Imagine living through a war or religious persecution. Your house has been burnt to rubble and you are terrified of going outside because you face the reality of being abducted, killed or raped. After fleeing your own country, you arrive at a dock. You give a stranger a large sum of money for you and your family to board a rickety fishing boat to safety. Australia.
This story as harsh as it may seem, is true. It is the story of Misbah, a 13 year-old Burmese girl. She was detained 3 years ago and has been living on Christmas Island ever since. Good Morning press, media and members of parliament. Misbah’s story revealed to me, an insight into the immense struggle of asylum seekers seeking refuge in Australia. People like Misbah are not terrorists; they are people like us who want to live in safety without fear of persecution. A safety that we so often take for granted. The Australian government must allow asylum seekers to enter our nation. As one the most multicultural countries in the world, we of all nations should be accepting and offering asylum seekers a chance to start a new life away from persecution or wars they are facing in their own countries. Conditions in Australian detention centres are unhygienic, unhealthy and unsafe, prolonged detention can have
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devastating impacts on the mental health of asylum seekers. Firstly, The Australian Government must allow asylum seekers to enter, resettle and rebuild their lives in our nation, free from the horrors of war and persecution.
Asylum seekers, who were deprived of their basic human rights arrive in our nations, seeking nothing more than freedom, safety and peace. Many flee persecution; for their religion, beliefs or race. Leaving their homeland and everything, they had ever known behind, they seek the safety of a new life in Australia. As Australians, we have a humanitarian and ethical responsibility to welcome these asylum seekers into Australia. A land free from persecution. These people seek a new life. A new beginning far from the atrocities of war. That is
all. Secondly, we need to stop the practice of mandatory detention to protect the mental wellbeing of asylum seekers, especially children. After fleeing terrible, war-torn countries, asylum seekers already arrive with deep psychological scars. They arrive with high hopes of a new life but instead are sent to our off-shore detention centres where they are imprisoned in horrible and unhygienic living environments. Like a prison, barbed wire fences surround the perimeter of these detention centres where innocent people are facing conditions worse than our prisons. A report by the Sydney Morning Herald states, of the 181 asylum seekers examined in PNG, 88 percent of these people were found to be suffering from a depressive or anxiety disorder and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. The full estimated cost of treating mental illnesses caused or worsened by prolonged detention is $25,000 per person. $25,000 of tax payers money wasted because we don’t treat asylum seekers like real people or with any dignity. Although some may argue that accepting asylum seekers into our country will cost the government and tax payers extra money that could rather be spent on Australians, but a study done by UNICEF in 2016 states that the average annual cost to accommodate 1 off shore detainee is $400,000. This equates to a staggering total of 9.6 billion dollars of taxpayer money wasted since 2013. By ending “open detention” on Nauru and Manus Island and resettling all asylum seekers by 2020, the government could save upwards of 2 billion dollars. To conclude, asylum seekers are plainly human, humans that deserve to be treated the same way as everyone else. This is why I urge you to think twice next time you make a comment about the “boat people”. As a nation, as humans we must step up, come together. Australia, we need to change our ways.
Watching the documentary “Go Back To Where You Came From” regarding the issues of Asylum Seekers and Refugees, I am disgusted about the way that Australia has been treating Asylum Seekers and Refugees. That is why I am writing you this letter to promote and voice my view on the treatment to refugees, the Stop the Boats Policy and ways to minimise this Issue.
Australia is now facing allegations from the Human Rights Council that it has detained children and sent back refugees, in breach of international law.
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.
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
The United States fails to protect its borders, while Australia sacrifices human rights in order to do so. Traditionally, first-world countries and their citizens assist those in less developed countries. Many of the island nations in the south pacific suffer from poverty and frequent natural disasters. Most would agree that, as the most developed country in the region, it is Australia’s responsibility to advocate for human rights and contribute to humanitarian efforts for the island nations. To its credit, Australia normally satisfies this role. However, when asylum-seekers come by boat, Australia draws a forceful line. The United States is also tasked with protecting its borders, but takes a more appropriate approach. In 2012, the PEW research
I ask you now to imagine such a life. It is impossible for us to imagine having to flee our homes and family simply because our beliefs or lifestyle are not deemed suitable. Furthermore, paying thousands of dollars to travel across treacherous oceans in shabby boats. The fact that asylum seekers are prepared to remain locked up in detention centres and be deprived of their freedom must surely tell us of the horrific circumstances from which they have fled. ******** PUT IN CLOSING PARAGRAPH.
Although, asylum seekers and refugees are given a few options if they feel as though their rights are being breached, like they can apply to tribunals and courts to view their visa related decisions, they can also make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission about their human rights being breached in immigration detention centres, yet they do not have control over who enters the country, the government is not obliged to comply with the recommendations that are made. Although the government has made few attempts to comply with the human rights obligations towards asylum seekers and refugees by introducing new policies and prioritising the safety of the children in these detention camps, there are currently still many breaches towards their rights that the government continues to adapt, therefore they are still constituting a breach of international law.
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
Many people in the UK coupled with media stories, tend to portray asylum seekers as bogus individuals who are here purely for economic gains (Teater 2014). This has led organisations such as Refugee councils and Refugee Action
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
Illegal immigrants (asylum seekers) face being put into detention centers (prisons). In these centers, immigrants face the same persecution as before. Those running from pain, need not to feel it anymore. These detention centers allow immigrants very few privileges, if any at all. In an article by Washington Times titled “ Illegal Immigrant Detention Centers Rife With Abuses, U.S. Civil Rights Commission report finds” it claims, “Some detention facilities---both government -run and private ones operating on contracts ---don 't provide good medical care, deny illegal immigrants the chance to try to get lawyers to help them with their cases, look the other way when rape or sexual abuse occurs”(Dinan). Rather than treating immigrants as prisoners, These immigrants need to be provided with adequate care. Providing immigrants with this kind of shelter, kindness, food, and other necessities will push the immigrants towards the next step, staying here, finding a job, and expanding the
a. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center has made an effort between the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security created the Human Smuggling and Trafficking center to centralize information.
Is there such thing as life outside of Earth? The building blocks of life are carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Those ingredients condense to form all living things, new stars and even new planets! So, who’s to say those ingredients didn’t form other life on other planets? Think about how vast outer space is. There are millions and millions of other planets, stars and galaxies! It’s not that far out there to think that there might be other life in space, in fact, some people even have stone hard evidence that supports the idea of “aliens”. I personally believe there is such thing as extraterrestrials, and I believe they have visited earth before. As a child, I remember my dad and I would sit around all afternoon watching alien documentaries or shows about people hunting aliens and searching for UFOs. When it comes to aliens people have so many questions; have aliens been to earth before? Are they currently living on earth? Are they controlling us? Does the government know? If so, are they hiding it from the public? There are so many questions you can ask but, in order to answer them, you have to
Our moral duty to Syrian refugees. National Post. N.p. 15 January 2014. Web.
This book draws on New Zealand’s unique approach to refugees in helping victims of war and conflicts by offering them a chance to start a new life. The author has extensively discussed the concern of refugees who are obliged to leave their homeland, escape war and persecution because of cultural or religion beliefs. In relation to social transformat...