the alliance’s submission is a new model for processing boat arrivals – the Reception Transition and Processing System.

The impetus for the system, the alliance says, is the need to address difficulties and inconsistencies in detention and community approaches to asylum seekers.

The processing system draws upon a number of alternative models, including the Refugee Council of Australia and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Alternative Detention Model and the Parole/Home Detention System, as well as experiences in New Zealand, Sweden, the US and Britain.

Recommendations are also drawn from Amnesty, the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes (NSW), the Refugee Immigration Legal Centre and others.

Justice for Asylum Seekers recommends that detention should be used for a limited time for identity, health and security checks on arrival.

Exceptions could include those deemed to be high security risks, but even they should be eligible for set periods of judicial or administrative review.

Detention should be replaced by monitored release into community hostels or cluster accommodation.

Children and their primary carers should be released from detention as soon as possible. Unaccompanied minors, families, single women and pyschologically vulnerable people should be received into community care with Government support and compliance requirements.

The alliance calls for a case worker system whereby an independent service provider, e.g. the Australian Red Cross, could provide information, referral and welfare support to services to people claiming asylum from the time of their arrival to the point of repatriation or settlement in the community.

An independent case worker “improves their welfare, reduces incidents such as hunger strikes and people injuring themselves, and assists in repatriating them if they’re unsuccessful in their claims,” Mr Purcell said. Other recommendations include an assessment panel to oversee conditions of detention and community release and a specialist service provider – such as the International Organisation of Migration – to manage the return of people whose claims are unsuccessful.