Asylum Seekers In Australia Essay

Australia is a democratic country. A principal drawback of a modern democracy is that it often tends to overlook the interests of those least empowered. Among those most harshly dealt with in Australia are the poor, the marginalised and the asylum seeker. Asylum seekers and refugees count among those who remain ‘othered’ by Australian society and continue to suffer through an inability to exercise their rights and an existence that is dehumanised. This essay describes the human impact of Australia’s immigration policy and tells the powerful story of a voiceless girl. In doing so it highlights the general invisibility of asylum seekers in the eyes of the law and the desperate situations they face. What is at stake here is not just the persecution

of the refugee; it is the social foundation of a country that purports to embrace human dignity, autonomy, decency and self-respect. Human rights are rights which is believed to belong to every person. However, the way we allow our institutions to treat citizens and non-citizens reflects on the quality of our society. To this end, it makes a mockery of the dignity of the men, women and children who risk their lives in leaky vessels to find freedom in what is claimed to be a just and decent society. Although Australia is effective in achieving justice for its citizen, the majority of minority group such as refuges who are considered to be “illegal” are left behind. Therefore, the quote below, cannot accurately sum up the situation of Australia in regards to equality and human right:
“Australia is a domestic society based on the rule of law that recognises the principle of justice before law”.
The rule of law requires that all people, including the government, are subject to the law, and that independent judges are the arbiters of law. In principle, the combination of democracy and the rule of law should achieve justice for all. In practice, it is different. The difference is largely felt by individuals or groups who are powerless or unpopular. Injustices generally stem from one of two sources: firstly, bad laws that operate harshly against minorities but have the support of the majority who vote and whose interests are not harmed by those laws, and secondly, it is often the case that powerless minorities do not have the practical ability to defend the rights given to them by law. This will mean that refugees for example, will have not be protected by the law itself and their voice will not be heard.
Asylum seekers who arrive in Australia without prior permission are immediately detained.

By force of the Migration Act 1958 they must remain in detention until they are given a visa or are removed from Australia. The government and the media refer to them as ‘illegals’, but the fact is that to come to Australia without authority and seek asylum is not an offence against Australian law. To the contrary, Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees to every human being the right to 2 Migration Act 1958. Those who come to Australia trying to exercise that right are locked up in desert camps or, under the Pacific Solution, in remote islands. As an example, an Iranian asylum seeker Mojgan Shamsaliipoor, had been finishing her high school education in Yoronga State High School on release from the Brisbane Immigration Accommodation centre. She was giving hope and a change to start a new life outside the immigration accommodation. However, about 2 or 3 months ago, she was forcibly transferred to a Darwin detention centre, even without a change to say goodbye to her husband. Mojgan is one of the many asylum seekers who have fought that Australia will be their dream place, however were again mistreated. This clearly demonstrates that Australia recognises the law before the principle of equality and

freedom.
Concentrated on our treatment of refugees in this essay, the fact is our treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Peoples, the homeless, the disabled and others whose existence is politically meaningless or socially invisible is far worse than it could be. The majority, whose views carry the most weight in Australia today, are unaffected and therefore unconcerned by these issues. But we need to understand this: although human rights abuses in Australia are generally confined to the “margins, they nevertheless exist. And they are unjustifiable because we are rich and relatively enlightened. We can treat Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Peoples, boatpeople, the homeless, the disabled and others much better than we do. Until we do better, these denials of human rights weaken all of us.