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Essay on refugee and human rights
Essay on rights of refugees
Asylum seekers case study
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Currently, in Australia, we face the social issue of having communities in which some members have difficulty in reacting compassionately to the claims of refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees and asylum seekers are arriving in Australia and not being let the freedom to live here, which shows how Australians are losing the courage to care. Our Australian government officially classifies refugees and asylum seekers as ‘unlawful non-citizens’ who have to go into mandatory detention as soon as they cross the borders into Australia. We are the only country in the world to have a policy of mandatory detention and offshore processing. How can this happen if one-quarter of Australians are born overseas and four million Australians speak a language …show more content…
There is ideology surrounding refugees and asylum seekers which perceive them to be ‘illegal boat people’. In fact, they are not, because these are people who have fled their countries with or without a visa because they are no longer safe in their home countries. There are root causes that link back the dark days of Australian history when we invaded the Aboriginal land and did not pay them any respect. Sadly, the rescuers who are the people standing up for the 800,000 refugees who have arrived in Australia since 1945, are running out of puff because of the government and their policies. The perpetrators (our Australian government as well as the government in the countries the refugees and asylum seekers fled from) do not help out these victims in their time of …show more content…
The government policy is that ‘’asylum seekers who arrive on the mainland without a valid visa must be held in migration or community detention, or transferred to an off-shore processing facility.’’ – roads to refuge, ‘who is government’. The law is very negative by not letting these people have a say or even a chance to a better life. If we are taught by our government to not approve of refugees and asylum seekers than we will do so because we are scared to speak up and we are fearful. The church also heavily supports Australians getting involved and speaking out from the Ear of their Heart to make a change. The current strategies help refugees and asylum seekers once they are allowed into Australia but the policies are still wrong and in just because not all of them make it into Australia. ‘’ When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’’ - Leviticus 19:33-34. Through the church, we have learnt to treat everyone like our brothers and sisters based on the Catholic Social teachings. Human Dignity is very important for our society because if we are all made in the image of God then we should all be treated
I, along with many other people believe that as a human we deserve Human Rights, regardless of who we are of what our background is, where we live, what we look like, what we think or what we believe in. However this is not the case. In Australia we are believed to be a multicultural community and a diverse society. Nevertheless the way Asylum Seeker and Refugees are being treated is
Australia is now facing allegations from the Human Rights Council that it has detained children and sent back refugees, in breach of international law.
Throughout the world, in history and in present day, injustice has affected all of us. Whether it is racial, sexist, discriminatory, being left disadvantaged or worse, injustice surrounds us. Australia is a country that has been plagued by injustice since the day our British ancestors first set foot on Australian soil and claimed the land as theirs. We’ve killed off many of the Indigenous Aboriginal people, and also took Aboriginal children away from their families; this is known as the stolen generation. On the day Australia became a federation in 1901, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, created the White Australia Policy. This only let people of white skin colour migrate to the country. Even though Australia was the first country to let women vote, women didn’t stand in Parliament until 1943 as many of us didn’t support female candidates, this was 40 years after they passed the law in Australian Parliament for women to stand in elections. After the events of World War Two, we have made an effort to make a stop to these issues here in Australia.
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.
In doing so, we are also blocking out people who have the potential to bring even more cultural diversity into the community. If we honestly believe that we are a generous and multicultural nation, it’s time we show it by empathising with our fellow human beings. In order to improve the conditions in detention centres there must be a change to our unnecessarily harsh system. We need rules to be enforced, such as; a maximum 30 day time limit, and the people that are detained must be let out within this time frame. Within this time, health, character and identity checks must be completed. Shutting down isolating and remote detention centres. Speeding up the processing system. Asylum seekers must be given the opportunity to communicate with the outside world and have full access to legal advice and counselling. This means that telephones, internet and external activities need to be an option. Unaccompanied minors also need to be a priority. It is time that Australia treats our neighbours with all the dignity and respect that they finally
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
Though Australia is perceived as a democratic country whose government is open to public scrutiny, this belief is erroneous. The Australian Government’s apathy towards asylum seekers is neglectful of the fundamental human right to liberty and a sense of safety. Australia will need to overturn these inhumane laws to move forward as a country. If you believe Australia is a country of equality and acceptance then you are deluding yourself.
The conditions of Australia’s immigration detention policies have also been cause for concern for probable contraventions of Articles 7 and 10 of the ICCPR. Whilst in Sweden, asylum seekers are afforded free housing whilst their applications are being processed, Australia’s methods are much more callous. Under the Pacific Solution, maritime asylum seekers are sent to impoverished tropical islands with no monitoring by human rights organisations allowed (Hyndman and Mountz, 2008). The UNHCR criticised Australia’s offshore processing centres stating that “significant overcrowding, cramped living quarters, unhygienic conditions, little privacy and harsh tropical climate contribute to the poor conditions of… Nauru and Papua New Guinea” (Morales
...meframes and being subjected to arbitrary detention. Even after coming to Canada, the refugees must suffer under the healthcare system and fight for necessary medications. Canada is not doing all it can to help those who are in most need. The mass majority of the population of Canada does not understand the current laws in place regarding the refugees. These unfair, unreasonable and morally unaccepting laws must change to better the society of Canada. It is a country internationally known to be a peacekeeper, a friend, and a nation of many nationalities; called a mosaic for its accepting culture and diversity. Therefore, this cruel, discriminatory and immoral way of treating the refugees of the world is a disgrace and dishonour for the nation of Canada. Canada must improve to live up to the expectations of other countries and keep the dignity and pride of the nation.
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.
Asylum seeker issue is a complex and continuing struggle between the heart and the head. It will continue to haunt us as long as Australia shines to be an oasis of space, peace and prosperity in a global sea of overcrowding and escalating suffering.
Immigration is an important feature of Australian society. Since 1945, over six million people from 200 countries have come to Australia as new settlers. Migrants have made a major contribution to shaping modern Australia. People born overseas make up almost one quarter of the total population. About its ethics distribution, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people totaled 410 003 at the last census, nearly 2.2 per cent of the population. Two thirds of the indigenous people live in towns and cities. Many others live in rural and remote areas, and some still have a broadly traditional way of life.(Ning)
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been the first nations, which represented the whole Australian population, for centuries. However, the continuous European colonization has severely affected these peoples and, over the decades, their unique values and cultures, which enriched the life of Australian nation and communities, were not respected and discriminated by numerous restrictive policies. As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have turned into the voiceless minority of the Australian population. Fortunately, in recent years, these issues became the concern of the Australian government, promoting a slight improvement in the well being of native Australians. Nowadays, there are numerous social work