If history is any guide, the new US president’s forward-thinking approach toward refugee resettlement could help drive Australia’s commitments to refugee protection, too.
In the Howard government, there was near-consensus in Cabinet that an ETS was eventually likely. A spike in asylum-seeker arrivals stimulated the hard “deterrent’ strategy” that would morph into the “Pacific Solution” in 2001.
New data shows self-harm incidents in immigration detention have spiked his year amid concerns over the pandemic. We must take steps to reduce asylum seekers’ vulnerability and prevent further harm.
As countries around the world develop their own private sponsorship systems, they should acknowledge how elusive refugee status can be. Policy-makers should proceed accordingly.
Denying protection to asylum seekers is neither sustainable nor defensible as long-term policy. Here are ways to make the screening process at airports more just when the borders do reopen.
It is almost impossible for asylum seekers held in detention to practise social distancing. For their protection, and that of the wider community, the government must take action now.
Television series Stateless examines our treatment of asylum seekers through ‘people like us’. It also highlights how far conditions for people transferred to offshore detention have deteriorated.