An Asylum Seeker is a person who has fled from their country because they are afraid of being persecuted due to their race, religion, nationality, or political beliefs (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014).
Mandatory detention in Australia was introduced in 1992, by the Keating government to control the unauthorised refugees arriving in Australia by boats (Department of Parliamentary Services, 2013, p. 1). The policy allowed authorities to detain all unauthorised non-citizens, including children, until they have satisfactorily completed health, character and security checks and been granted a visa (Department of Parliamentary Services, 2013, pp. 5-6).
The Australian Migration Act was amended in 2005 to ensure that children should only
164) states that refugees can only enter Australia if they are selected and given permission by the Australian government. He identifies that every law and policy passed in regards to asylum seekers after 1996 was to strengthen this idea (Jupp, 2003, p. 164). Jupp (2003, pp. 164-165) argues that the best an asylum seeker can hope for is to be considered a refugee and be offered temporary protection as Australia expects all refugees to be able to return home when there is less conflict. In 2002, East Timor became independent and Timorese refugees were sent back because there homeland was deemed safe (Jupp, 2003, p.
104). Within that period 20 children, 17 years or under, attempted self harming mainly through hunger strikes 104. Six of these cases of hunger strikes were attempted by children under the age of 5 (Dudley, 2003, p. 104). Families in detention centres were found to have at least one psychological disorder for each family member 104. 80% of children and 86% of adults had more than one psychological diagnosis (Dudley, 2003, p. 104). In contrast, the LIFE and NYSPS programs built resilience and addressed stigma surrounding the issue while the stance taken in detention centres is to treat it as manipulative behaviour (Dudley, 2003, p.
The number of people that are detained within immigration detention in Australia changes constantly. As of 30th of November 2015, there were 1,852 people held in immigration detention facilities and 585 in community detention. 174 children were being detained in closed immigration detention facilities: 104 were being held in closed immigration detention facilities within Australia and 70 children were detained in the Regional Centre in Nauru. However, there was also 331 children in community detention in Australia. That’s over 400 children being held in detention centres. Australia’s refugee policy has no set time limit to how long a person may be held in immigration detention. The period of time in which an individual spends in detention may vary from a few
One of Australia’s biggest moral wrongdoings that has been continued to be overlooked is the providing of safety for refugees. Under the article 14, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. It is not in anyway, shape or form illegal to seek asylum from maltreatment. Australia is obliged under international law to: offer protection, give support, ensure that any individual is not sent back unwillingly to the country of their origin. A report made by
Phillips, J. (2011), ‘Asylum seekers and refugees: What are the facts?’, Background note, Parliamentry library, Canberra.
Controversy has surrounded Australia’s boat arrivals since 2001, when the Howard government took office. Howard instituted Operation Relex, a policy directing the Royal Australian Navy to intercept and board suspected illegal entry vessels, or SIEV’s (Turning Back Boats). Initially widely accepted, this policy was designed to discourage people from arriving illegally by boat. However, turning back small, overcrowded boats, and returning them just inside Indonesian waters, quickly became a safety issue (Turning Back Boats). According to the “Senate Select Committee’s Inquiry into a Certain Maritime Incident,” of the 12 boats intercepted from September 2002 to March 2003, four were turned back and three sank, killing two people (Turning Back Boats). Although Australia has a right to protect its borders from illegal aliens, over 90% of these asylum-seekers qualify as refugees (Turning Back Boats). Such a low success rate is reason enough to end the hazardous practice, but even more concerning are the detention centers where the remaining 10% are held. In 2001, the Howard government passed the Pacific Solution, authorizing the transport of asylum-seekers to island nations and offshore detention centers (Turning Back Boats). Since then, countless human rights violations have occurred at the Christmas Island, Manus Island, and Nauru detention centers (Murray). The asylum-seekers, some children, are often detained in poor conditions for indefinite periods of time, subjected to enhanced screenings, and refused legal representation or the right to appeal (Australia). After Howard left office in 2006 the refugee policies stopped, and the Australian government worked to heal the damage done to the islanders and its international reputation (Turning Back Boats). However, under PM Tony Abbott, the asylum seeker policies returned in 2014 through Operation Sovereign
Liberty is a fundamental human right, recognized in major human rights instruments to which Australia is a party. People who are held in detention are particularly vulnerable to violations of their human rights.
In 2005 the Migration Amendment Act was introduced which relates to the notion that children must only be put in detention centres as a matter of last resort to ensure the safety of children as there had been many concerns from the Members of parliament. This new policy has given the opportunity for many children and their families to be released into community detention centres whereby there is higher security to ensure their protection. However, in Australia there had still been a substantial amount of children that had still been held in detention centres and often for lengthy periods. Although the Australian Government had attempted to comply with the new policy by gradually allowing children and their families to be released into the community detention centre, the Refugee Council of Australia continues to be concerned with the security and protection of children during the process whereby they determine the status of refugees, while in detention but also in the community.
Bhabha, J., & Young, W. (1998) Through A Child's Eyes: Protecting the Most Vulnerable Asylum Seekers. Interpreter Releases 75 (21), pp. 757-791.
The juvenile justice system faces a significant challenge in identifying and responding to the psychiatric disorders of detained youth because research has shown that it is difficult to define the best means to use and enhance the scarce mental health resources (Kessler & Kraus, 2007). According to Cocozza and Skowyra (2000) “Children’s and adolescents’ mental health needs have historically been addressed inadequately in policy, practice, and research and have only the number of youth with mental illness and their level of unmet needs recognized” (p 4). Furthermore, that the juvenile justice system has gone from treatment and rehabilitation to retribution and punishment, that the prevalence is higher for youths who are involved with the system have mental health disorders when compared to the general population. In this paper I will be discussing pathways of juvenile detentions, types of mentally ill juvenile offenders, working alliance, treatment/intervention options available, challenges of untreated mental illness, and research findings.
Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.
As a signatory to the UN 1951 refugee convention, we have already agreed, not to return asylum seekers or to detain them indefinitely. In 2001, the Tampa incident brought disrepute to us as we failed to take the right action. Another wave of backlash irrupted when Indonesian fishing vessel codenamed SEIV X sank in northern waters. The UN is highly critical on the practice of mandatory detention over long periods. As a law abiding nation, we need to keep our citizens well informed of our obligations under UN convention so that we can collectively meet our obligations in true spirit. Once Australians realise that we are providing over 200,000 migrant visas annually and the asylum seekers would occupy less than 2% of it and irrespective of the fears mongered by politicians, almost 93% of asylum seekers who arrived by boat in the have been recognized as “genuine” refugees by Australian authorities and the popular “country shoppers” or “economic migrant” stories do not represent the reality, it is not difficult to develop a national consensus on this ongoing, unavoidable issue in an overpopulated world with a massive imbalance in resource
An extraordinary 65.3 million Refugees have been displaced around the world. In 2015 Australia took 12,000 of them. But where are Australians placing these Refugees? Australia is deporting these Refugees to a third country, either on Manus or Nauru Island. These Islands have reports of inhumane and cruel treatment towards Refugees For those who aren’t fully aware of what Refugees are; they are people whom come to Australia illegally without the appropriate visas. They cannot obtain these visas because of the reasons they are fleeing their country … their Government. None the less it should be the Australian Government they fear. The concepts of refugees are kept hidden away from us by our own Government in reflection of their Governments own self-interest. This tragedy is classified as a modern day witch hunt.
...re have been many studies that have been conducted in the past before the 2000’s, however for this paper those studies were not useful due to the fact that the use of current evidence was the upmost importance. Another limitation to the topic of this paper is that, the studies only include males usually. There has been little information published related to juveniles and women who face administrative segregation or solitary confinement. The hopes of these changes will help reduce the amount of self-harm that is experienced in prisons and jails.
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
Asylum seekers flee their homes for various reasons and are scrutinized when applying for refuge. LADO examines potential refugees and their language use to measure their credibility. However, this does not take into account folk linguistic views as a determiner.
In this person is don't want himself protect by that country who fear, also don't want to return to that country. By the divide of UNHCR, there are four types of people, which they care: Asylum-Seeker, Stateless people, Internally Displaced People and Returnees. Asylum-Seeker refers to the person who is finding the international protection, not all the asylum-seeker final can be a refugee, but all the refugees begin is an asylum-seeker. Stateless people refer to who are not relating to any country and national. Internally displaced people refer to the people who are forced to leave their home because of the wars, or some human problem, and getting in to another country from the border.