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Notes for the address "Refugees in a Borderless World"

Delivered at the City of Darebin, 20 June 2003

The Situation Today

1. Refugees and asylum seekers are knocking on the doors of the rich and the powerful, but instead of being welcomed with open arms, they are more often than met with callousness, and at times with outright hostility.

2. We may be living in the era of globalisation - the era of the so-called 'borderless world', but when it comes to those fleeing persecution and unimaginable humanitarian disasters national borders suddenly resume renewed importance.

3. At the end of Word War II, when Western Europe was still struggling to cope with the many millions of uprooted people, the West quickly adapted the Geneva Convention on refugees, as a stick with which to beat Communist governments. It was precisely in this spirit that Australia received the tens of thousands of Vietnamese boat people. They were welcomed because they were fleeing 'communist' persecution.

4. However, by the beginning of the 1990s, the mood had changed. Communism, at least in Europe, had collapsed. With the end of the Cold War many intra-state conflicts erupted. In different parts of Asia and Latin America, but especially in Africa, economies collapsed, political institutions virtually ceased to function. Millions of refugees and internally displaced people were in desperate need of a new home. Rather than opening doors, Western governments were now intent on closing them. The Geneva Convention was now regarded as an embarrassment. Political leaders, in Australia and elsewhere, were now heard advocating changes to the Geneva Conventions definition of a refugee.

5. With legal resettlement in many Western countries now extremely limited, increasingly desperate asylum seekers turned to people smugglers. Many were unable to complete the journey, dying from lack of food and water, lack of medicines and hygiene, or simply the inability of ships to transport their human cargo across such long distances.

6. Countries like Australia routinely detained asylum seekers, housing them in the appalling conditions of remote detention centres like the one at Woomera.

7. In early 2002 the number of people 'of concern' to the UN High commissioner for Refugees, was just under 20 million - roughly one for every 300 persons on earth. Most of these people were concentrated in Asia (8.8 million), Africa (4.2 million) and Europe (4.9 million). The main countries from which they came were: Afghanistan, Burundi, Burundi, Iraq, Sudan, Angola, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Vietnam and Eritrea. To these figures must be added an estimated 3.9 million Palestinians who are covered by a separate UN mandate.

8. Of the Western countries that contributed to the resettlement of refugees in 2001, the United states accepted 68,400, Canada 12,200 and Australia 6,500. However, these figures do not tell the true story By far the heaviest refugee burden was carried by the developing countries. The main host countries were as follows:

In many of these countries refugees live in makeshift huts inside sprawling camps, their children always hungry, with not enough medicine or soap

A Few Suggestions for the Way Ahead

(based in part on work done by the University of New South Wales Centre for Refugee Research)

1. According to the 1951 Geneva Convention, a refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social groups, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." Under this Convention, Australia is legally obliged to provide asylum to genuine refugees.

Any move to weaken the Convention or dilute the definition of 'refugee' must be firmly resisted.

2. Australia's policy of mandatory detention directly contravenes Australia's commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention of the Rights of the Child (signed and ratified by Australia).

3. Seeking asylum in another country is not 'queue jumping'; it is not illegal; it is a fundamental human right.

4. The vast majority of asylum seekers are genuine refugee, fleeing intolerable conditions at home.

5. Most asylum seekers have been traumatised by persecution, imprisonment, torture and war. Many have suffered the trauma of seeing with their own eyes the killing or maiming of their loved ones. Their detention for long periods of time in sub-human conditions can only exacerbate the trauma they have experienced and may give rise to serious long-term mental illnesses. Mandatory detention must be abolished.

6. The treatment of the children of asylum seekers in Australia is especially scandalous and must be changed as a matter of urgency.

7. It is time for Australia to substantially increase its intake of refugees, to something at least twice the current intake.

8. Australia must fulfil all its international legal obligations, and in particular the obligation to protect the human rights of asylum seekers. The treatment of refugees and asylum seekers must become fully transparent and publicly accountable.

9. All political parties must be required to state with much greater clarity than ever before their full adherence to the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, 1951 Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Legislation must be enacted to ensure that these international agreements are supported by the full force of Australian law.

10. Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers must at all times ensure that these people have adequate access as a matter of right to:

• employment
• English language skills
• appropriate settlement services
• appropriate mental and physical health care
• access to education
• access to affordable and secure housing
• reunification with immediate family members
• opportunities to become fully functioning members of the community.

11. All relevant government departments should establish a specialised section to assist refugees and asylum seekers, and receive the necessary training to ensure that the people they are meant to serve are treated with humanity and cultural sensitivity.

12. All refugees and asylum seekers who have suffered torture and trauma must be provided with extensive counselling and other necessary support services.

13. Where important tasks and services are devolved to community organisations, these must be supported by appropriate levels of public funding and adequate training and supervision.

The Australian Government has in recent years made great play of its commitment to free trade and globalisation more generally. It must now be made to realised that the policy of double standards will no longer be tolerated. It cannot with one voice preach the virtues of free trade, financial deregulation and a market-driven approach to the environment, and with another voice sing the praises of border protection.

The time has come to uphold the simple but far-reaching principle that this land of migrants has a responsibility to welcome the stranger in need.

Refugee Day is a timely reminder to all Australians that multiculturalism is ultimately meaningless unless it helps us to deepen and celebrate the diversity that has become an integral part of our heritage.

Joseph A. Camilleri