tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/boat-people-654/articlesBoat people – The Conversation2020-08-04T03:51:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1437432020-08-04T03:51:45Z2020-08-04T03:51:45ZClaims that Behrouz Boochani jumped the queue are a reminder of the dangers of anti-refugee politics<p>Perhaps predictably, last week’s announcement that Behrouz Boochani had been <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122166500/iranian-writer-behrouz-boochani-granted-refugee-status-in-nz">granted</a> refugee status in New Zealand quickly became election campaign fodder.</p>
<p>Both National Party leader Judith <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300067637/judith-collins-wont-say-if-she-has-evidence-for-boochani-queue-jumping-claim">Collins</a> and NZ First leader Winston Peters alluded to Boochani being a “queue-jumper” and the beneficiary of elite favouritism. </p>
<p>Originally from Iran, Boochani arrived in New Zealand last November after six years in a detention centre on Manus Island. Using a smuggled smartphone, he detailed his experience as a refugee in what became an <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/national-biography-award/2019-winner-no-friend-mountains">award-winning book</a>, No Friend but the Mountains. </p>
<p>His lawyer <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122166500/iranian-writer-behrouz-boochani-granted-refugee-status-in-nz">rejected</a> the queue-jumping label. He said neither the minister of immigration nor Immigration New Zealand had given direction to allow Boochani to enter New Zealand.</p>
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<p>Green MP Golriz Ghahraman <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/golriz-ghahraman-hits-out-at-judith-collins-for-race-baiting-over-behrouz-boochani-refugee-status.html">said</a> the comments of Peters and Collins were “race-baiting” and “dog-whistling” that would lead to New Zealand’s minority communities feeling “less safe”.</p>
<p>Peters called Ghahraman’s comments “disgraceful”, while Collins <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12351762">said</a> her party “will not be cowed into not asking legitimate questions about processes”.</p>
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<h2>Anti-refugee sentiment as an electoral strategy</h2>
<p>The campaign has moved on for now, but the exchange firmly placed Boochani within a history of using anti-refugee sentiment for electoral gain. The strategy was most successful during the Australian election in 2001 when John Howard turned the MV Tampa refugees and the “children overboard” <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-boat-that-changed-it-all-20110819-1j2o2.html">affair</a> into electoral victory.</p>
<p>The fact the 9/11 terror attacks occurred in the midst of that campaign reinforced the border security focus of Howard’s campaign and led to a conflation of Muslim refugees with Islamic terrorism.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/issues-that-swung-elections-tampa-and-the-national-security-election-of-2001-115143">Issues that swung elections: Tampa and the national security election of 2001</a>
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<p>The hot-button issues of refugees arriving by boat being a threat to border security, the queue-jumper claim and global terrorism were all parts of a deliberate attempt to sow fear and division in the electorate. </p>
<p>Its primary purpose was to draw attention away from negative coverage of other issues. Crafted by Howard’s campaign directors <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/feature-archive/510105/Nats-secret-advisers-accused-of-dirty-tricks-across-Tasman">Crosby Textor</a> (now known as CT Group), it became known as the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/20/lynton-crosby-and-dead-cat-won-election-conservatives-labour-intellectually-lazy">dead cat</a>” strategy. </p>
<p>According to a later Crosby Textor client, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “throwing a dead cat on the table” inevitably makes people focus on the cat – “and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief”.</p>
<p>This style of campaigning won plaudits for Crosby Textor (and a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lynton-crosby-knighted-zac-goldsmith-sadiq-khan-london-mayor-david-cameron-service-to-politics-a7016681.html">knighthood</a> for Lynton Crosby) and led to a high demand for their services in other parts of the world, including the UK, Canada and New Zealand. </p>
<p>Wherever they have worked, anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment or divisive culture wars have <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6192627/sir-lynton-crosby-and-the-dark-art-of-kingmaking/">characterised election campaigns</a>, with accusations of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tories-rehire-strategist-behind-racist-london-mayor-campaign">racism</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/opinion/with-anti-muslim-campaign-canada-has-its-trump-moment.html?_r=0">islamophobia</a> not uncommon. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/queue-jumping-the-hot-button-for-australian-thinking-about-asylum-seekers-4004">'Queue jumping' the hot button for Australian thinking about asylum seekers</a>
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<p>While anti-refugee politics has never packed the punch in New Zealand that it has in <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/polls-apart-how-australian-views-have-changed-on-boat-people">Australia</a>, former prime minister John Key occasionally <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5269049/Key-accused-of-scaremongering">referred</a> to the threat of a boat making it from Indonesia to these shores, and in 2012 he declared Sri Lankan asylum seekers were not welcome.</p>
<h2>The link to March 15</h2>
<p>The 2019 terror attack in Christchurch was so shocking in its scale and in the depth of hatred and racism it revealed that many hoped it would transform political conduct in New Zealand and internationally. </p>
<p>The fact the attacker was born and raised in Australia lent support to the claim that a toxic political culture built in large part around anti-refugee and anti-Islamic sentiment was at least partly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-refugees-newzealand-shooting/u-n-refugee-chief-warns-new-zealand-massacre-the-result-of-toxic-politics-media-idUSKCN1RL28S">responsible</a> for what happened.</p>
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<p>Many of the refugees who were rescued by the MV Tampa and became central to the Australian election in 2001 were later resettled in New Zealand. Tragically, many were personally affected by the March 15 attacks at the Al-Noor and Linwood mosques.</p>
<p>Boochani himself has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAT25ISGtpI&t=2264s">said</a> the attack had “roots in Manus and Nauru”. The Australian government and a compliant media, he argued, “produced violence and exported that violence to Manus and Nauru for years […] and finally they exported this violence to such a peaceful place such as Christchurch”. </p>
<h2>Beyond the dead cat strategy</h2>
<p>In her contribution to the parliamentary condolences after the attack, Judith Collins <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20190320_20190320_04">expressed</a> her “hope that when we get to the bottom of what could be done in the future to help stop this happening again, we will have a much safer and a much better community from it”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-tampa-to-now-how-reporting-on-asylum-seekers-has-been-a-triumph-of-spin-over-substance-66638">From Tampa to now: how reporting on asylum seekers has been a triumph of spin over substance</a>
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<p>Winston Peters <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20190319_20190319_08">praised</a> Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s “clarity, empathy and unifying leadership” following the attacks and promised to “follow that example”.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, “queue-jumping” rhetoric during an election campaign gives the opposite impression – that National and New Zealand First are again reaching for the false comfort of the dead cat strategy.</p>
<p>One legacy of the March 15 attack should be that political campaigns are <a href="https://theconversation.com/christchurch-attacks-are-a-stark-warning-of-toxic-political-environment-that-allows-hate-to-flourish-113662">conducted carefully</a> on any issues that relate to race, religion, immigration and refugees. </p>
<p>It should not be up to the voting public to ignore the dead cats being thrown on the table. The political leaders who would throw them should show greater responsibility for their words, <a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/islamic-womens-council-accuses-police-othering-not-taking-threats-against-muslims-seriously-before-christchurch-attack">listen</a> to those who are the potential victims, and reconsider how they want to conduct their campaigns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Moses does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent history shows politicians should think twice before using refugees and asylum seekers for electoral gain.Jeremy Moses, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1262572019-12-08T13:29:21Z2019-12-08T13:29:21ZThe story behind the world’s first private refugee sponsorship program<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305052/original/file-20191203-67017-c9sza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C123%2C2462%2C1523&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A picture taken in the late 1970s shows a group of refugees (162 persons) who arrived on a small boat which sank a few meters from the shore in Malaysia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">UNHCR/K. Gaugler</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forty years ago, an estimated <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-response-to-boat-people-refugee-crisis">three million Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese people fled their homes</a> following the Indochina wars. Hundreds of thousands died. Many suffered brutal repression. Many languished in refugee camps for years. </p>
<p>Eventually, <a href="https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/southeast-asian-refugees">more than 200,000 Southeast Asian refugees arrived</a> in Canada between the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was the first time that the Canadian government applied its new program for private sponsorship of refugees — through which more than half of the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian refugees who came to Canada during this period were admitted.</p>
<p>The Mennonite Central Committee Ontario (MCC-ON) recently hosted <a href="https://mcccanada.ca/get-involved/events/across-rivers-oceans-0">an ecumenical commemoration of this anniversary</a> to recognize the leadership provided by churches and their relief and development organizations. It also celebrated how this migration of Southeast Asian refugees changed Canada for the better. Those fleeing violence and repression for safety and freedom energized the Canadian churches and ecumenical organizations.</p>
<p>In his recent book, <em>Journeys to Justice</em>, Joe Gunn, the former executive director of Citizen’s for Public Justice, observed, “<a href="https://cpj.ca/journeys-justice/">Right up into the 20th century, Canadian immigration policy has been decidedly racist. Until the 1970s, Canada had not undertaken a large-scale sponsorship of non-European refugees.</a>” The scale of immigration changed in the 1970s. </p>
<h2>Role of Canadian churches</h2>
<p>Canadian churches have played important roles in the successive refugee crises of the post-war period. However, those efforts mostly resettled European refugees. That changed with the <a href="https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/canada-s-response-to-the-1973-chilean-crisis">coup d’état in Chile in 1973-74</a>. Canadian churches pressured Canada to open its doors to Chilean refugees. </p>
<p>There was no formal refugee determination process at the time. However, the government relented and allowed the Chileans to come to Canada.</p>
<p>Between 9,000 and 20,000 Chileans came to Canada. As those Chilean refugees told their stories of torture, disappearances and repression, churches began two decades of documenting human right abuses across Latin America. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/syrian-refugees-in-canada-four-years-after-the-welcome-126312">Syrian refugees in Canada: Four years after the welcome</a>
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<p>Canadian churches, concerned with the absence of legislation to address the plight of refugees, <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/in-defence-of-principles">advocated for the Government of Canada to fulfil in law its international human right obligations</a>. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-response-to-boat-people-refugee-crisis">new Canadian Immigration Act in 1976</a>, immigration now focused on who should be allowed into Canada, not who should be kept out. Refugees were now a designated class defined by the United Nations Convention as persons “<a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/">forced to flee their country because of violence or persecution</a>.” Refugees were now distinguished from other immigrants. </p>
<h2>Private sponsorship</h2>
<p>During the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War, the result of the Indochina wars, the Canadian government mobilized quickly. </p>
<p>For the first time they used the new act’s provision for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/guide-private-sponsorship-refugees-program.html">private sponsorship</a>. Groups of individuals, organizations and churches could now sponsor refugees. <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/running-on-empty-products-9780773548817.php">Michael Molloy</a>, former director of Refugee Policy at External Affairs, said they were initially worried that private sponsors might not come forward. </p>
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<span class="caption">Vietnamese refugee women carry children off a plane at the former Montréal-Dorval International Airport on Nov. 26, 1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Goddard</span></span>
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<p>Bill Janzen, Director of the Mennonite Central Committee office in Ottawa, negotiated the first agreement with the federal government for refugee sponsorship. This agreement allowed 600 local Mennonite churches to sign up as sponsors. </p>
<p>Other churches and organizations quickly followed. By March 1981, 47 additional agreements had been signed. Today, the government has signed more than 110 such agreements. These agreements are all modeled on that first one negotiated by Janzen at the Mennonite Central Committee.</p>
<p>The church and public response was overwhelming. Canada re-settled the highest number of Southeast Asian refugees per capita of all global nations. The majority — <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-response-to-boat-people-refugee-crisis">56 per cent of Southeast Asian refugees in 1979-80</a> — were resettled through the new private sponsorship option. </p>
<p>Today, this program is admired around the world. According to Michael Molloy, “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mennonites-vietnam-boat-people-private-sponsorship-1.5038385">There are seven countries right now designing programs based on what they’ve learned about ours</a>.”</p>
<h2>Canada’s welcome</h2>
<p>At the MCC commemoration former refugees told powerful stories about fleeing violence and about their welcome by Canadians. Sponsors testified about the profound impact it had on them and their church communities. </p>
<p>In 1986, the people of Canada received the distinguished Nansen Medal from the United Nations “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-07-mn-5066-story.html">… in recognition of the major and sustained contribution made to the cause of refugees in their country and throughout the world over the years</a>.” </p>
<p>Today, anti-immigrant and anti-refugee voices seem louder than ever. Canadian author <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Canadian-Revolution-Deference-Defiance/dp/0140248943">Peter Newman</a> observed that Canadians “have lost common cause with their institutions.” </p>
<p>But looking back, Canadians should remember what can be accomplished when citizens work together through their political, faith-based and community organizations to cooperate and respond.</p>
<p>Those who landed on Canada’s doorstep 40 years ago were a gift. They reminded us of who we are and what kind of country we can be. We saw it again when Canada responded to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015.</p>
<p>Refugee stories are the story of Canada. <a href="http://www.johnralstonsaul.com/non-fiction-books/a-fair-country/">Author John Ralston Saul</a> describes Canada as an Indigenous-inspired nation, modeled on the great circle sacred to First Nations. The circle expands and adjusts to include newcomers. At some point, most of us were strangers and newcomers welcomed into Canada’s circle.</p>
<p>Every year our family goes to the Oktoberfest parade. Good parades enact the story of a community. They offer a self-portrait and powerful reminder of who we are and who we are becoming.</p>
<p>One of my favourite groups in the parade each year is the Southeast Asian contingent. They are a reminder of why Canada works. Courageous people fleeing to safety and freedom became part of our story and our ever-widening circle. They came 40 years ago as strangers to become friends, as newcomers to become neighbours and as foreigners to become citizens working together for a more just, sustainable and peaceful world. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pfrimmer is an ordained Lutheran Pastor, the former Director of the Lutheran Office for Public Policy and is professor emeritus of public ethics at Martin Luther University College on the campus of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.</span></em></p>Forty years ago, the Canadian government applied its new program for private sponsorship of refugees allowing Canada to welcome the largest number of Southeast Asian refugees in the world.David Pfrimmer, Professor Emeritus for Public Ethics and Fellow at the Centre for Public Ethics, Martin Luther University College, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1151432019-05-03T05:20:00Z2019-05-03T05:20:00ZIssues that swung elections: Tampa and the national security election of 2001<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271658/original/file-20190430-194620-1fbunak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C16%2C1572%2C1432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Front pages from Australian newspapers covering terrorist attacks on the United States. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/2001%20australia%20terrorist?q=%7B%22pageSize%22:100,%22pageNumber%22:1%7D">AAP Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>With taxes and health care emerging as key issues in the upcoming federal election, we’re running a series this week looking at the main issues that swung elections in the past, from agricultural workers’ wages to the Vietnam War. Read other stories in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/issues-that-swung-elections-69985">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>The 2001 Australian federal election was a remarkable contest. Widely expected to see the Howard coalition government lose office after two lacklustre terms, the Tampa refugee crisis and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States allowed the government to turn its political fortunes around. </p>
<p>Winning a presumed unwinnable election on the back of a strong national security agenda gave Howard’s team renewed impetus and assured its place in history. It fundamentally reshaped Australia’s political culture.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/leaders-try-to-dodge-them-voters-arent-watching-so-are-debates-still-relevant-115456">Leaders try to dodge them. Voters aren't watching. So, are debates still relevant?</a>
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<p>The Howard government had rocky start to 2001. It had won the 1998 GST election, but failed to gain a majority of the popular vote. Resentment over the GST remained strong. Ultraconservative voters were turning to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, and Newspoll <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp0102/02rp11#app3">surveys</a> showed the Coalition’s approval ratings trailing Labor’s (39 to 45).</p>
<p>Conservative governments fell in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and voter support for the coalition parties collapsed in the Queensland state election. The loss of the once safe seat of Ryan, and the leaking of a report by the Liberal Party president stating that the Coalition was <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/tablet/former-liberal-chief-shane-stone-speaks-out-over-mean-memo-given-to-john-howard/news-story/353b85ba891095d60d3a9734255f8d75">mean, tricky and out of touch</a>, added fuel to the fire. Most political analysts agreed that the government was doomed. </p>
<h2>The Tampa crisis</h2>
<p>Howard tried to stem the flow, and victory in a byelection in the Victorian seat of Aston in July suggested some progress. But, the real circuit-breaker came in August, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">the Tampa crisis</a>. Those dramatic events saw the arrival of a Norwegian tanker in Australian waters – and the refusal of the Howard government to accept the passengers seeking asylum – give birth to the infamous “Pacific Solution”. </p>
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<span class="caption">Asylum seekers wait on board the MS Tampa after being denied entry to Australian waters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/tampa%20boat?q=%7B%22pageSize%22:100,%22pageNumber%22:1%7D">Wallenius Wilhelmsen/AAP</a></span>
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<p>What followed was a highly politicised and militarised <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/maritimeincident/report/c01">response</a> to the “problem” of unauthorised maritime arrivals. This included the excising of islands from Australia’s migration zone in order to prevent asylum-seekers making visa applications, the legalisation of offshore processing, the removal of boats from Australian territorial waters by the navy, and the co-opting of Pacific nations like Nauru and Papua New Guinea into offshore detention management programs.</p>
<p>Some commentators have interpreted <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Howard’s Tampa battle</a> as pure political opportunism. But, this ignores the evidence that his government was already primed for a fight on border control. After <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/BoatTurnbacks">low levels of boat arrivals</a> for most of the 1990s, they rose to 3,721 in 1999, declined slightly in 2000 then rose significantly again in 2001 to 5,516. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fixing-the-gap-between-labors-greenhouse-gas-goals-and-their-policies-115550">Fixing the gap between Labor's greenhouse gas goals and their policies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Concern for the irregular boat arrivals began to build. This was made visible by increasingly strident public discourse and tough border control measures, like the Border Protection Legislation Amendment Act 1999 and Migration Legislation Amendment Act 1999. The treatment of asylum-seekers caught in indefinite mainland detention was a source of constant media attention and political embarrassment for the government. </p>
<p>Tampa was Howard’s line in the sand. It profoundly challenged his commitment as leader to the protection of national security and sovereignty. It confirmed his affinity with the mood and aspirations of the Australian people – a bond powerfully articulated in his <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22library/partypol/1178395%22">declaration</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a seasoned politician, Howard also recognised Tampa’s electoral potential. From the beginning, his government was willing to politicise the issue. Labor’s evident ambiguity towards the Border Protection bills – agreeing, then refusing to support the Coalition’s legislation, and finally buckling under political pressure – was seen as “wishy-washy”. <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber/hansardr/2001-09-19/0034;query=Id:%22chamber/hansardr/2001-09-19/0000%22">Claims were made</a>
in parliament that Labor was prepared to put the interests of people smugglers and “illegal immigrants” ahead of Australians.</p>
<h2>September 11</h2>
<p>Within weeks of Tampa, catastrophic terrorist attacks took place in the United States. Howard, in Washington DC at the time, was deeply affected and invoked the 50-year-old ANZUS treaty in support of its ally. </p>
<p>By October, when the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp0102/02rp11#app3">election</a> was called, the public mood had changed. Polls showed the Coalition’s approval ratings now at 50%, compared to Labor’s 35%. Howard’s personal rating was at a five-year high of 61%.</p>
<p>Incumbents enjoy advantages in campaigns. Nevertheless, <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/9862161?selectedversion=NBD23251549">the Howard government’s political mastery</a> was evident in its ability to reframe the election as a referendum on national security. It created a link between the twin “threats” of terrorism and asylum-seekers in the public’s mind, and asserted its superior national security credentials. </p>
<p>The ALP campaigned well on some issues, but failed to provide a convincing counter-narrative to Howard’s agenda. Howard repeatedly pointed to Opposition Leader Kim Beazley’s ambivalence over the Pacific Solution as proof that he <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/beazleys-inner-demons-have-a-lot-to-answer-for-20030701-gdvyv1.html">lacked the “ticker”</a> to be prime minister. </p>
<p>Evidence that the government manipulated the facts surrounding the scandalous “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/credibility-overboard-20011108-gdf9oq.html">children overboard</a>” affair did not curb the popular view that dangerous times demanded strong leadership. In the end, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2004/guide/summary.htm">the government was re-elected</a> on November 10 with a swing of almost 2%, though barely any seats changed hands.</p>
<h2>National security still on the agenda</h2>
<p>The 2001 election changed Australia. It sealed Howard’s reputation as a strong leader, and gave him six more years in office. Success legitimated his hawkish outlook, and set the policy agenda for almost two decades. Australian troops, already committed to the conflict in Afghanistan as part of the US-led War on Terror, became ensnared in the illegal Iraq war.</p>
<p>Stringent anti-terrorism laws enhanced executive power, undermined civil liberties and alienated Muslim-Australians. Refugees, terrorism and national security remained major issues for both parties, but Labor struggled to establish its own agenda. Legislation to prevent irregular boat arrivals <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-boat-that-changed-it-all-20110819-1j2o2.html">hardened into</a> one of the harshest asylum-seeker regimes in the world, polarising public opinion.</p>
<p>Have the dynamics of that political contest dissipated? </p>
<p>In the current campaign, healthcare, climate change and economics have dominated, but the lure of “national security” for electoral advantage is <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/morrison-sets-test-for-shorten-over-security/news-story/9e50b332be28ac466871631c57d8b932">still difficult to resist</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-the-states-more-preference-deals-as-pre-polling-begins-116364">State of the states: more preference deals as pre-polling begins</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Many of the policy and political priorities established in 2001 remain intact. Both major parties are committed to offshore processing, mandatory detention and push-backs as deterrent mechanisms for asylum seekers. The fact that <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/operation-sovereign-borders-offshore-detention-statistics/2/">915 refugees and asylum-seekers</a> are still languishing on Nauru and Manus Island, confirm that politics, not pragmatism or human rights, still shapes Australian asylum-seeker policy. </p>
<p>The fight against terrorism continues. Extreme right-wing political movements are growing, emboldened by the the politics of hate unleashed in 2001. It is almost 20 years since Tampa and 9/11, but those events continue to cast their shadow over the Australian political landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gwenda Tavan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2001 federal election was a watershed moment for Australian national security that has set a policy agenda for almost two decades.Gwenda Tavan, Associate Professor, Politics and International Relations, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/725742017-02-23T03:42:23Z2017-02-23T03:42:23ZExplainer: how Australia decides who is a genuine refugee<p>Every year, Australia <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/about/corporate/information/fact-sheets/60refugee">provides protection to thousands</a> of refugees under its humanitarian program. <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/humanitarian-programme-outcomes-offshore-2015-16.pdf">In 2015-16</a>, the government issued 15,552 visas to people in need of humanitarian assistance overseas. These included people determined to be refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in camps outside Australia. </p>
<p>A further 2,003 people received “onshore” permanent protection visas after being found to be refugees by the Australian government. </p>
<p>The term <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/why-australia-us-refugee-deal-is-contentious/">“genuine refugee”</a> is thrown around often, yet many take for granted the complicated process of how someone is deemed to be one. So, what is a refugee? And how does the Australian government make the decision?</p>
<h2>Who is a refugee?</h2>
<p>Australia has signed and ratified the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/1951-refugee-convention.html">United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees</a> and several other human rights treaties. These set the definition of a refugee and create a legal obligation not to return a person to a country where they will face persecution or serious harm. </p>
<p>Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-australia-take-more-refugees-per-capita-through-the-unhcr-than-any-other-country-47151">resettles</a> refugees from camps outside the country as part of the government’s humanitarian program, not out of legal obligation. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-how-are-the-12-000-extra-refugees-coming-to-australia-chosen-51324">choosing these refugees</a>, Australia works with the UNHCR to resettle those considered most vulnerable.</p>
<p>We do have a legal obligation to determine whether those who seek asylum when already in Australia need protection. This is regardless of whether they arrive by boat or plane.</p>
<p>A refugee is <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s5h.html">defined</a> as someone who does not want to return to their country of origin owing to a <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s5j.html">“well-founded fear of persecution”</a> on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. </p>
<p>The person can also receive <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s36.html">complementary protection</a> if there are “substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk he or she will suffer significant harm”.</p>
<h2>What is the refugee determination process?</h2>
<p>The Refugee Convention does not set out the procedures that must be followed to determine whether a person is a refugee. But, to comply with its international obligations, Australia must have a procedure to identify accurately the people to whom it owes protection.</p>
<p>The onshore refugee determination process begins when a person applies for a <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/866-">protection visa</a>. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection assesses their claim. The purpose of this assessment is to decide whether the person engages Australia’s protection obligations as set out in the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/">Migration Act</a>.</p>
<p>Essentially, the decision-maker must decide whether the person faces a “real chance” or “real risk” of serious harm if they return home. The ultimate objective of refugee determination is humanitarian, so the refugee status isn’t based on a standard of “beyond reasonable doubt” or “balance of probablities” as it would be in other areas of law. </p>
<p>In Australian law, “real chance” means the fear of persecution is “likely” and not remote or far-fetched.</p>
<h2>How is ‘real chance’ determined?</h2>
<p>The Immigration Department considers the applicant’s personal account along with independent information about their country of origin. The department will interview the person about their claim. Interpreters are present if needed, and the person may have a migration agent in the interview.</p>
<p>For example, a woman may claim she cannot return to Afghanistan because she fears violent attacks from other community members due to her work as a human rights activist. The department would need to assess if her fear is well-founded by considering evidence that may corroborate her story. This may be independent information from government sources, NGOs and the <a href="http://www.refworld.org/publisher,UNHCR,COUNTRYPOS,AFG,570f96564,0.html">UNCHR</a> about the treatment of female human rights defenders in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>If the department decides she fits the definition of refugee, they will grant a permanent <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/Refugeeandhumanitarian/Pages/grant-of-a-permanent-protection-visa.aspx">protection visa</a>. The applicant will have to satisfy other health, character and security requirements. </p>
<p>People who have their initial application for protection refused can apply for an <a href="http://www.aat.gov.au/migration-and-refugee-division">independent merits review</a>. A tribunal member will have a hearing with the asylum seeker and consider the case again. They will take into account any new or additional evidence, such as country information that might have changed since the original decision was made. </p>
<p>The member may find the person to be a refugee and return the case to the Immigration Department for reconsideration. Or the original decision may be upheld.</p>
<h2>What about those who come by boat?</h2>
<p>In 2014, the government introduced a <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/refugee-status-determination-australia">different determination process</a> for those who arrived in Australia by boat after August 2012. Under the <a href="http://www.ima.border.gov.au/en/Applying-for-a-protection-visa/Fast-Track-Assessment-process">fast-track assessment</a> process, timeframes for the provision and assessment of claims are truncated. </p>
<p>If the department rejects the claim, it may be referred to the <a href="http://www.iaa.gov.au/about">Independent Assessment Authority</a>. Reviews by the authority are on the basis of the original information provided by the asylum seeker. Only in “exceptional circumstances” will the authority accept new information or interview the applicant. </p>
<p>If found to be owed protection, boat arrivals will be <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Refu/protection-application-information-and-guides-paig/grant-of-a-temporary-protection-visa-or-safe-haven-enterprise-visa">eligible</a> only for a three-year Temporary Protection Visa or a five-year Safe Haven Enterprise Visa. </p>
<p>People who arrived in Australia by boat after July 2013, and who have been transferred to Manus Island or Nauru, undergo refugee status determination in those countries. <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/offshore-processing-refugee-status-determination-asylum-seekers-manus-island">Papua New Guinea</a> and <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/offshore-processing-refugee-status-determination-asylum-seekers-nauru">Nauru</a> are both signatories to the Refugee Convention and have their own refugee determination procedures. </p>
<h2>Is the process fair?</h2>
<p>Asylum seekers rarely have documentary evidence that strongly supports their claim for protection. They may also have difficulty presenting a comprehensive account of their claims due to literacy, language, culture, shame, problems with memory and difficulty in recounting traumatic experiences.</p>
<p>Determinations may also vary depending on the decision-maker. Some studies have identified a “culture of disbelief” in certain areas of decision-making, including claims <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ijrl/article/21/1/1/1550619/The-Ring-of-Truth-A-Case-Study-of-Credibility">based on sexual orientation</a>. Some decision-makers who hear many cases may consciously or unconsciously <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/protection/operations/51a8a08a9/full-report-beyond-proof-credibility-assessment-eu-asylum-systems.html">form predetermined</a> views on certain types of claims. </p>
<p>In 2014, the government <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/legal-assistance-asylum-seekers">made cuts</a> that severely limited access to vital legal assistance for asylum seekers. Research conducted in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/199962/horr70.pdf">UK</a> and <a href="http://www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Providing-Protection_Access-to-ELA-for-asylum-seekers.pdf">Ireland</a> shows legal assistance increases the confidence of asylum seekers and improves the quality of decisions.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/%E2%80%98fast-tracking%E2%80%99-refugee-status-determination">UNHCR and other human rights organisations</a> have raised concerns that accelerated assessments of protection claims may lead to vulnerable people being returned to places where they are at risk of serious harm.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether Australia’s fast-tracking process allows the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-track-asylum-processing-risks-fairness-for-efficiency-35146">possibility</a> to arrive at a fair and true decision.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Anne Kenny has received funding from the Australian Research Council. She receives sitting fees from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.</span></em></p>The term ‘genuine refugee’ is thrown around often, yet few know the complicated process of how someone is deemed to be one.Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/434012015-06-19T04:19:20Z2015-06-19T04:19:20Z‘Very loyal’ productive workers: the same people we fear as refugees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85671/original/image-20150619-32102-1qna8rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Brotherhood of St Laurence's 'Given the Chance' program enables asylum seekers and refugees to demonstrate their skills and loyalty as employees. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://giventhechance.bsl.org.au/media/">Brotherhood of St Laurence</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you scan Australia’s media headlines you might notice that the words “refugee” and “asylum seeker” rarely feature positively in mainstream news stories. This week’s front-page headlines were no exception with news that people smugglers were reportedly paid to <a href="https://theconversation.com/boats-secrecy-leads-to-bad-policy-without-democratic-accountability-43324">turn around asylum seeker boats</a> and, in doing so, fulfilling the federal government’s 2013 election promise to “stop the boats”. The message from Prime Minister Tony Abbott is deliberately a very negative one about asylum seekers coming by boat:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What we do is we stop the boats by hook or by crook, because that’s what we’ve got to do and that’s what we’ve successfully done, and I just don’t want to go into the details of how it’s done.</p>
</blockquote>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iV592dBm0Jg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tony Abbott is interviewed by 3AW host Neil Mitchell about claims people smugglers were paid to turn back.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A global tribute to refugee resilience</h2>
<p>Saturday is World Refugee Day, and it is meant as a day of celebration and commemoration. UN Secretary-General <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/refugeeday/">Ban Ki-moon</a> is urging member nations to ponder the generosity of countries and communities that have helped the “forcibly displaced”, including both <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c125.html">refugees</a> and <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c137.html">asylum seekers</a>. </p>
<p>Celebrities from across the globe have recorded 30-second messages on the <a href="http://webtv.un.org/search?term=World+Refugee+Day+2014">UN website</a>. These pay tribute to “the strength and resilience of the millions of people around the world forced to flee their homes due to war or human rights abuses”. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Cate Blanchett is among the celebrities recording their support for the world’s refugees.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are positive messages about the more than 35 million people living in dismal circumstances. Ban makes the point that most displaced persons, 86%, flee to the developing world and the proportion in poorer nations is increasing. It was 70% ten years ago.</p>
<h2>Reporting fuels negative public attitude</h2>
<p>While Australia is among the developed nations that accept a capped number of refugees each year, recent studies show Australian news stories about asylum seekers – those claiming refugee status – are overwhelmingly negative, often promoting damaging stereotypes and fear.</p>
<p>This is no great surprise. Much of the political discourse about asylum seekers is negative. Neither is it surprising that successive public opinion polls reflect these negative attitudes about asylum seeker boat arrivals.</p>
<p>One study showed the mainstream media’s role in shaping Australians’ perceptions of asylum seekers through its use of “dehumanising” distant images of asylum seeker boat arrivals. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2013.840769">Roland Bleiker and colleagues</a> argued that these depictions serve to reinforce the political debate not as a humanitarian issue, but as a security and border control threat. </p>
<p>Other <a href="http://www.academia.edu/8696564/Genuine_refugees_or_illegitimate_boat_people_Political_constructions_of_asylum_seekers_and_refugees_in_the_Malaysia_Deal_debate">researchers</a> over the <a href="http://us-and-them.com.au/research/2012/7/21/arabic-and-muslim-people-in-sydneys-daily-newspapers-before-and-after-september-11">past decade</a> have studied the <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=010310700909939;res=IELLCC">pejorative language</a> used within, and by, Australia’s media to <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/37616187_The_Tampa_Wedge_Politics_and_a_Lesson_for_Political_Journalism">report on asylum seekers</a>. Common negatively framed expressions have included: “floods”, “waves”, “tides”, “queue-jumpers”, “illegals” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-those-fleeing-persecution-and-impoverishment-so-very-different-42320">“economic migrants”</a>. </p>
<p>Together, these studies find that mainstream media’s repetitive use of dehumanising images and negative language about boat arrivals can serve to promote public anxiety about a perceived threat to the Australian way of life. </p>
<p>This includes a public view that asylum seekers arriving by boat exploit Australia’s humanitarian processes and systems, as identified by <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/229/">Fiona McKay</a> and colleagues. Their 2010 survey of 585 Australians about asylum seeker issues found that most people do not know asylum seekers first-hand – they rely on news media for information about them. </p>
<h2>Political control frames the story</h2>
<p>Before pointing the finger at the media for promoting negative attitudes about asylum seekers, it should be noted that recent Australian governments, on both sides of politics, have denied journalists access to asylum seekers. The result is that the asylum seekers are not able to tell their own personal stories.</p>
<p>A veil of secrecy about boats at sea – the government refuses to discuss anything deemed to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-an-offence-if-australians-pay-people-smugglers-to-turn-back-43054">“operational matters”</a> – is another technique, as is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/quiz-which-politician-said-what-about-people-smugglers-20150616-ghp2aw.html">politicians’ choice</a> of language on the boat journeys asylum seekers make.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2247142">study</a> of federal politicians’ comments recorded in Hansard found:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a continued prevalence of populist rhetoric through the Gillard government’s discourse on asylum seekers, although it was less overt than the language of the Howard era.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A more sympathetic understanding of how the public acquire sometimes thin understandings of complex political issues could be explored through the demands of the contemporary fast-paced media cycle. British academic Aeron Davis <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=SRLGBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT114&lpg=PT114&dq=Aeron+Davis+pseudo+expertise&source=bl&ots=MXKBszYG0L&sig=F7yYn3Bf-FQB4lgmPPUVWjq2g5E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SGiDVbbuA4SV8QXll77YDw&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Aeron%20Davis%20pseudo%20expertise&f=false">finds</a> that the insatiable demand for news leaves time-pressured journalists, and also politicians, gathering “pseudo” rather than substantive forms of expertise. This serves to weaken key components of the democratic process. </p>
<h2>A ‘good news’ story from Melbourne</h2>
<p>Yet there are positive stories to be told about asylum seekers and refugees and their relationship with the Australian community. One is the work of the Brotherhood of St Laurence with Australian employers and asylum seekers and refugees from 19 countries.</p>
<p>A very generous donation from a 30-something businessman, who does not want to be named, enabled the Brotherhood to set up the <a href="http://giventhechance.bsl.org.au/media/">Given the Chance</a> program to get asylum seekers and refugees with work rights into paid work. </p>
<p>The program has been running almost two years and has exceeded its targets. It has found 232 jobs so far for asylum seekers, with a range of qualifications, across diverse industries (see below). To help asylum seekers into work, the program provides mentoring, life and job-readiness skills and English classes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85503/original/image-20150618-23263-2dh5kf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Given the Chance’ job outcomes by industry, May 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brotherhood of St Laurence</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Brotherhood has strong relationships with employers and has signed up major companies, including the ANZ Bank, to give asylum seekers and refugees a chance at engaging in reputable and sustainable work. Small businesses have also said yes to giving asylum seekers a chance. One small-business employer said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I find that I get very loyal employees, which help me to reduce my staff turnover, and it’s just a lovely thing for our business to be involved in, you know, welcoming refugees and asylum seekers into our workplace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The success of the program, which started in Melbourne, has enabled it to expand to regional Victoria. Now that is something to celebrate on World Refugee Day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson is a non-paid member of the advisory committee of the Brotherhood of St Laurence's 'Given the Chance' work program for asylum seekers and refugees.</span></em></p>Seeking asylum from persecution is a right and people who do so are not “illegals” under the law. Yet refugees are portrayed in negative and threatening terms in Australia, while positive stories are ignored.Andrea Carson, Lecturer, Media and Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism , The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/443502015-06-14T14:00:00Z2015-06-14T14:00:00ZPolitics podcast: Sarah Hanson-Young on personal attacks and people smugglers<p>Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young sits down with Michelle Grattan to talk about personal attacks on her, the accusations that people smugglers were paid by Australian officials to turn their boat around, stripping the citizenship of dual citizens engaged in terrorist activity, gay marriage, and much more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan talks to Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young about personal attacks on her, paying people smugglers to turn their boat around, gay marriage, and much more.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/424302015-06-11T04:31:41Z2015-06-11T04:31:41ZTo solve boat people crisis, ASEAN has to engage with Myanmar<p>As a crisis involving thousands of people <a href="https://theconversation.com/pushed-offshore-the-boat-people-crisis-demands-regional-response-41672">stranded at sea</a> unfolded in April and May, <a href="http://www.asean.org/asean/about-asean/overview">ASEAN</a> was inactive and impotent. The grouping of ten Southeast Asian countries did not issue a formal statement, nor did it initiate any meeting to resolve the crisis.</p>
<p>To address the plight of Rohingya people fleeing Mynanmar, ASEAN must step up to its vision of being a <a href="http://www.asean.org/news/asean-statement-communiques/item/kuala-lumpur-declaration-on-a-people-oriented-people-centred-asean">people-oriented community</a> and play an active role in solving the refugee crisis. ASEAN members should engage with Myanmar to persuade the former military dictatorship to deal with the causes of this humanitarian crisis. </p>
<p>So far, ASEAN members have responded to the issue individually or trilaterally. On May 29, Thailand hosted a meeting of 17 countries and several international organisations in Bangkok to discuss the crisis. </p>
<p>But current efforts, including the <a href="http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/media-center/14/56880-Summary-Special-Meeting-on-Irregular-Migration-in.html">Bangkok meeting</a>, have yet to address the root causes that led people to risk their lives to take on a harrowing journey that left thousands of people adrift in the Andaman Sea. The Bangkok meeting merely proposed “band-aid” solutions. </p>
<h2>Triple victimisation</h2>
<p>Thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi people were left stranded at sea by a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/08/us-thailand-rohingya-crackdown-idUSKBN0NT0PO20150508">crackdown</a> on people smuggling by the Thai government.</p>
<p>The Bangladeshis taking the journey are mostly looking for better economic opportunities. The Rohingya are fleeing persecution in Myanmar. </p>
<p>Rohingya people face triple victimisation: by their own government, by human traffickers and by neighbouring countries that are unfriendly to refugees. </p>
<p>Myanmar’s government would not acknowledge Rohingya, whom they call Bengalis, as their ethnic minority and has <a href="http://archive-3.mizzima.com/mizzima-news/rohingya-issues/item/10629-myanmar-rejects-un-rohingya-citizenship-appeal/10629-myanmar-rejects-un-rohingya-citizenship-appeal">refused to grant them citizenship</a>. Their stateless status exposes them to becoming victims of trafficking and smuggling. </p>
<h2>Bangkok meeting</h2>
<p>The Bangkok meeting resulted in pledges on humanitarian assistance. Indonesia and Malaysia pledged to shelter the refugees for a year before they are repatriated to their home countries or are resettled in a third country. </p>
<p>The meeting also called for international co-operation to combat people smuggling and trafficking in the region. </p>
<p>Australia and the US promised to provide funding both for immediate humanitarian needs and to assist the economic development of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhine_State">Rakhine State</a> in Myanmar and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox%27s_Bazar">Cox’s Bazaar</a> in Bangladesh. Turkey and Japan also offered funding. The US, the Philippines and Gambia reiterated their commitments to provide permanent asylum for refugees. </p>
<p>Despite these pledges, many criticised the meeting for not addressing Myanmar’s mistreatment of the Rohingya people. </p>
<h2>Challenges for sustainable solutions</h2>
<p>There are at least three challenges to overcome in solving the Southeast Asian refugee crisis: asylum seeker policies in the region, human trafficking and persecution. </p>
<p>First, fewer places in the region are available to resettle Rohingya refugees. One of the main reasons is Australia’s decision not to give asylum to refugees registered by the UNHCR in Jakarta after July 1, 2014. Australia is also transferring some refugees to Cambodia from Nauru in a controversial deal. </p>
<p>Indonesia and Malaysia, which host most of the Rohingya refugees, are not parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention. They seem reluctant to ratify it.</p>
<p>But resettlement also creates another dilemma. It can give Myanmar an incentive to continue persecuting the minority groups. Countries fear that if they openly accept Rohingya refugees, this will not send a strong message to Myanmar to stop its discrimination against these people.</p>
<p>Second, the human-smuggling and trafficking networks in the region are very organised and sometimes involve corrupt state officials. These networks have moved hundreds of thousands of people outside of Myanmar. According to the International Organisation for Migration, around <a href="http://www.iom.int/news/iom-releases-funds-tackle-migrant-crisis-andaman-sea-calls-urgent-action-save-lives">160,000 people</a> have moved into Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia since 2012, including around 88,000 in 2014 and 25,000 in 2015.</p>
<p>Third, the plight of Rohingyas is related to religious and ethnic conflicts between them and the Buddhist Rakhine majority. The poor economic condition of Rakhine State also makes the Buddhist majority see the Rohingya people as a burden and competitors in getting jobs.</p>
<p>Furthermore, as Myanmar undergoes its democratic transition, Myanmar’s elite are increasingly driven by popular opinion. This is perfectly illustrated by the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/11663646/Once-Burmas-beacon-of-hope-where-is-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-now.html">silence on the Rohingya’s plight</a> of Myanmar’s democratic champion and Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. </p>
<h2>ASEAN engagement</h2>
<p>ASEAN has the potential to engage with Myanmar and has succeeded in doing so before. During the 2008 Cyclone Nargis, when Myanmar rejected all international aid, ASEAN’s “constructive engagement” resulted in it being the only organisation allowed to distribute aid inside the country. </p>
<p>ASEAN’s constructive engagement is the organisation’s way of using political dialogue instead of coercive measures such as economic sanction or diplomatic isolation. This approach also succeeded in persuading Myanmar to open up and undergo a democratisation process.</p>
<p>The way ASEAN member countries are dealing with Rohingya refugees shows that they prioritise their national interests over human rights. In the face of this crisis, ASEAN should use its discretion to waive its principle of non-interference.</p>
<p>The international community should also encourage and support ASEAN more in finding sustainable solutions to the boat people crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Atin Prabandari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ASEAN stood on the sidelines as thousands of refugees were stranded at sea, but it should apply its policy of constructive engagement to ending the persecution that drives Rohingya people out of Myanmar.Atin Prabandari, Lecturer at the Department of International Relations , Universitas Gadjah Mada Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421402015-05-21T13:25:37Z2015-05-21T13:25:37ZIndonesia, Malaysia and Thailand still aren’t taking real responsibility for refugees<p>The joint announcement that Indonesia and Malaysia would “take in” approximately 7,000 migrants adrift on the high seas implies that they have taken <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/20/hundreds-more-migrants-rescued-off-indonesia-as-pope-calls-for-help">some measure of legal responsibility</a>. But the gesture is in fact subject to strict limitations – and the countries behind it are doing little to honour the responsibilities they so clearly bear.</p>
<p>In fact, they have been shown up by some of their poorest citizens. As thousands of refugees remained stranded in the seas of south east Asia, fishermen and their families living on the Indonesian island of Aceh, which is still recovering from the devastating tsunami of 2004, exhibited something that the national governments of the region have so far failed to show: basic humanity.</p>
<p>Even as these countries’ leaders refused to let boatloads of an estimated 8,000 stricken migrants land, actually going so far as to tow boats of increasingly desperate people <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/14/southeast-asia-end-rohingya-boat-pushbacks">back out to sea</a>, local fishermen and their families – many of whom live in serious poverty – stepped in to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/18/solidarity-indonesian-fishermen-boat-migrants-aceh">help</a> around 1,300 “boat people” ashore. Many applauded them, but not everyone was pleased. </p>
<p>Indonesian military spokesman Fuad Basya said that fishermen could deliver food, fuel and water to the boats or help with repairs to see them on their way, but that bringing the migrants to shore would amount to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32776647">facilitating an “illegal entry”</a> into Indonesia. </p>
<p>Horrifying reports of starvation and of violence on what the UN has referred to as “floating coffins” were dismissed by the Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai governments in the name of protecting national borders from those deemed “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/migrants-tell-of-brutal-fights-for-food-on-floating-coffin-boats-in-andaman-sea-10256575.html">illegal</a>”.</p>
<p>So who or what has jurisdiction for the deadly crisis at this point? And are the migrants actually “illegal”?</p>
<h2>Temporary responsibility</h2>
<p>Indonesia and Malaysia have made it clear that their rescue agreement is a one-time-only offer, and that it guarantees no future landings of migrants arriving by boat. Crucially, they are not offering asylum, but merely temporary refuge for migrants pending “resettlement and repatriation”, which they expect to be conducted by the “international community” within a year. </p>
<p>While they have apparently taken responsibility for the immediate crisis, it turns out that Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed merely to allow UNHCR to “process” these people and send them either back to Myanmar or to other countries – if any willing to host them can be found. </p>
<p>At the time of writing, the Thai government remains resolute, bolstered by the Malaysian demand to stop further irregular migration across the Thai border into Malaysia, a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/20/hundreds-more-migrants-rescued-off-indonesia-as-pope-calls-for-help">well-established route</a> for migrants seeking employment. On May 17, Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd of the military-backed Thai government <a href="https://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/05/17/rohingya-boat-refugees-rejected-by-thailand-malaysia-and-indonesia/">argued</a> that “Under Thai law, all illegal immigrants must be repatriated or sent to a third country.” </p>
<h2>The letter of the law</h2>
<p>Despite the Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai protestations that the Rohingya are illegal migrants fleeing poverty, all three countries have nonetheless acknowledged at least some legal responsibility to assist them. </p>
<p>It is widely acknowledged that the Rohingya are fleeing <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/22/burma-end-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya-muslims">persecution at the hands of the Myanmarese state</a>, which denies them access to citizenship and does not protect them from violence. </p>
<p>This places them squarely within the terms of the 1951 <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html">UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees</a>, which defines a refugee as someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Signatories agree to the fundamental principle of <a href="http://www.asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/keywords/non-refoulement">non-refoulement</a> – meaning that no one shall expel or return (in French, refouler) a refugee against her or his will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where she or he fears threats to life or freedom. </p>
<p>It should come as no surprise that Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have never ratified this Convention – but even so, they should not be able to hide behind this to abdicate their responsibilities, since all three operate a de facto situation of recognising the right to asylum. </p>
<h2>Moral responsibility</h2>
<p>While neither Malaysian nor Thai immigration law explicitly recognises the right to asylum or humanitarian protection, UNHCR – whose mandate is implementation of the 1951 Convention – has long worked in both of these countries, offering assistance to refugees including Rohingya. In 2014, approximately 100,000 Burmese refugees, including Rohingya, were <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4884c6.html">registered in Malaysia</a>. A further 80,000 were <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e489646.html">registered in UNHCR camps in Thailand</a> along the border with Myanmar, and were processed for resettlement in third countries. </p>
<p>Even leaving aside their de facto recognition of the right to asylum, Malaysia and Thailand continue to profit from the labour of the hundreds of thousands of these migrants, including Rohingya. The so-called “smuggling or trafficking routes”, have <a href="http://www.verite.org/sites/default/files/images/VeriteForcedLaborMalaysianElectronics_2014_0.pdf">long served</a> the electronics, plantation and fishing industries in these two countries. Ironically, it was <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/05/uk-thailand-rohingya-special-report-idUKBRE9B400920131205">reportedly</a> a renewed Thai effort to disrupt these routes that led to the current acute crisis.</p>
<p>Indonesia, on the other hand, explicitly recognised the right to asylum in a <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2001/07/28/indonesia-must-ratify-1951-un-convention.html">1998 government decree</a>, so even without ratifying the 1951 convention, the country’s implied legal responsibilities are clear. And the country has long acted as an island bulwark against the thousands of migrants heading in rickety boats for Australia, itself an infamous pioneer of naval “<a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/BoatArrivals">push-backs</a>”. </p>
<h2>Step up</h2>
<p>While 8,000 migrants may now have had their lives saved from drowning, starvation or violence at sea, the crisis sparked by Thailand’s action against so-called “traffickers” is far from over. Given the current stances of the EU and the US on migrants arriving on their shores, the UNHCR is likely to struggle to find anyone in the “international community” willing to resettle the Rohingya. </p>
<p>In practice, that will leave these individuals languishing in camps and detention centres in which rights abuses are <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/01/confronting-refugee-abuse-indonesia-s-detention-centers">endemic</a>. Migrants in Malaysia and Thailand who find themselves outside these camps and centres will be at constant risk of arrest, detention and deportation. </p>
<p>This has been the unsatisfactory status quo for too long. For decades now, the UNHCR has merely “<a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e488116.html">processed</a>” refugees for resettlement in third countries – and once again, in the face of one of the most serious migrant crises in the region for decades, that’s all it seems able to offer. Its support is to be warmly welcomed, but all those concerned need to take a stronger line.</p>
<p>It must be supported not only by other states, but by the multitude of other international organisations in the region which have a mandate to support migrants, including the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/lang--en/index.htm">International Labour Organisation</a> and <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en">UN Women</a>. While it doesn’t have a human rights mandate, the <a href="http://www.iom.int/">International Organisation for Migration</a> also has traction with many governments in this region. </p>
<p>But ultimately, as things stand, too many states are being let off the hook. It is time for Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to ratify the 1951 Convention and come up with properly resourced national asylum systems. If they don’t, there is little hope for a real change – or for the thousands of people who remain stranded at sea.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine Jones is affiliated with Scottish Refugee Council and Scottish Detainee Visitors. She has received funding from ILO and IOM. </span></em></p>Under enormous pressure, countries in south east Asia are at last offering help to thousands of stranded migrants – but their gesture is far less meaningful than it seems.Katharine Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/416722015-05-13T01:12:52Z2015-05-13T01:12:52ZPushed offshore, the ‘boat people’ crisis demands regional response<p>In recent days, some <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32686328">2000 refugees and migrants</a> from Bangladesh and Myanmar have come ashore in Aceh, Indonesia, and Langkawi, across the Strait of Malacca in Malaysia. Thousands more are <a href="http://www.dw.de/iom-up-to-8000-rohingya-and-bangladeshi-migrants-stranded-at-sea/a-18445317">feared stranded</a> on the high seas.</p>
<p>A maritime crisis has been brewing in the waters of the Bay of Bengal for some years now, but it was rarely reported. All eyes have been on the “boat people” <a href="https://theconversation.com/shaping-2015-the-boats-have-stopped-now-the-real-work-begins-in-immigration-36351">arriving on Australia’s doorstep</a> and more recently on those <a href="https://theconversation.com/frontex-cant-solve-the-mediterranean-migration-crisis-on-its-own-heres-why-40606">making it to Europe</a> across the Mediterranean.</p>
<h2>Why are people risking their lives at sea?</h2>
<p>What is driving these people to pay what are, for them, astronomical fees for passage on often unseaworthy vessels?</p>
<p>Several push – and pull – factors are at play for different groups making the treacherous journey across the sea from Bangladesh to Thailand. The two largest groups at sea presently are Bangladeshis as well as Rohingya from Myanmar. </p>
<p>For the former group, economic reasons prevail with the promise of better-paid work in places like Malaysia. There, migrants, legal and illegal, can make sufficient money to send remittances back home, thus sustaining themselves and their families. This is the hope despite the reality of working one or more jobs in at times hazardous circumstances being quite different. Yet they keep coming in search of a better life for themselves and their families.</p>
<p>For <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23077537">Rohingya</a>, the situation is more complex. There has been a steady stream of irregular migration from their homelands in Myanmar via Bangladesh to Malaysia for more than 20 years. Most Rohingya in Myanmar are considered “resident foreigners” since a <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-02.htm">1982 citizenship law</a> effectively made them stateless and left them without recourse to attain citizenship in Myanmar.</p>
<p>The effects have been all-encompassing for Rohingya. They have had their freedom of movement contained, access to education severed, property confiscated and conscripted into forced labour. </p>
<p>In addition sporadic violence, such as the 2012 riots in Rakhine state, further displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya and led to more fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. There, over 30,000 refugees live in refugee camps while 200,000-500,000 remain undocumented, <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/50001ae09.pdf">according to the UNHCR</a>. </p>
<p>With few opportunities to resettle and/or earn a living, many are attracted to Malaysia, which is seen as a middle-income country awash with opportunity. In addition, Malaysia is perceived to be Muslim in character and many Rohingya are disappointed by the lack of support from their co-religionists there.</p>
<p>The sea journey from Bangladesh to Thailand and the onward overland trek through the jungle to Malaysia has been a popular and affordable way for many Rohingya to make it to protection space that has given most a way to survive and some the means to prosper. I recently talked to a family who arrived in Malaysia with nothing only a few years ago. Today they run a neighbourhood grocery store and are able to send all their children to a school, albeit a refugee school that does not offer certificates.</p>
<p>Even mundane normality is a gift and blessing for them and countless others who are ready to make that journey on a boat in the hope of a better future.</p>
<h2>Flow of boats is increasing</h2>
<p>Human trafficking and people’s irregular movement across the sea from Bangladesh and Myanmar to Thailand have picked up pace as the situation in Myanmar becomes more precarious for Rohingya people especially.</p>
<p>They crowd into the boats and endure long times at sea and in jungle camps along the Thai-Malaysia border. These have made headlines recently for the horrors of <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/549355/suspected-migrant-graveyard-discovered-in-songkhla">slave labour, extortion and death</a>.</p>
<p>Refugees I have interviewed in Malaysia told me of the cramped and desolate conditions on the boats ferrying them across the Bay of Bengal. One Rohingya refugee spent three weeks on the boat. </p>
<p>They were kept inside the hull of the boat so as not to draw attention to the boat masquerading as a fishing trawler. They were given minimal provisions of food and had to drink seawater for most of the journey. The traffickers had told them they did not want the boat to get messy – i.e. inundated with people’s waste – but at the same time they restricted access to the deck area. </p>
<p>The hardest thing, many told me, was not knowing where they were or what was going to happen next.</p>
<h2>Lives depend on a regional solution</h2>
<p>The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has <a href="http://www.mizzima.com/news-international/iom-calls-se-asia-rescue-thousands-migrants-stranded-sea">appealed to Southeast Asian governments</a> to assist refugees and migrants still at sea and rescue them. The governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have remained silent on their rescue efforts. </p>
<p>In the Bay of Bengal there have been many reports of push-backs and tow-backs, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/thai-navy-rohingya-refugees/4751896">especially by the Thai navy</a>. One report even claimed the <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/03/13/thailand-fleeing-rohingya-shot-sea-navy">Thai navy shot at Rohingyas</a> arriving by boat. These crude attempts to stem the flow of boats have been unsuccessful.</p>
<p>At the heart of the issue remains the Myanmar government’s approach to minorities in its country. It is by far the largest contributor to refugee flows in the region. </p>
<p>ASEAN and the regional powers, including Australia and the United States, have to take on a more vocal role to secure the rights of displaced people and work together towards a <a href="https://theconversation.com/asylum-solutions-we-need-a-regional-refugee-compact-16815">regional solution</a>. A one-day <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/559203/summit-on-migrant-crisis-set-for-may-29">special meeting set for May 29</a> in Thailand is a good first step. Myanmar is opening up and reforming, but without proper recognition of its minorities and a durable solution to hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Myanmar the boats will keep coming.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerhard Hoffstaedter receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Australia may have ‘stopped the boats’ but the tragedy of people drowning at sea continues to our north and is getting worse. A regional solution to the refugee crisis is urgently needed.Gerhard Hoffstaedter, Senior Research fellow (DECRA) in Anthropology, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406062015-05-07T12:31:07Z2015-05-07T12:31:07ZFrontex can’t solve the Mediterranean migration crisis on its own – here’s why<p>Europe in the past few weeks has been shocked by a record high in the number of migrants dying in the Mediterranean Sea. Facing this grave situation, EU political leaders pledged to work together to tackle the issue in an EU extraordinary summit held at the end of April. They proposed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/europe-has-finally-woken-up-to-migrant-deaths-in-the-med-but-can-it-deliver-a-united-response-40579">triple the fund for Frontex</a>, which has been coordinating two joint border operations – Triton and Poseidon – in the Mediterranean. However, these operations alone will not resolve the issue.</p>
<p>Frontex (“the European agency for the Management of Operational Co-operation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union”) was created in 2004 in Warsaw to facilitate cooperation between EU member states for border management. For this purpose, Frontex has implemented a wide variety of tasks. Joint operations in which multiple EU member states participate by sending their border guards and equipment is perhaps the most publicly visible one. </p>
<p>Frontex has also played a leading role in developing a border guard training package, analysing risks at borders in association with migration and establishing Eurosur, the EU-wide border surveillance system. It cannot be overstated that Frontex has become a core element in the EU’s response to irregular migration. </p>
<p>When <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2040821,00.html">Greece called for EU assistance</a> to handle irregular migration at its borders with Turkey in 2010, <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-130_en.htm">Frontex co-ordinated a large-scale emergency operation</a> in which almost all of the EU member states and the Schengen member states took part. When Spain’s Canary Islands were the main port of entry for irregular migration in the mid-2000s, Frontex responded by organising the <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/longest-frontex-coordinated-operation-hera-the-canary-islands-WpQlsc">Hera</a> joint operation there. </p>
<h2>Crisis in the Med</h2>
<p>In the past few years, a large number of people from Libya have tried to cross the Mediterranean by taking a dangerous journey in the hands of smugglers in unsafe boats. The Italian search-and-rescue operation “Mare Nostrum” was <a href="https://theconversation.com/opting-out-of-mediterranean-rescue-condemns-desperate-migrants-to-death-32512">replaced last November</a> by Triton. According to my reckoning – based on <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/2-400-migrants-rescued-off-libyan-coast-before-easter-8k1Cj9">Frontex’s own figures</a> – 8,178 out of 26,800 migrants have been rescued by the Triton operation.</p>
<p>The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, and the commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-crisis-can-europes-leaders-deliver-real-change-or-will-it-be-business-as-usual-40735">jointly stated prior to the EU extraordinary summit</a> that the EU would launch “direct, substantial measures” intended to “make an immediate difference”. Increased funding for Triton is the first indication of this but, of course, it’s not as simple as just increasing a budget. There are a number of other important stumbling blocks in the way of an effective coordinated response.</p>
<h2>Limited mandate</h2>
<p>Firstly, Frontex operations alone cannot be a solution as the agency does not have the scope or ability to address the causes of the current migration crisis. It is too easy for us to think that once there is a problem at a border – the Mediterranean in this context – that the only solution needed is to strengthen border checks and surveillance. It’s not that simple. What is needed is to focus on <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-deal-with-the-refugee-crisis-you-need-to-understand-the-cause-40737">why people are migrating in the first instance</a> – migration does not start and end at the border. </p>
<p>When we start to understand this, we start to realise that the impact of any operations, whether search-and-rescue or border control, will always be very limited. The EU has addressed other areas that are linked to this, such as the issues of <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4813_en.htm">asylum application</a> and the <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4813_en.htm">resettlement of migrants</a> in need of protection and the need for engagement with countries surrounding Libya. </p>
<p>But there is a great deal more to do – and there is serious time pressure. The EU must adopt a more holistic and detailed approach if it is to address this issue seriously. </p>
<p>Another problem Frontex has is that it cannot hold search-and-rescue operations as its top priority – the organisation’s mandate empowers it to focus on “control on persons” and “surveillance of external borders”. <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/about-frontex/mission-and-tasks/">Frontex’s regulation</a> obliges it to comply fully with human rights standards such as the <a href="http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/combating_discrimination/l33501_en.htm">Charter of Fundamental Rights</a> and the <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions">Geneva Convention</a>, so that migrants’ access to international protection is ensured. Indeed Frontex has set up a <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/partners/consultative-forum/general-information/">consultative forum on fundamental rights</a> providing for a <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/frontex-consultative-forum-and-fundamental-rights-officer-4dKVBG">fundamental rights officer</a>, mandated to monitor its own activities. </p>
<p>But this doesn’t mean that Frontex has turned out to be a search-and-rescue agency. Its primary goal is still to help member states more effectively control the border and surveillance so that irregular migration is tackled. In this regard, the proposed plan by the EU last week will <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-crisis-can-europes-leaders-deliver-real-change-or-will-it-be-business-as-usual-40735">again be insufficient</a> because it does not make any fundamental changes to Frontex’s operational goals. </p>
<h2>Limited will</h2>
<p>There is also no guarantee that EU member states will necessarily co-operate with Frontex. It’s often thought that Frontex has the power to mobilise member states in supplying border guards and equipment to its border operations – but in reality Frontex is no more than a coordinator with no real authority. It doesn’t have its own border guards and equipment, so its performance is considerably constrained by whether or not member states are willing to cooperate. There have been cases where Frontex has been hamstrung by having insufficient border guards and equipment to implement border operations. </p>
<p>When I interviewed former Frontex executive director, Ilkka Laitinen, he <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/juncker-suffers-double-blow-immigration-summit-314053">stressed that</a>: “The key [for Frontex] is that member states believe in us”. If reports are true that some EU members have already rejected calls to supply resources for the enhanced Triton operation, it’s hard to predict how Frontex can hope to implement its Mediterranean mission. </p>
<p>There’s no doubt that the vast majority of the population of EU member states view the current situation in the Mediterranean crossing as a serious crisis. So Europe’s leaders must be made to see this crisis in terms of their own domestic political mandate. The vast majority of people in Europe recognise this as a human tragedy of grand proportions – it is time their leaders were made to do so as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Satoko Horii does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The EU has pledged to triple money to the search-and-rescue mission in the Mediterranean. But simply throwing money at the problem won’t work.Satoko Horii, Lecturer, Akita International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409692015-05-05T05:19:52Z2015-05-05T05:19:52ZWhy thousands of asylum-seekers are fleeing Eritrea and risking their lives in the Mediterranean<p>We have become accustomed to headlines about migrants in the Mediterranean. Most recently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/03/thousands-migrants-rescue-med-weekend-operations-libya-italy-mediterranean">it was reported</a> that the Italian authorities rescued nearly 7,000 migrants off the coast of Libya over one weekend. Often, tragically, we read instead of <a href="https://theconversation.com/europes-war-on-migrants-while-we-argue-thousands-perish-in-the-mediterranean-40330">thousands drowning</a>.</p>
<p>Last year more than 170,000 migrants arrived by boat in Italy last year. Many, as you would expect, are refugees displaced by the fighting in Iraq, Syria and, most recently, Libya itself. But a significant, if under-reported, group among the multitudes seeking safety or a better life in Europe are fleeing Eritrea.</p>
<p>When, in May 1991, the 30-year struggle for independence against Ethiopia and its Russian sponsors came to a successful end and 99.9% voted in the 1993 national referendum in favour of independence, the future appeared to be set fair for Eritrea – and its acceptance in the United Nations as an independent state in May 1993 appeared to back this up.</p>
<p>One of Eritrea’s former international friends, the late <a href="http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol1no9/AbdulRahmanMohamedBabu.pdf">Abdul Rahman Babu</a>, a Tanzanian politician and scholar, who visited the liberated areas during the independence struggle in a paper titled “<a href="https://natna.wordpress.com/eritrea-its-present-is-the-remote-future-of-others/">Eritrea: its present is the remote future of Others</a>”, expressed his unbound sense of optimism and indicated that the Eritrean revolutionaries were setting trends which provide fresh hope for the rest of the continent. </p>
<p>Others felt the same way – towards the end of the 1980s, the American journalist Blaine Harden <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-02-28/news/mn-69_1_eritrean-rebels">wrote in the Washington Post</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>On a continent of millionaire dictators, where broken promises of democracy dovetail with collapsing living standards and unpayable debts, Eritrea’s revolutionaries hold out the possibility of an efficient, self-reliant African nation, run by Africans who have had 26 years to learn from the failures of independent Africa.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These testimonies would sound incredible to anyone who is only familiar with Eritrea’s current plight. Contrary to all rational expectations, in the vital areas of international relations, human rights, rule of law, democracy, justice, human security and freedom of speech and association, there is little that distinguishes the post-independence Eritrean government not only from the regimes that held Africans to ransom in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, but also from the very regime – <a href="http://www.ethiopiantreasures.co.uk/pages/derg.htm">the Derg</a> – it fought for decades to get rid of. </p>
<p>The million-dollar question is: what went wrong in a country, which most analysts and observers expected to “break the mould”? A fitting answer is difficult in such a short article.</p>
<h2>History lessons unlearned</h2>
<p>Ironically, the sorry state Eritrea and its people are in at present is largely due to the fact that the government has dismally failed to draw lessons from Africa’s past failures. The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) – now known as the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice – has broken every promise it made during the war of independence and in the immediate post-independence period. Instead of learning from the failures of African leaders, the Eritrean leadership has been emulating the failed policies and contemptible behaviour that drove the continent into abject poverty, dictatorship and indebtedness. </p>
<p>Most of the blunders and failures that are blighting Eritrea and its citizenry are similar to those, which wrecked the lives and aspirations of their brethren in the rest of the continent in the 1960s and 1970s. It was most peoples’ hope that Eritreans as latecomers to statehood would be spared from autocracy and the follies of the incompetent and intolerant post-independence African state.</p>
<p>Most Eritreans inside and outside the country are unanimous in who is responsible for the woeful state the country is in. Every Eritrean blames president Isaias Afwerki and his tightly knit inner circle. Not only has the EPLF and its successor, the PFDJ, and the government, betrayed the endless promises made during the war of independence, but also the two multi-party elections that were promised <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/11/06/the-country-thats-never-had-an-election/">never took place</a> and no explanation was given. The ratified constitution was <a href="http://www.thereporterethiopia.com/index.php/opinion/commentary/item/2203-reflections-on-eritrea%E2%80%99s-talk-of-constitution-making">suspended with no explanation</a> and now it is declared dead and buried by the single utterance of the president. </p>
<p>The government’s anti-civil society stance and its undemocratic and intolerant nature have <a href="http://www.csw.org.uk/2014/05/28/news/2275/article.htm">driven aid agencies and NGOs out from the country</a>. Despite the fact that about 66% of the population lives below the national poverty line and the country suffers from recurrent droughts, the government <a href="http://asmarino.com/eyewitness-account/91-i-eritrea-a-country-in-overall-crisis-ngos-and-food-aid">stopped the distribution of food aid in September 2005</a> on the alleged grounds that food hand-outs undermine its misplaced policy of self-reliance. </p>
<p>The private sector <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Africa/200407eritrea.pdf">has almost collapsed</a> due to hostile policies and the ruling party’s dominance of the economy. The private sector’s suppression has stifled the development and of the middle class and businesses owned by members of the ruling party dominate the fragile economy of the country. The civil service has been dismantled to pave the way for non-institutionalised patrimonial administration based on patron-client networks in which the positions of government officials and employees depend on political loyalty to the president and his arbitrary rule. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XggECAAAQBAJ&pg=PT140&lpg=PT140&dq=nationalisation+of+land+in+eritrea&source=bl&ots=xzgCLZIinM&sig=3-SUJMLGgLnQ--1H8Slp5Earv2c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nENHVdSLK8naaKXegbgC&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=nationalisation%20of%20land%20in%20eritrea&f=false">nationalisation of land</a>, the stifling of the private sector and the phasing out of food aid have undermined the livelihood systems of the majority of peasants, pastoralists and the rest of the population. </p>
<h2>Armed camp</h2>
<p>Eritrea is one of the most militarised societies in the world. Most able-bodied citizens between 18 and 50 – <a href="--%20including%20women%20--">including women</a> – <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30128002">are conscripted into the open-ended Eritrean national service</a>. In 2012, the government introduced the people’s army comprising citizens between the ages of 50 and 75 years old. National service conscripts receive subsistence pay, people’s army nothing at all. </p>
<p>After the disastrous outcome of the <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/eritrea.htm">border war against Ethiopia</a> (from May 1998 to June 2000), a reform movement under the leadership of some ministers, high-ranking military officers and their followers demanded that the president and the leaders of the central office of the PFDJ account for their follies. After initially appearing willing to compromise with the Group of 15, many of whom were important figures in the independence struggle, Afwerki <a href="http://www.freeourparents-eritrea.com/who-are-the-eritrean-g15-and-where-are-they-now/">rounded up the group</a> and their followers in September 2001 using the excuse of 9/11 for his actions. </p>
<p>He also <a href="https://cpj.org/2001/09/government-suspends-all-private-newspapers.php">closed down all private newspapers</a> and detained all the journalists who worked for the papers. Since September 2001, thousands of citizens have been held incommunicado in detention without being charged. Nobody knows whether those who were detained in September 2001 and after <a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/map-of-secret-prison-network-in-eritrea-pinpoints-infrastructure-of-repression">are dead or still alive</a>, languishing in the thousands of dungeons in the country.</p>
<p>Available evidence <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22460836">suggests there are about 10,000 prisoners in the country</a>. Prisoners are subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. One former detainee in an underground cell in Wi’a told Amnesty International: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We couldn’t lie down [in the underground cell]. It’s best to be standing because if you lie down, your skin remains stuck to the floor. The floor is terribly hot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His is only one of many such reports. It makes for deeply distressing reading.</p>
<h2>Disaster unfolds</h2>
<p>The national service whose duration was originally 18 months has become open-ended. The government’s justification is Ethiopia’s <a href="http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajcr/article/viewFile/39404/29625">refusal to be bound by the Algiers peace agreement</a>, arguing that in view of Ethiopia’s intransigence, war may break out at any time and hence Eritrea cannot take the risk of demobilising its conscripts. </p>
<p>Contrary to all expectations, post-independence Eritrea <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/5465fea1381.html">has become one of the region’s major producers of refugees</a>. The indefinite national service – which has over time degenerated into forced labour, savage repression of political dissent and free speech and the collapse of the public service and the private sector coupled with the nationalisation of land, are driving Eritreans in their tens of thousands to seek refuge. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.unhcr.org/5465fea1381.html">The UNHCR reported</a> recently that 22% of boat arrivals in Italy were Eritreans – some 34,000 people. While the UN and the wider international community sits by and does nothing to put pressure on this is developing into a full-blown humanitarian disaster.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaim Kibreab does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Post-independence Eritrea has descended into poverty and repression forcing huge numbers to flee to safety and a better life.Gaim Kibreab, Professor of Refugee Studies, London South Bank UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/410072015-04-30T13:50:00Z2015-04-30T13:50:00ZEurope must stop shifting the blame for the migrant crisis<p>In a very reluctant, not quite shame-faced way, Europe has moved to restore sea patrols to their previous level to rescue the “boat people” of today – fleeing from war-torn countries across the Mediterranean to “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2014/jan/refugee-choices-interactive">fortress Europe</a>” and its unwelcoming debates over people from elsewhere.</p>
<p>These debates have been exacerbated by elections and the alarmist rhetoric accompanying them. The rise of right-wing parties who see simple prohibitions of migration as a cure for all social ills is a feature of the political landscapes from the UK to France to Germany and beyond.</p>
<p>But the Mediterranean crisis is a timely reminder of just how complicated the issue really is – even when the moral imperative to save lives could not be clearer.</p>
<h2>Whose guilt?</h2>
<p>Most obviously, by any normal European standard of moral behaviour, human beings cannot be left to drown when they could be saved. Rescuing them is not the same as giving them right of abode.</p>
<p>But on top of that, European countries must accept that they have made the process of claiming asylum absurdly difficult and long-winded. The need for reform is clearly desperate, and it must be done without entirely <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/may/26/immigration">stripping the process of hope</a> for claimants. The justice of Europe’s immigration and asylum processes, not just their outcomes, is also on trial here.</p>
<p>There’s also another appallingly simple factor. Insofar as a very large number of African and Middle Eastern migrants are refugees from wars that Europe has waged, with the destruction of their cities, livelihoods, and hopes – or are refugees from authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that Europe has supported – Europe cannot shrug off the consequences of its own bad judgements. </p>
<p>Too often and in too many places, its nations have either waged war without plans for the aftermath, or not helped when they could have (as in the case of <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-how-much-are-european-countries-doing-to-help-shelter-syrian-refugees-38731">Syria</a>). We cannot impose guilt upon those seeking to escape conditions for which we ourselves should feel at least some guilt. And then there are different forms of war that people flee, which are of course not all caused by Europe – the never-ending <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30128002">conscription</a> in paranoid Eritrea is a case in point.</p>
<h2>Bad experiments</h2>
<p>All of these people contend with the extortionate and brutal methods of people-traffickers, who make people pay huge prices for shipment to Europe and then force people who cannot swim into tiny boats at gunpoint. </p>
<p>And the world over, there are various “experiments” in how to treat refugees and asylum seekers underway. Australia tows them to third-party territories. Israel is said to be agreeing exactly such a deal with Rwanda for its own <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/israel-deal-deport-eritrean-sudanese-refugees-uganda-rwanda-just-scare-tactics-1494374">Eritrean and Sudanese refugees</a>. How such arrangements stack up in terms of international law seems moot.</p>
<p>On this scale, the Italians have a record of relative generosity towards refugees. But the current crisis will not stop at Italy. Other Mediterranean EU countries with long and open coastlines include Greece and Croatia. Seal off one destination and others will be found.</p>
<p>Now that the EU has agreed to <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-to-crack-down-on-smuggling-in-response-to-migrant-crisis-european-council-president-says-1429796498">triple its funding for sea patrols</a> (which were insufficient even before they were dialled back), Europe could at least get into a proper debate as to how to handle the Mediterranean boat people of today. </p>
<p>They must not become cheap fodder for self-serving exercises we cravenly brand as “democracy”, pouring scorn on people who are often seeking nothing more than a free and democratic way of life – and who apparently value it rather more than we do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
It’s absurd that Europe continues to blame migrants seeking a better life for their own fate.Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/407552015-04-27T19:49:02Z2015-04-27T19:49:02ZSomething vital is missing from EU’s 10-point plan to stop deaths at sea<p>The unprecedented loss of life in the Mediterranean in recent weeks has forced European leaders to confront the crisis of deaths at sea. But will they take a fresh look at their governments’ own role in producing these fatalities? Or will they persist with a failed approach that projects responsibility for deaths exclusively onto people smugglers?</p>
<p>Announcing the European Union’s emergency <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4813_en.htm">10-point plan</a>, foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that avoiding migrant deaths in the Mediterranean was a moral obligation of the EU. However, this moral awakening seems not to have prompted any genuine soul searching that could provide new thinking about the ongoing calamity.</p>
<p>Consistently defining the problem of deaths at sea in terms of people smuggling, and its more sinister counterpart of human trafficking, is politically expedient for governments. It provides an analysis that seems self-evident. It supplies a visible and easily reviled culprit. </p>
<p>Most of all, this approach deflects attention away from earlier stages of the migratory process where offshore border controls established by these same governments have already done their work by denying access to regulated modes of travel for those who need it most.</p>
<h2>People in need of help left with few options</h2>
<p>Missing from the 10-point plan is any indication that European governments will reflect critically on how their own policies are fuelling demand for unsafe modes of travel. These are effectively channelling people to their deaths. </p>
<p>If European leaders were serious about preventing deaths they would insert an 11th point in their plan: “Reduce the demand for irregular modes of travel by dismantling the invisible barriers we have created to accessing safe, legally regulated cross-border transport.”</p>
<p>The world’s attention is understandably focused on the dramatic endgame of these migratory struggles through the visible spectacle of sinkings, rescues, military interdictions, detentions and arrests. However, the real work of border control is carried on in ways that are <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2549660">relatively invisible</a> and seemingly innocuous.</p>
<p>The advent of information technology has enabled technologically advanced governments to extend their border controls beyond their own territories. They have created a virtual border of risk-based visas and electronic pre-boarding checks. This prevents many “high risk” (aka desperate) people from boarding commercial flights and ferries that are heading their way.</p>
<p>An asylum seeker arriving in Europe in the 1970s or ’80s would have encountered European border officials for the first time when they stepped off a ship or plane, with or without a visa. Today, the virtual border immobilises or redirects most of them long before they get that far. This often has serious consequences for both their immediate safety and their search for long-term security.</p>
<p>Due to the relative invisibility of these pre-emptive measures, sovereignty is effectively being exercised by stealth. This invisible border is therefore an extraordinarily efficient and unaccountable form of power.</p>
<p>By shifting the locations at which travellers are selected for entry or exclusion, the virtual border shapes travel opportunities in powerful ways that may be difficult to track. This has significant implications for people seeking international protection.</p>
<h2>Virtual borders: dehumanised and unaccountable</h2>
<p>The virtual border is an example of new forms of governance that are emerging in the digital age. These operate through networks of information exchange with devastating efficiency and impact. Social theorist <a href="http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/5/795.full">Pat O’Malley has dubbed</a> these technology-mediated filtering mechanisms “telemetric policing”, as they are emptied of human content and operate at a distance.</p>
<p>He notes that systems of telemetric policing are likely to generate relatively little political resistance. They therefore evade traditional forms of democratic accountability, since the exclusions they enforce are largely invisible, being “buried in the transactions of everyday life”.</p>
<p>In relation to border control, telemetric policing operates through transnational digital networks. These effectively impose a system of global apartheid in relation to mobility. The effects become visible only when individuals seek to challenge their exclusion by evading these controls, often with fatal consequences.</p>
<p>Still, the virtual border is rarely exposed to scrutiny and condemned for the over-reach of sovereignty it represents. This is because the spectre of people smuggling can be invoked to provide a simpler explanation and a more obvious and immediate villain.</p>
<h2>Human rights and root causes neglected</h2>
<p>European <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.migreurop.org%2Farticle2598.html%3Flang%3Den&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHrwam3VKv9vHQIIHD2gr0p2SLoPg">NGOs have implored</a> the European Council to show leadership by opening safe and legal channels of movement. They have expressed their dismay at the persistence of EU governments in maintaining their people-smuggling rhetoric. The <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/nils-mui%C5%BEnieks/crisis-in-mediterranean-europe-must-change-course">EU human rights commissioner has added his voice</a> to calls for the urgent creation of safe migration routes. </p>
<p>The resulting <a href="http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=21690&lang=en">resolution of the European Council</a> has reiterated the “managed migration” message of strong action against people smuggling alongside burden sharing and attention to root causes. Although it acknowledges that safe routes are needed, it has once again left unexamined the damaging effects of the invisible border and the presumed right of European states to express their sovereignty offshore.</p>
<p>If lives are going to be saved, all factors leading to deaths at sea need to be openly scrutinised. This includes the largely unseen virtual border that fuels the visible problem of irregular travel and sinkings, for which the war on people smugglers is then invoked as the solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leanne Weber receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Political leaders have a ready culprit in people smugglers for drownings at sea. The problem is that this ignores responsibility for eliminating all other options for these people to avoid harm.Leanne Weber, ARC Future Fellow in Border Policing, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/407352015-04-23T21:42:47Z2015-04-23T21:42:47ZMigrant crisis: can Europe’s leaders deliver real change or will it be business as usual?<p>European leaders have assembled in Brussels in an attempt to come up with a way of preventing the deaths of hundreds of migrants as they try to escape conflict and poverty in Africa by crossing the Mediterranean. But at the special European summit on Thursday, the <a href="http://eeas.europa.eu/statements-eeas/2015/150420_04_en.htm">unity of purpose</a> which European leaders were proclaiming in their response to migrants at the weekend appeared to have faded. </p>
<p>The result is <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/04/23-final-remarks-tusk-european-council-migration/">relatively narrow agreement</a> on an immediate emergency response to enhance search and rescue capabilities, and on investigating proposals for a militarised response to dealing with smugglers. The problem has moved from being seen as a complex humanitarian, social, economic and political problem, to being seen as a problem of criminality and illegal migration.</p>
<p>Member states – rather than the EU – set migration policy. And with countries understandably unwilling to give the EU a mandate to act in this area, but also historically unable to agree among themselves about practical initiatives, this European Council meeting seems significant. Yet the key areas where member states agreed to act collectively, and to endorse a role for the European Commission (“Brussels”) were quite predictable.</p>
<p>Other measures remain off the table. Concrete EU-wide policies, and resources, to support the accommodation of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, and processing of asylum applications, are not detailed. There is deafening silence on the question of how the absence of legitimate routes to migrate to the EU leads people to travel on these dangerous routes to Europe.</p>
<h2>Search and rescue</h2>
<p>There are three major proposals agreed, although details remain unexplained, and will be vital in determining how effective they will be.</p>
<p>The first is the tripling of the funding and assets (boats and aerial surveillance) for Frontex’s <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/frontex-launches-joint-operation-triton-JSYpL7">Triton</a> mission. This was designed to create a significant political message and it has captured the headlines. Triton’s funding will match directly the resources which funded the Italian navy’s search and rescue mission, Mare Nostrum. European leaders it seems, have been stung by criticisms of how their lack of commitment to joint action has led to foreseeable deaths. </p>
<p>How long this extended funding is committed for is unclear. Nor does it mean turning Triton into a search-and-rescue mission. <a href="http://video.consilium.europa.eu/webcast.aspx?ticket=775-980-15736">It was argued</a> that trying to change Frontex’s mandate would involve a long political and legal process – and enhancing its surveillance capacity immediately would enable it to act more effectively in response to distress calls. </p>
<p>Another headline-grabbing change is new commitments from member states to contribute national resources to search and rescue operations. A closer look shows that these resource commitments may be more limited in practice – <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b690a476-e9d7-11e4-a687-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3Y6hhk4au">in the case of the UK, they maybe limited to only two months</a>: in this case, the assistance would be withdrawn even before the peak season for crossings begins.</p>
<h2>Limited resettlement</h2>
<p>The second key proposal is to develop an EU-co-ordinated pilot programme to resettle the migrants coming across the Mediterranean. This would apparently provide places for some people to be re-settled in countries other than the ones they enter.</p>
<p>For the first time, this assigns the EU – probably through the European Commission or one its agencies – the role of co-ordinating a migration programme. However, it’s clear that member states are <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4072b00-e8ff-11e4-b7e8-00144feab7de.html#axzz3Y6hhk4au">not fully agreed on this policy</a>. Participation by member states in this programme is necessarily voluntary, as the EU has no mechanism for formally organising resettlement among member states. The success of the programme will depend on whether countries are willing to take part - and we already have indications that [many are not](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32435230](France, the UK, Finland among others).</p>
<h2>On the offensive</h2>
<p>There seems to be the most agreement on the third proposal. This is to ask the commissioner for foreign relations to investigate the possibility of moving towards a policy of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/11556561/EU-leaders-to-consider-military-intervention-against-Libyan-migrant-traffickers.html">seizing and destroying</a> boats being used to traffic migrants across the sea.</p>
<p>This proposal is highly speculative, and perhaps for that reason, easy for member states to agree on. To undertake such a military-style mission in the Mediterranean might require a UN mandate, and given current relations between the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dangerous-talk-can-only-muddy-waters-as-crisis-between-west-and-russia-deepens-39725">EU and Russia</a>, this seems unlikely to be forthcoming.</p>
<p>This third option reflects the focus on illegal migration and criminality at the European Council meeting. It means that national political leaders can be seen to be doing something about the crisis without having to answer questions about accepting refugees.</p>
<h2>Same old story</h2>
<p>So far, then, the response to the tragedies looks increasingly like business-as-usual. There are more resources pledged for search and rescue in today’s blaze of publicity, but details of that deployment will not be clear for some days or weeks.</p>
<p>Overall, the summit outcome reflects a long-standing pattern in EU policy-making on migration in the Mediterranean. The high degree of conflict among member states has frequently lead to political stalemate and agreements are only reached on the minimal shared responses.</p>
<p>Such policies of the lowest common denominator have proved inadequate for dealing with the political, social, economic and humanitarian problems raised by migration across the Mediterranean. The risk is that once the headlines have faded, that this summit of European leaders will prove similarly inadequate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Carmel receives funding for her research from the United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council (NORFACE programme).</span></em></p>It remains to be seen whether the EU’s narrow approach can prevent further deaths in the Mediterranean.Emma Carmel, Senior Lecturer, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/407372015-04-23T19:10:44Z2015-04-23T19:10:44ZTo deal with the refugee crisis you need to understand the cause<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/deaths-at-sea-scant-hope-for-the-future-from-europes-history-of-failure-on-migrants-40596">ongoing crisis in the Mediterranean</a>, which has seen more than 30 times as many people die as in the same period last year, has evoked unprecedented media attention. What should be about a humanitarian tragedy has become hijacked by opportunist politicians, who in many cases have fundamentally and wilfully misrepresented the underlying causes of the problem. If solutions are based on that misrepresentation, they will fail and have harmful consequences.</p>
<p>From early in the week, Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/opinion/matteo-renzi-helping-the-migrants-is-everyones-duty.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0&gwh=FF1F94258D9664BC01E16A1118E3E17E&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion">focused on proclaiming a “war on trafficking”</a>, describing it as “the slavery of our time”.</p>
<p>UK foreign secretary, Phillip Hammond and others followed suit. Yet there are at least two problems with this narrative. First, it fails to <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/sarah-pierce/vital-difference-between-human-trafficking-and-migrant-smuggling">distinguish between “trafficking” and “smuggling”</a>, the former being irrelevant in this context.</p>
<p>Second, and more importantly, it fails to recognise that smuggling does not cause migration, it responds to an underlying demand. Criminalising the smugglers serves as a convenient scapegoat. But it cannot solve the problem. It will simply displace the problem, increase prices, introduce ever less scrupulous market entrants, and make journey ever more perilous.</p>
<h2>Crisis of displacement</h2>
<p>The real causes of the tragedy are two-fold. First, we need to situate the tragedy in a broader context. There is a global displacement crisis. Around the world, more people are displaced than at any time since the World War II. Globally, there are more than 50m displaced and 16m refugees. To take the case of Syria, there are 9m displaced Syrians; 3m of whom are refugees. Most are in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. But countries like Jordan and Lebanon – whose capacities are stretched to breaking point – are now closing their borders and in need of international burden-sharing. These people have to go somewhere and increasingly they are travelling on to Europe in search of protection. </p>
<p>Second, the cause of the deaths can be directly linked to Europe’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/opting-out-of-mediterranean-rescue-condemns-desperate-migrants-to-death-32512">decision to end the Italian search and rescue operation Mare Nostrum</a> in November 2014 and replace it with the inadequately funded EU-run Operation Triton. Mare Nostrum saved more than 100,000 lives last year. Since the ending of Mare Nostrum many fewer have been rescued and many more have died. To address the crisis, it is these two causes that need to be looked at first.</p>
<p>We know from existing data that the people crossing the Mediterranean are increasingly from <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/04/economist-explains-20?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ee/migrationacrossmediterraneanexplains">refugee-producing countries such as Syria, Eritrea, and Somalia</a>. While some – coming from West Africa – may well be more likely to be leaving poverty or seeking opportunity, a huge proportion are therefore fleeing conflict and persecution and are in need of international protection. </p>
<p>We have international legal obligations to protect such people. Yet the EU has largely failed to recognise this. On Monday, the EU held an emergency meeting in Luxembourg at which it produced a <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4813_en.htm">ten-point plan</a>. This was vague in detail but the emphasis was on dismantling the smugglers and on containing migration from within North Africa. References to humanitarian roles such as expanding Triton and refugee resettlement remained under-specified. The logic, in other words, was primarily about containment and counter-smuggling operations.</p>
<p>This emphasis has been repeated in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/22/most-migrants-crossing-mediterranean-will-be-sent-back-eu-leaders-to-agree">leaked draft statement of the EU Summit</a>. The statement highlights deportation and immigration control; it is a manifesto for containment. It proposes to deport 150,000 people and offer relocation across Europe of up to a quota of 5,000 while emphasising the aspiration to bolster Libya’s capacity to control migration to the EU. It again shows a misunderstanding of the underlying causes of the problem, and it likely to be inconsistent with international refugee and human rights law.</p>
<p>There are no simple solutions to this issue. But the key to finding solutions is by putting the issue in its broader context. The UN rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau, has been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/22/uns-francois-crepeau-on-the-refugee-crisis-instead-of-resisting-migration-lets-organise-it">among the most articulate in highlighting this</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/5538d9079.html">joint statement</a> by Antonio Guterres, Peter Sutherland, Bill Swing and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has emphasised the need for solutions that go beyond the “minimalist” EU response. These include a well-resourced search-and-rescue operation; channels for safe and regular migration; making a firm commitment to receive significantly higher numbers of refugees through EU-wide resettlement; bolstering arrangements for more equitable burden-sharing within Europe and combating racism and xenophobia. These are sensible solutions and advance the debate.</p>
<p>However, to ultimately, address the underlying causes of the issue a global and comprehensive approach is needed. It is a symptom of a global displacement crisis needs to be addressed in a comprehensive way. </p>
<h2>Learning from history</h2>
<p>There are instructive lessons from history. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, literally hundreds of thousands of Indochinese “boat people” crossed territorial waters from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia towards South-East Asian host states such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, as well as Hong Kong. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the host states, facing an influx, pushed many of the boats back into the water and people drowned. Like today, there was a public response to images of people drowning on television and in newspapers. But addressing the issue took political leadership and large-scale international cooperation.</p>
<p>In 1989 under UNHCR leadership, a <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/43eb6a152.html">Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA)</a> was agreed for Indochinese refugees. It was based on an international agreement for sharing responsibility. The receiving countries in South-East Asia agreed to keep their borders open, engage in search and rescue operations and provide reception to the boat people. </p>
<p>But they did so based on two sets of commitments from other states. First, a coalition of governments – the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European states – committed to resettle all those who were judged to be refugees. Second, alternative and humane solutions including return and alternative, legal immigration channels were found for those who were not refugees in need of international protection. The CPA led to millions being resettled and the most immediate humanitarian challenge was addressed.</p>
<p>The CPA was not perfect and it is not a perfect analogy to the contemporary Mediterranean, but it highlights the need to a broader framework based on international cooperation and responsibility-sharing. The elements of a solution to the contemporary crisis have to be at a number of different levels. </p>
<p>These include improvements in search and rescue to return to at least the capacity of Mare Nostrum; more equitable burden-sharing and relocation of refugees within the European Union; support to gradually build to protection and human rights capacities of transit countries. In addition to these creative solutions and additional support are needed for refugee-hosting countries in regions of origin – and we need to promote the refugees’ capacities to contribute to their host state. Finally, we need a European resettlement scheme that reflects a commitment to proportionately share responsibility for the global refugee population. </p>
<p>Above all, though, solutions have to come from a reaffirmation of the need to uphold asylum and refugee protection, and to see these as a shared global responsibility.</p>
<p>If there is to be a silver lining to the current crisis, it stems from the opportunity to political leadership to reframe how refugees are seen by the public and to come up with creative solutions for refugees and vulnerable migrants on a global scale. </p>
<p>But that will take political courage and leadership.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40737/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Betts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This is not about people smuggling, it’s about a displacement crisis of unprecedented proportions.Alexander Betts, Leopold Muller Associate Professor in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/405962015-04-22T14:32:10Z2015-04-22T14:32:10ZDeaths at sea: scant hope for the future from Europe’s history of failure on migrants<p>Europe is today the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11548995/Mediterranean-migrant-crisis-hits-Italy-as-EU-ministers-meet-live.html">deadliest migration destination in the world</a> and the Mediterranean is becoming an open-air cemetery. In spite of worldwide condemnations – from civil society to global institutions such as UNHCR – the EU’s approach has been hopeless. While deploring deaths at sea, it has been unable, over the past three years, to act as the responsible political authority it ought to be – preferring to leave Italy to tackle the problem alone.</p>
<p>The tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean is a severe blow for the European common migration and asylum policy. Thought of initially as an accompanying measure to the achievement of the EU single market by easing the freedom of movement of people internally, it has drifted towards a Fortress Europe for most outsiders. </p>
<p>In 2004, between <a href="http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/FatalJourneys_CountingtheUncounted.pdf">700 and 1,000 died each year as they tried to cross into Europe from Africa</a> depending on whose numbers you consulted. This number <a href="http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/FatalJourneys_CountingtheUncounted.pdf">almost tripled in 2011</a> and included migrants dying in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Malta, Italy, Spain, Algeria, Greece, but also people shot dead on the Moroccan-Spanish border in Ceuta and Melilla or drowned in the Evros river on the Greek-Turkish border.</p>
<p>Migrants have long tried to escape both poverty and violent conflict by crossing into Europe, but the consensus is that the building of a restrictive common EU migration policy – which allows fewer legal ways of coming to Europe – and more sophisticated surveillance to enforce this policy have contributed to this stark increase in the number of deaths. </p>
<p>So, one of the most popular migrant routes in 2004, <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/trends-and-routes/western-african-route/">the West African route</a> – which involved taking sea passage from West African countries, mainly Senegal and Mauritania, into the Canary Islands – has become largely disused. Compared to the 31,600 illegal migrants detected by Frontex in 2008, only 275 migrants took this route in 2014. </p>
<p>Cooperation between Spain, Mauritania and Senegal involving more sophisticated surveillance – as well as repatriation agreements with West African countries which have returned thousands to their countries of origin – have prompted migrants to take different routes, mainly <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/trends-and-routes/central-mediterranean-route/">the central Mediterranean route</a> that goes through Libya. The Gilbraltar strait is now well controlled by the Spanish Integrated System of External Vigilance which has forced migrants to divert via longer and more dangerous routes. </p>
<p>Since the fall of Gaddafi the absence of a stable government in Libya has caused a considerable disruption of border controls in and out of the country which has led human traffickers concentrate their efforts there. And it has also <a href="http://www.globalinitiative.net/download/global-initiative/Global%20Initiative%20-%20Migration%20from%20Africa%20to%20Europe%20-%20May%202014.pdf">been reported </a> that restrictive border controls in Israel and the Gulf – Saudi Arabia has built a 1,800km fence on its border with Yemen – has prompted many migrants, notably from East Africa, to head for Europe instead. After Syrians fleeing the civil war, Eritreans are the most common nationals found attempting the central Mediterranean route. </p>
<h2>Mare Nostrum and Triton</h2>
<p>Faced with the indecisiveness of its European partners over the migratory flows the Italian government <a href="http://www.ceps.eu/system/files/LSE_79.pdf">unilaterally</a> established its Mare Nostrum operation, which ran from October 2013 to October 2014 and patrolled 70,000km in the Sicily Straits at a cost of Euros 9m per month (US$9.6). <a href="http://www.marina.difesa.it/EN/operations/Pagine/MareNostrum.aspx">This involved</a> more than 900 Italian staff, 32 naval units and two submarines taking shifts amounting to more than 45,000 hours of active operations. The Italian navy reports that during the Mare Nostrum operation it engaged in 421 operations and saved 150.810 migrants, seizing 5 ships and bringing to justice 330 alleged smugglers. </p>
<p>But by the end of 2014 the burdens of running Mare Nostrum alone were becoming too much for Italy, which was keen to involve its European partners. The Triton programme, coordinated by the EU border agency Frontex and under the command of the Italian ministry of Interior, was duly established, on a much smaller scale than Mare Nostrum – <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/more-technical-support-needed-for-operation-triton-IKo5CG">Triton deploys</a> two ocean patrol vessels, two coastal patrol vessels, two coastal patrol boats, two aircraft and a single helicopter. </p>
<p>It also has no mandate for rescue-at-sea operations since its job is to control EU’s external maritime and land borders. Before last week’s tragedy, 24,400 irregular migrants have been rescued since November 2014, mostly by Italy. Some <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/2-400-migrants-rescued-off-libyan-coast-before-easter-8k1Cj9">7,860 migrants were saved by assets co-financed by Frontex</a>.</p>
<p>The horror at the rocketing numbers of deaths in the Mediterranean in recent weeks has at last prompted the EU to call for concerted action by its member states – and <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4813_en.htm">the ten-point action plan</a> endorsed by European foreign and interior ministers on April 20 calls for an strengthening of Frontex Triton and Poseidon’s operations. </p>
<p>But the question of Frontex mandate on rescue at sea has not been addressed and nor has its inadequate budget, which is around Euro 2.9m monthly – just one-third of Mare Nostrum’s. Instead, increased cooperation between Europol, Eurojust, the European Asylum Support Office and Frontex and the deployment of immigration liaison officers to “gather intelligence on smugglers” are very vague action points which appear to merely repackage existing measures. </p>
<h2>Needed: a joined-up policy</h2>
<p>It is actually quite clear what the EU should be aiming for. First, a much larger rescue-at-sea operation should immediately be put in place. Since Italy halted Mare Nostrum, deaths at sea have increased rapidly. Its inadequate replacement, Triton, provides a convenient scapegoat for politicians who should never have mandated Frontex – the EU Border agency – for the task of rescue at sea in the first place. What is needed from the EU is to agree a collective system of rescue at sea – rather than relying on the efforts of individual EU member states.</p>
<p>Second, there must be safer, legal, avenues for asylum in Europe. Migrants are not just fleeing poverty, they are fleeing violence, danger and repression. At present most of them end up in Libya, which is in itself a very dangerous place; the hope of reaching safety in Europe prompts these refugees to risk highly perilous – and expensive – escape routes. Many are dying at sea. </p>
<p>This is not likely to go away anytime soon and building legal, virtual or real fences won’t help. For some of those migrants, Europe could offer humanitarian visas and others could take advantage of family reunion with relatives already in Europe. Employment programmes could identify jobs to fill key shortages in the European economy. Offering more and easier legal means would necessarily lead to a fall in irregular migration. </p>
<p>We also need to establish a joined-up policy involving not just destination countries, but places of origin and transit countries. For many years the EU has been relying on non-members to police its borders. This is a flawed approach – rather than simply offering financial compensation, the EU needs to revise its incentives and provide what these origin and transit countries want: visa facilitation and trade and access to the EU single market. It’s time to work out an effective cooperation, not merely trying to impose a top-down security agenda, which is doomed to fail. Also doomed to fail is the traditional approach which has relied on southern European states and their neighbours dealing with the surge of refugees. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ecre.org/topics/areas-of-work/protection-in-europe/10-dublin-regulation.html">Dublin convention</a>, which was established in 1990 to regulate the assignment of asylum applications processing, is surely no longer viable. A system that reassigns applications of asylum-seekers to the country they first entered puts southern Europe under excessive strain – especially as countries such as Greece lacks the capacity to host and process applications while observing their human rights obligations. The 2015 <a href="http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/tarakhel-v-switzerland-another-nail-in.html">Tarakhel vs. Switzerland</a> is the latest of a series of cases which highlight the inefficiency of that system. It is high time to review the notion of “burden-sharing” within the EU.</p>
<h2>Not needed: the Australian solution</h2>
<p>Tony Abbott’s suggestion that Europe should follow Australia’s example and simply turn boats back, or ship all rescued refugees and migrants to off-shore processing centres is certainly not a serious proposal. By diverting migrants to Papua New Guinea islands of Manus and Naura, Australia has been found to violate its international law obligations. Meanwhile, to Australia’s shame, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA12/002/2013/en/">Amnesty International</a> has documented numerous human rights abuses in these processing centres. </p>
<p>Australia’s refugee policy is not only inhumane, but apparently rather expensive: AU$342.2m ($256.5) was spent by Australian Customs and Border Protection Service <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/PeopleSmuggling#_Toc366059596">for its Civil Maritime Surveillance and Response</a> programme – which involves policing illegal maritime arrivals. </p>
<p>Following Australia’s example is <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/04/21/l-australie-evite-les-naufrages-de-migrants-a-coup-de-millions-et-de-camps-offshore_4620026_4355770.html#xtor=AL-32280270%20">unrealistic</a> as it relies so heavily on siting its offshore facilities in its neighbouring countries. Given the long-standing reluctance of north African and Middle Eastern countries to play that role – and given their own limited capacities, this is never going to work. The migratory flows are much larger, for a start. </p>
<p>Adopting Australian’s offshore processing of boat people would not only contravene EU and international law but would also probably reveal that the EU is going adrift and that, next to a governance crisis, it is undergoing a deep moral and ethical crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Wolff receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust and has previously received funding from the Fulbright-Schuman Grant and the Rijksbanken Jubileumsfond</span></em></p>Thanks to a lack of joined-up policy on refugees, the Mediterranean has become the world’s most dangerous migrant destination.Sarah Wolff, Lecturer, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/405792015-04-21T18:12:05Z2015-04-21T18:12:05ZEurope has finally woken up to migrant deaths in the Med – but can it deliver a united response?<p>It is common to describe the deaths of hundreds of people in the Mediterranean sea over the last few days as “a tragedy” and “a crisis”. The suffering of victims, their families and their home communities is indeed <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-eu-must-do-now-to-halt-this-tragedy-on-its-shores-40486">shocking and extreme</a>. Yet the idea that this is a tragedy and crisis is perhaps misleading.</p>
<p>What makes something a tragedy is that it is a fateful, unpredictable and unpreventable event. A crisis on the other hand is a problem that has recently become suddenly more urgent and extreme. The recent deaths in the Mediterranean were none of these. </p>
<p>On the contrary, they were predictable, and predicted. Since the summer of 2014, the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx">UNHCR has put out 10 statements calling for action</a> to prevent the deaths of migrants putting to sea in the Mediterranean. Over the past five years at least, several thousand people have died in the Mediterranean in capsized boats and these have periodically hit the news headlines. However, up until now, the pattern of the political response in Europe has also been largely predictable and mostly ineffective. </p>
<p>This is for two main reasons. First because the migration across the Mediterranean represents a difficult political, social and economic problem, with complex origins. Secondly, because there has been political stalemate in the EU about the responsibilities of different member states and about what “<a href="http://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/comments/2013C36_adt_engler_schneider.pdf">burden-sharing</a>” means in practice. </p>
<h2>Could this time be different?</h2>
<p>There is evidence to support the idea that this time the political response in the EU might be different comes from several sources.</p>
<p>The current EU commission, lead by Jean-Claude Juncker, had already prioritised the issue of migration in its “<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/docs/pg_en.pdf">political guidelines</a>. Now there has been a marked change of tone in the declarations from the European Commission. </p>
<p>These were previously characterised by a barely concealed frustration with the resistance of member states to resolve questions of burden sharing. But following the most recent deaths, European Council vice-president Federica Mogherini talked of <a href="http://eeas.europa.eu/statements-eeas/2015/150420_04_en.htm">"finally” securing a “European response”</a> while an agreement to deal with the issue was referred to by Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Commissioner for Migration, as a “<a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-15-4455_en.htm">shared responsibility</a>”.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/20/italy-ran-an-operation-that-save-thousands-of-migrants-from-drowning-in-the-mediterranean-why-did-it-stop/">apparent success of Mare Nostrum</a> and the predicted drastic human cost of its withdrawal and then replacement with the relatively <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/15/eu-states-migrant-rescue-operations-mediterranean">limited EU-level Triton mission</a> has been pivotal in justifying the need to enhance Triton – and, now, to extend its mission. In particular, this evidence seems to have stung the German government into a <em>volte face</em> on the <a href="http://www.dw.de/opinion-eu-needs-a-new-refugee-policy/a-18392877">need to enhance the EU’s mission</a> in the Mediterranean.</p>
<h2>What is proposed?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4813_en.htm">ten-point</a> plan agreed by ministers on Monday has at its heart a very significant change in the level of EU (as opposed to member-state) involvement in regulating the Mediterranean. For this a legal mandate is required (points one and two of the plan). This would change the balance of authority between member-state action and that of the EU in the Mediterranean, strongly in favour of the EU.</p>
<p>This would also involve a considerably higher level of militarisation of the Mediterranean, especially if a new or expanded mission gains a mandate to destroy boats used to carry irregular migrants. Other significant measures which would further “Europeanise” policy in this area are the deployment of EU-mandated asylum officers in Italy and Greece and of immigration liaison officers in transit countries.</p>
<p>The EU is also going to provide support to the main entry countries for enhancing “rapid return” (Avramopoulos called these “<a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-2140_en.htm">front-line states</a>”), involving more flights back to countries of transit and origin. Member states are tasked specifically with ensuring that all migrants have fingerprints taken and are screened and recorded, as a way of monitoring irregular migration, dealing with smugglers and identifying those in need of protection. </p>
<p>There are only two proposals, both much more speculative than the other points, which refer to supporting migrants on arrival. One is a proposal for a possible, very limited – and pilot – resettlement programme across the EU (point 7). The other is to have a review to consider policy options on how to accommodate migrants in emergency situations (point 6).</p>
<h2>What are the barriers?</h2>
<p>There remain significant barriers to the successful implementation of real change in policy on this issue. The first barrier is that real political commitment for the ten-point plan is not yet secured. For this, agreement in Thursday’s extraordinary meeting of EU member state heads of government will be required. </p>
<p>Yet there is still evidence of political reluctance to substantially enhance support for an EU search-and-rescue operation – <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/mediterranean-migrant-search-david-cameron-under-fire-over-decision-cut-support-1497429">notably from the UK</a>. However, it is also notable that the <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fafd98fe-e77e-11e4-8ebb-00144feab7de.html#axzz3XxLP0NBZ">UK is also keen to focus on smugglers and trafficking operations</a>, a policy on which most member states can agree. </p>
<p>It is relatively straightforward to gain agreement from member states for those measures which justify higher security and more militarisation of the Mediterranean. Agreement on the proposals for speedy and humanitarian processing of aslyum applications, accommodation and settlement of refugees will be more difficult to generate.</p>
<p>This brings us to the second major barrier to real change in policy – and that involves more critical reflections on the ten-point plan and its proposals. Seven of the ten measures – and all those most concretely proposed – revolve around enhancing security and military policy responses. These policies reflect the way in which the EU has historically responded to irregular migration, but they are unlikely to solve the problem in the long term. </p>
<p>Most EU member states have recognised the importance of development to reduce irregular migration, but little concrete action is forthcoming so far. Meanwhile, most migrants from outside the EU have little or no access to legal routes to migration, as immigration policies of member states remain highly restrictive. Yet the political conflict, economic inequalities and social harm which drive people to abandon their homes are increasing, not decreasing. </p>
<p>Unless and until the EU has secured agreement from member states for a set of policy measures which involve more than picking people up, destroying their ramshackle boats, fingerprinting them, putting them on planes and sending them back to the countries they have come from and travelled through, then this is not a European solution to endorse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Carmel receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (NORFACE programme). The views expressed here are her own.</span></em></p>Mass migration from outside the EU has proved too hard a problem for the community to handle.Emma Carmel, Senior Lecturer, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/404862015-04-20T14:53:15Z2015-04-20T14:53:15ZWhat the EU must do now to halt this tragedy on its shores<p>How much is a human life worth? How many more people have to die to generate enough momentum for Europe to intervene? Unfortunately these are not rhetorical questions. More than 1,500 people have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean on their way from North Africa since the start of 2015. </p>
<p>Many Europeans are wondering how much longer Europe can ignore the tragedy unfolding on its doorstep while politicians and policy makers weigh up the political and economic cost of saving lives at sea. </p>
<p>Italy has argued that its search and rescue Mare Nostrum operation, which saved <a href="http://www.marina.difesa.it/EN/operations/Pagine/MareNostrum.aspx">150,000 asylum seekers and migrants in 12 months</a> at an estimated cost of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/31/italy-sea-mission-thousands-risk">€9m a month</a> was economically unsustainable to run. </p>
<p>Mare Nostrum was duly replaced by the Frontex-led Triton operation. This scaled-back programme, which had originally been conceived to support Mare Nostrum and ended up replacing it, only stretched to 30 miles off European coastlines at a cost of roughly <a href="http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/society/article/from-mare-nostrum-to-triton-what-has-changed-for-migrants.html">one third of the programme it replaced</a>. EU officials argued Triton would deliver better value for money – but, tragically, you get what you pay for. Triton is certainly smaller in scale and has a narrower mandate – to police and monitor European sea borders rather than carry out rescue operations including in international waters. But with so many dead already this year, is the political sustainability of Triton now to be called into question? </p>
<p>The latest tragedy may trigger enough of an EU-wide sense of indignation to create the political support needed for a new search and rescue operation similar to Mare Nostrum. Such an operation should see a substantial involvement of the EU and of EU member states – not just <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/more-technical-support-needed-for-operation-triton-IKo5CG">Italy, Latvia, Malta, Iceland and a few others</a>. </p>
<h2>Where is the EU’s response?</h2>
<p>The EU has substantial resources, but member states have so far failed to agree a common strategy to respond to Mediterranean irregular crossings that are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/27/uk-mediterranean-migrant-rescue-plan">turning the sea into a mass graveyard</a>. The response from Italy’s prime minister, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32376082">Matteo Renzi</a> – to call for an emergency meeting of the European Council – is a start but it remains to be seen if this time he can mobilise the support of the big EU players. </p>
<p>In particular he must overcome the past striking silence of France, the timid support of Germany and open <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/27/uk-mediterranean-migrant-rescue-plan">opposition of the UK</a>. Several previous attempts have failed. However, this time the Italian PM can count on the support of Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief and former Italian foreign minister in Renzi’s cabinet. The death toll of drownings this year now stands at <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/552e603f9.html">30 times higher</a> than at the same point in 2014 when Mare Nostrum was still active, so a new enhanced version would certainly help to save lives.</p>
<p>Some, like UK prime minister David Cameron, have argued that search and rescue operations are a “pull factor” for people to attempt to make crossings, ultimately also causing more migrants to die. However both the current level of migrant arrivals and the death toll among those who never make it prove <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-was-italys-flagship-immigration-project-a-failure-38128">he was wrong</a> and that migration flows have multiple causes. </p>
<p>However, it is also clear also that rescue operations alone won’t offer a long-term solution to irregular crossings in the Mediterranean, as they do nothing to address the root causes of migration in the region, and a comprehensive EU strategy is needed. </p>
<h2>Long-term strategy</h2>
<p>As <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/19/us-europe-migrants-euro-idUSKBN0NA0GS20150419">Mogherini recently reaffirmed</a>, stabilisation of the long corridor that goes from Libya to Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq should be the priority for such a strategy. But the situation in the Horn of Africa, a decade-long war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and violent insurgencies in Nigeria and Mali also contribute to large movements of population that increase the flows across the Mediterranean. </p>
<p>To start with, the EU should focus on Libya where the end of Gaddafi’s regime left a power void. Sarkozy’s France and Cameron’s UK were as keen in leading the international military campaign to oust Gaddafi as they are now reluctant to deal with the consequences of their bombs. The ongoing civil war has torn apart communities and devastated the economy, leaving ample opportunities for human smugglers. This is unlikely to get better any time soon and boats will continue to depart from Libya for the foreseeable future. </p>
<p>From a EU perspective, it may prove more effective in the short term to look to Libya’s relatively more stable neighbours, Tunisia and Egypt, to help in patrolling the North African coast and intercepting boats – and perhaps the proposed EU-run <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/european-commission-third-country-immigrant-processing-centres">migrant and asylum processing centres</a> could be established in those countries. </p>
<p>These could then be used for screening of intercepted boat migrants, allowing those with a valid asylum case (<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/italian-navy-rescues-hundreds-of-migrants-1402574649">which was more than 80% of those rescued during Mare Nostrum</a>) to be resettled in an EU country. </p>
<h2>Job opportunities</h2>
<p>The processing centres could also operate as job centres where recruitment opportunities both in Europe and in EU-funded initiatives in the region for migrants would be available. Such a solution would facilitate regular mobility for some – but it is hard to imagine that this would offer a solution for many as it assumes a static understanding of the job market and the willingness of employers to subject themselves to more scrutiny – which would inevitably reduce opportunities for exploiting cheap <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/31/agribusiness-exploitation-undocumented-labor">undocumented labour</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever solutions are implemented, some people are still likely to try their luck with smugglers – so a second line of interception closer to the EU shore would be needed. This should resemble Mare Nostrum but under a concerted EU leadership. Once boats are detected in EU waters or in international waters in case of need, they should be taken to shore but rather than ending up in Italian reception centres, migrants should be taken to EU-led centres in the closer EU member states with national and international personnel. </p>
<p>These centres would operate as a tertiary filter for migrants. This would mean saving lives but would offer no guarantee of a right to stay. But rather than envisaging mass repatriation schemes, not least because they are extremely costly and hard to implement, it may prove more economically beneficial to Europe to establish a system of temporary residence permits with right to look for work and, for sake of minimising internal political opposition, limited access or no to welfare provision. </p>
<p>While not free from risks of exploitation, such a system would give people a chance to demonstrate their entrepreneurship and willingness to work and contribute to Europe’s ageing societies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nando Sigona does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The current situation in which thousands are dying is untenable. Here are some ideas.Nando Sigona, Birmingham Fellow and Senior Lecturer, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/404922015-04-20T14:02:15Z2015-04-20T14:02:15ZDeaths in the Mediterranean are a direct result of ongoing crisis in north Africa<p>The rapid escalation this year in the numbers of people <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/20/eu-ministers-meet-migrant-crisis-talks-mediterranean-death-toll-rises">drowned as they flee in leaky boats across the Mediterranean</a> is a direct consequence of the conflict in Iraq, Syria and north Africa, specifically Libya – where the implications of the Western intervention are playing out in the deaths of thousands, whether from the violence itself or as they try desperately to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/18/-sp-world-briefing-europe-worsening-migrant-crisis">escape to safety</a>.</p>
<p>Four years ago NATO member states and Arab allies began launching airstrikes that contributed to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Now, those same powers are discussing further action in Libya if the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/libya-peace-talks-close-final-accord-150419144739046.html">UN sponsored peace talks</a> do not end in consensus, but this time the target will be the growing Islamic State movement linked to similar groups in Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>The legacy of the fall of Gaddafi is the continuing lack of any state institutions coupled with a fragmented security architecture that has divided in to a myriad of armed groups, militias and rival factions that have left the army weak and the country subject to a civil war that has claimed more than 3,000 casualties and numerous human rights violations.</p>
<p>At its heart, the civil war is a <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/libya/politics.htm">conflict between two rival governments</a> in Tripoli and in Tobruk, with only the Tobruk government having UN recognition as legitimate, but left controlling less than half of the country and half of one of the three main cities. This Tobruk coalition contains several former Gaddafi state officials, secularist and federalist elements along with the remains of part of the military.</p>
<p>The UN-recognised government headed by <a href="http://www.enca.com/tripoli-under-militia-control-chaos-deepens">Abdullah al-Thinni, who was appointed by Libya’s House of representatives last year</a>, is opposed by the originally legally installed government, the General National Council, which existed prior to elections held last year. The GNC is backed by a coalition known as “<a href="http://www.crisis.acleddata.com/the-rise-operation-libya-dawn-in-tripoli/">Operation Libya Dawn</a>”, comprising a loose federation of Islamist groups, militias from Misrata and “Berber” groups. In November 2014, Libya’s Supreme Court cancelled the outcome of elections that brought the House of Representatives to power, essentially making its legal mandate void.</p>
<p>The country is also affected by the growth of Islamic State-affiliated groups, which hold territory in the cities of Sirte and Derna, and were responsible for a massacre of 21 mainly Christian labourers in February.</p>
<p>Last Tuesday, the military chief of the Tobruk forces, General Khalifa Haftar, voiced scepticism at any eventual outcome stating that he was “<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/libya-haftar-betting-military-solution-150415073117811.html">betting on a military solution</a>”. Even with considerable military support from Egypt and the UAE, the Tobruk-based forces have so far failed to make significant progress against the GNC in Tripoli.</p>
<p>This is a critical problem. There does not appear to be a military winner in sight and among all the chaos, a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/middleeast/as-libya-crumbles-calls-grow-for-feuding-factions-to-meet-halfway.html?_r=0">wide variety of armed groups</a> prosper as the centralised control of the GNC in Tripoli in particular weakens. </p>
<p>Ansar al Sharia, for example, is an organisation listed as a terrorist group associated with Al-Qaeda by the UN and is accused of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19570254">murdering US ambassador Chris Stephens in Benghazi</a> in 2012, but currently has a temporary alliance with Operation Libya Dawn in order to fight Heftar. But Ansar is losing members to the local chapter of IS.</p>
<h2>Islamic State rising</h2>
<p>IS has <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=59268">grown very quickly</a> beyond its core in the city of Derna. It has a presence in Benghazi and Sirte and even in Tripoli where it has been responsible for a bombing campaign. There are several reasons why IS has expanded but Libyans have a long history of military service overseas and a key driver has been the return of fighters from anti-Soviet movements in Afghanistan in the 1980s, boosted by further fighters returning from Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>A worrying aspect of the IS growth is proximity to Libyan oilfields – a favourite source of income for the insurgents. This group has also deliberately escalated the conflict to accelerate the fragmentation of the armed groups and enhance the attractiveness of more extreme Islamist groups. </p>
<p>In early April, for example, IS made a calculated attack in murdering 21 Egyptian police officers, prompting Egyptian airstrikes in support of the Tobruk Government’s air assets. While this did not bring Egypt in to the war, it did make that intervention public, reinforcing the view that Libyan stability is critical to Egypt’s domestic security.</p>
<p>The other main player in potential intervention is Italy, which had <a href="http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2015/02/19/italy-ready-for-lead-role-in-libya_15b03f1c-c46c-4325-9ed2-c05ddf854c75.html">offered to lead</a> on any UN-sanctioned action in Libya. However, there is significant disagreement over the method of intervention.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The most obvious intervention would be a peace-supporting mission following a UN-brokered peace agreement. This option, currently being led by Spanish diplomat Bernadino Leon, has some momentum amongst pragmatic elements of both rival governments but would need to create a national government capable of working across of these elements and also of maintaining control over government institutions. This government would be able to command international support, but would also need to develop a national approach to combating the growth of IS.</p>
<p>There is hope for this first option and it could command some of the most powerful military groups in Libya, but any UN force could be asked to take control of contested and politically sensitive installations across Libya to prevent those groups taking sole control.</p>
<p>However, this is an option that is likely to take time – and the international community, led by Italy, is unlikely to be very patient over this. With increasing disasters in the Mediterranean involving refugees fleeing the hardships of Libya, the threat of IS reaching Italy looms large – and a more likely approach would be to take the campaign against IS to Libya sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>The most likely outcome, therefore, would be that a UN-brokered peace agreement would be tied to fighting IS and not necessarily tackling the underlying issues fuelling the civil war. Egypt’s involvement in the civil war further complicates this, since any government in Tripoli is unlikely to sanction Egyptian support in any campaign against IS. Such an intervention could eventually exacerbate the conflict rather than solving it through creating new allies for the IS forces that already exist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Jackson receives research funding from the ESRC, the European Union and the Swedish Government, and is a Senior Security and Justice Adviser to the UK Government Stabilisation Unit and member of the Swedish Folke Bernadotte Academy research group on security sector reform.</span></em></p>There appears to be little chance of a negotiated solution to the chaos tearing the country apart.Paul Jackson, Professor of Politics, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/403302015-04-17T15:12:43Z2015-04-17T15:12:43ZEurope’s war on migrants – while we argue, thousands perish in the Mediterranean<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32376082">latest refugee deaths</a> in the Mediterranean – up to 700 people drowned when the overcrowded fishing vessel in which they were travelling from North Africa capsized of the coast of Libya – follows a similar tragedy last week in which <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/400-drowned-libya-italy-migrant-boat-capsizes">400 people</a> perished.</p>
<p>In October 2013, more than 360 people – mostly from Eritrea – <a href="http://www.iitaly.org/38642/migrants-remembering-oct-3-and-360-lampedusa-dead">lost their lives</a> when their boat caught fire and sank off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. In September 2014 more than <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/15/uk-europe-migrants-boat-idUKKBN0HA1MR20140915">500 migrants were deliberately killed at sea</a>. The attack allegedly occurred after the migrants refused to board a smaller boat in the open water and the traffickers reportedly laughed as they drowned, hacking at the hands of those who tried to cling to the wreckage. Witnesses report that as many as 100 children were on board.</p>
<p>In the absence of official records, or bodies to count, it’s hard to say exactly how many people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) released <a href="http://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/pbn/docs/Fatal-Journeys-Tracking-Lives-Lost-during-Migration-2014.pdf">a report</a> in late September 2014 putting the number at 3,072, accounting for 75% of worldwide migrant deaths. But with so many lost at sea or along the way, the real figure could be far higher.</p>
<h2>Risky business</h2>
<p>If you listened to some media reports this week you would be forgiven for thinking that increased migration to Europe was the result of “good weather” rather than <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanda-what-is-being-done-to-stem-migrant-crossings-in-the-mediterranean-40262">increasing governmental instability</a> and violence. The motivations and aspirations of migrants themselves are largely absent. </p>
<p>Migrants are presented as victims, “illegals” and objects of control. The “solution” is technical, bureaucratic and framed as an issue of migration management. Little attempt is made to explain why thousands of men, women and children would risk their lives to get on an overcrowded boat to cross a dangerous sea or what their hopes and aspirations might be. Migrants’ lack of agency is reinforced by stories of agents, smugglers and traffickers who dupe them into making the journey to Europe.</p>
<p>Migration looks very different when seen from the perspective of migrants themselves. Although “migrants” are represented as a homogeneous group, there are significant differences in the motivations, experiences and aspirations of those who travel to Europe. </p>
<p>For economic migrants, the decision to leave is generally a conscious choice by relatively well-off individuals and households to enhance their livelihoods. Most migrants are not the poorest of the poor. Clandestine travel costs anywhere from US$5,000-$35,000. Many of these migrants are petty entrepreneurs who sold their businesses or property in order to pay for the expensive trip.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78372/original/image-20150417-3212-prrhq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migration routes into Europe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there are also growing numbers of migrants for whom the primary motivation for migration is the search for safety and protection. As noted by <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/542c07e39.pdf">UNHCR</a>, the international agency tasked with the protection of refugees, events unfolding in Syria, Iraq, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and elsewhere, combined with the deterioration of the situation in countries where refugees were residing, are forcing increasing number of people to move. </p>
<p>At the same time European governments have funded the EU border agency <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XzY9e02IL3o">Frontex</a> to implement a series of policies that make entry to Europe more difficult. With few opportunities to enter Europe legally, thousands of people threatened by persecution and serious human rights violations are taking increasingly convoluted and more dangerous sea routes.</p>
<p>As the routes across the western Mediterranean have been blocked there has been a sharp spike in the numbers of people attempting to cross via the central Mediterranean route, often leaving through conflict-torn Libya where there are no effective border controls and smugglers operate with near impunity. </p>
<p>These journeys are longer and the risks greater. <a href="http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0001/5702/rcchance.pdf">My own research</a> found that people are increasingly beholden to the decisions of traffickers and smugglers whose motivations are often far from altruistic. Most are aware of the risks before they travel but decide to continue because they feel that they have no alternative.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78373/original/image-20150417-3253-1i1w4jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Volume of migrants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Drowning, not waving</h2>
<p>The story of migration to Europe from the countries of north and west of Africa has captured the public and political imagination since the late 1990s when Europe started to strengthen its external border controls. This story is dominated by images of small boats packed with refugees and migrants trying to reach the coasts of Europe, of young African men scaling fences – and of corpses washed up onto European beaches. In the context of rising public concern in many countries about increased migration, these images have been used to legitimise increased border controls.</p>
<p>Not everyone dies trying to cross the Mediterranean. The lucky ones reach the islands of Lampedusa, Malta or Sicily or are picked up by the Italian navy or coastguard. Nearly <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-04-16/10-000-migrants-rescued-from-mediterranean-in-just-four-days/">10,000 migrants have been rescued</a> from boats travelling across the Mediterranean to Italy in the past week alone. </p>
<p>Until recently these rescue efforts were undertaken through Mare Nostrum, a search and rescue mission established after the Lampedusa sinking in October 2013 and funded by the European Commission to the tune of around €30m. But the scale of the search and rescue effort has been scaled back significantly since November 2014 when <a href="https://theconversation.com/opting-out-of-mediterranean-rescue-condemns-desperate-migrants-to-death-32512">Mare Nostrum was replaced by a new “Triton” scheme </a> which is coordinated by Frontex. </p>
<p>This scheme is confined to a 30-mile zone around Italy’s coastal waters, possesses far less maritime capability than the previous scheme and is focused primarily on protecting the borders and preventing illegal entry as opposed to search and rescue. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2014/10/italy-ending-mare-nostrum-search-and-rescue-operation-would-put-lives-risk/">Amnesty International</a> condemned the decision to end Mare Nostrum, saying it would “put the lives of thousands of migrants and refugees attempting to reach Europe at risk”. </p>
<p>This does indeed appear to be the case. According to UNHCR the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/04/mediterranean-crisis-50-fold-increase-in-deats-amid-european-inaction/">death rate has soared 50-fold</a> since the scrapping of Mare Nostrum – there have been almost 900 deaths already this year compared to just 17 during the same period in 2014.</p>
<h2>Deaf ears</h2>
<p>The decision to end the search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean does not appear to be just a financial one. The <a href="http://www.statewatch.org/news/2015/feb/eu-frontex-budget%202015.htm">2015 budget of Frontex</a> has been increased by 16%, from €97m to €114m – and the largest share of the extra funding has been directed <a href="http://www.statewatch.org/news/2015/feb/eu-frontex-budget%202015.htm">towards Joint Operations at Sea Borders</a>. </p>
<p>Rather it reflects the politics of migration policy in Europe which has resulted in an overwhelming focus on border control and migration management as well as fundamental, arguably wilful, misunderstanding of the reasons why people make the crossing in the first place. </p>
<p>The UK government has refused to support search and rescue operations to prevent migrants and refugees drowning in the Mediterranean arguing that it will simply encourage others to make the journey. The government believes that rescuing those who are drowning creates an “unintended pull factor” and that efforts should instead focus on preventing people from making the crossing. </p>
<p>The expectation, it seems, is that the (future) fear of drowning will outweigh the (immediate) fear of violence and persecution. For many this is clearly not the case. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-dozens-of-migrants-missing-in-new-mediterranean-boat-tragedy-2015-4#ixzz3XULn3XXg">reports</a> continue to flow in: as I write a further 40 people are feared drowned after an inflatable boat sank just off the Sicilian coast. </p>
<p>When the decision to scrap Mare Nostrum was announced, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/italian-navy-refugee-rescue-mission-mare-nostrum">Italian navy said it would continue</a> its search and rescue role – despite political pressures to do otherwise. It is time that the rest of Europe stepped up.</p>
<p><em>* This article was updated on April 19.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heaven Crawley has previously received funding from the Refugee Council for research on refugee journeys to the UK but this article does not necessarily represent their view.
She is affiliated with Migrant Voice (trustee)</span></em></p>Whether they are migrants or refugees, people are needlessly dying by the boatload.Heaven Crawley, Research professor, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171512013-08-20T05:54:42Z2013-08-20T05:54:42ZFactCheck: are Australia’s refugee acceptance rates high compared with other nations?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29706/original/ftmcsdw2-1377119783.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man in the second group of asylum seekers transferred to Papua New Guinea's Manus Island calls out to journalists, 2 August 2013.</span> </figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p><strong>“We want to end the tick and flick approach of this [Labor] government that has seen nine out of 10 people found to be refugees when that doesn’t match what we are seeing in other places around the world and we want to end the process where ‘no’s turn into a 'yes’ in 80% of cases by these processes” - Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison, <a href="http://www.scottmorrison.com.au/info/speech.aspx?id=737&page=2">press conference</a>, 16 August.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Announcing the Coalition’s new asylum seeker policy alongside opposition leader Tony Abbott, Morrison said it was time to overhaul Labor’s “tick and flick approach”, which he said had <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oYjabac7E4w#at=419">led to high refugee acceptance rates</a> compared with other countries. Morrison added that with 80% of initial refusals being overturned, it was “no wonder Australians are questioning whether this is a fair dinkum system that is operating under this government”. </p>
<p>So how much of that is true?</p>
<p>Morrison’s statement that about nine out of 10 asylum seekers being accepted as refugees in Australia is accurate if his claim is limited to asylum seekers arriving by boat. Morrison was clearly referring to boat arrivals at this press conference, even though at other times it hasn’t been made as clear. </p>
<p>This issue matters if you are comparing the acceptance rate with other countries. In Australia, asylum seekers have been broken into two categories since the Howard government introduced new policies targeting boat arrivals. Those categories are Irregular Maritime Arrivals (IMAs), meaning people arriving by boat, and Non-Irregular Maritime Arrivals (Non-IMAs), meaning people arriving by plane. </p>
<p>Since 2001, the processing of arrivals by plane has been consistent. People arriving at an Australian airport and claiming asylum are placed in detention in Australia, and have their claims heard by a migration officer in the first instance and, if rejected, by the Refugee Review Tribunal on appeal. If a claim is successful, the asylum seeker is granted a permanent protection visa. </p>
<p>In 2010-11, 25% of the 5494 applications from those arriving by plane were successful after their primary application, and 43.4% of 4840 applicants who had completed both a primary application and a final review process were successful. In 2011-12, the figures for people arriving by plane were 25% of 5792 successful at first instance, and 44% of 5159 successful after both primary application and review.</p>
<p>In contrast, people arriving by boat have been subject to a range of policies since 2001, most recently Labor’s new off-shore processing and resettlement agreement with Papua New Guinea. The success rate of applications for a protection visa of people arriving by boat has traditionally been considerably higher than the success rate of those arriving by plane. </p>
<p>Rates of acceptance for people arriving by boat after an initial assessment of claims were 38.3% of 5218 applicants in 2010-11 and 71.1% of 3825 applicants in 2011-12. Rates of acceptance for applicants whose primary and review processes had been completed were 93.5% of 2909 applicants in 2010-11, and 91% of 5240 applicants in 2011/12. So Morrison is about right when he says nine out of 10 people arriving by boat are eventually accepted as refugees.</p>
<p>In his press conference, Morrison drew a comparison between that figure and rates of acceptance “in other places around the world”. This is an inaccurate point of comparison. The figure that needs to be compared with international experience is the combined acceptance rate of asylum seekers arriving by both boat and plane in Australia, as other countries do not separate asylum seekers according to their mode of arrival.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/asylum/">the Department of Immigration does not aggregate</a> the figures for boat and plane arrivals. However, if the department’s figures above are combined, as I have done for this fact check, the success rate after primary application and review of all asylum seekers (boat and plane arrivals) was 62.2% of 7749 applications in 2010-11, and 67.7% of 10,399 applications in 2011-12. (Complete 2012-13 figures are not yet available.)</p>
<p>Great caution must be exercised in making comparisons with acceptance rates overseas. Difference in acceptance rates may have nothing to do with the systems of review of applications. Refugee-receiving countries around the world are dealing with populations from different regions. The levels of humanitarian crisis differ from country to country. And even where the types of crisis are similar, asylum seekers from some regions may fit neatly within <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-australias-obligations-under-the-un-refugee-convention-16195">the UN Convention’s definition of a refugee</a> and be eligible for state protection, while others may not. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the rates of success of asylum seekers from the same country can vary markedly from year to year due to assessments of the country’s geo-political circumstances. Here in Australia, for example, for Afghan arrivals by plane, grants rates rose from 78% to 92% from 2010/11 to 2011/12. </p>
<p>However, to give some sense of comparison, <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/51628b589.html">the UNHCR has data</a> for Refugee Recognition Rates and Total Recognition Rates, which includes other forms of complementary protection. In 2010, at a global level, the Refugee Recognition Rate was 30% globally and the Total Recognition Rate was 39%. In 2011, the Refugee Recognition Rate was 30% and the Total Recognition Rate was was 38%.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Asylum_statistics#Decisions_on_asylum_applications">27 European Union countries</a> in 2011, there was a 25% success rate at the first instance for people seeking asylum and a further 21% of applicants were successful on appeal. (Unlike in Australia, the figures are not available for the overall success rates after final appeals in the EU.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lispop.ca/blog/2013/01/24/1078/">In Canada</a>, there was a 38% success rate after final appeal in 2010.</p>
<p>Among the main refugee-receiving industrialized countries, in 2011 Switzerland had the highest Total Recognition Rate at the first instance of 72%, while Finland’s rate was 67%. </p>
<p>From these claims, to the extent that comparisons can be made given the different approaches to collecting data, the application success rate in Australia is higher than the average in the EU, and higher than Canada, though it is still lower than some industrialised nations with the highest success rates. </p>
<p>Morrison also claimed in the press conference that 80% of rejected asylum claims are then overturned on review. Again, this figure is accurate only in relation to boat arrivals. In 2010-11, initial decisions were overturned on review 83% of the time for people arriving by boat, and in 2011-12, 82.4% of the time. Over the first three-quarters of 2012-13 (up until the end of March 2013), the rate dropped to closer to 70%.</p>
<p>The latest <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/asylum/_files/asylum-stats-march-quarter-2013.pdf">Asylum statistics — Australia</a> report does not provide statistics on how many people who arrive by plane and have their applications for asylum rejected, but then accepted on review. However, based on the overall grant rates of 43.4% in 2010/11 and 44% and 2011/12, as discussed above, the overturn rate for these asylum seekers would have to be significantly lower than 80%.</p>
<p>Morrison is right to question such a high overturn rate. However, his suggestion that the overturn rate represents a “tick and flick” approach to refugee status determination misrepresents the rigorous administrative processes Australia has in place for determining asylum seeker claims to protection.</p>
<p>There are a range of explanations for the high overturn rate of primary applications on review. One is that the initial decision maker and the decision maker on review have a different understanding of what is required to satisfy the legal definition of a refugee. A second explanation is that the initial and final decision makers have made different assessments of applicants’ personal circumstances, and of the information related to the country from which the applicant is fleeing persecution. A third explanation is that although the decision makers have broadly the same understanding of the facts and the law, their assessments of whether the facts satisfy the legal test are different. </p>
<p>The high success rate on appeal does not necessarily suggest that there is something wrong with the process of review. Indeed, there are good reasons to believe that the decision of the review body is likely to be more accurate than the decision of the primary decision maker, given the legal and technical expertise of administrative appeals tribunals, and the fact that they apply the rules of evidence and protect procedural rights more consistently than initial decision makers.</p>
<p>In light of this, the Opposition’s plan to stop asylum seekers being able to seek a review of their case through the Refugee Review Tribunal or the Federal Court is almost certain to result in more applications for review in <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/coalition-asylum-policy-facing-legal-turn-back/story-fn9qr68y-1226698239590">the High Court</a>, which can scrutinise federal government decisions for “jurisdictional errors”. That would prove to be more costly and would be likely to lead to longer delays in the resolution of claims.</p>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>Morrison is broadly right. His reference to “nine out of 10 people” found to be refugees after arriving by boat is accurate. And he is correct that that 80% of primary decisions are being overturned on appeal. </p>
<p>As for whether Australia’s refugee acceptance rates are high compared with other nations, the only way to make meaningful international comparisons is by looking at all asylum seeker applications, not just those from people arriving by boat. When this is done, and to the extent that international comparisons are meaningful, Australia’s acceptance rate appears to be relatively high. This means Morrison’s comment that Australia’s acceptance rate “doesn’t match what we are seeing in other places around the world” is a reasonable assessment.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p>This assessment provides a thorough analysis of the complications that arise from trying to compare refugee status determination processes among countries.</p>
<p>There are two brief points to add to this fact check. Australia is the first country in our region that some asylum seekers reach where they are able to access refugee status determination processes. This may also explain the high volume of positive assessments of boat arrivals in comparison to other regions.</p>
<p>A second point is that last year’s <a href="http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/report/expert_panel_on_asylum_seekers_full_report.pdf">Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers</a>, led by retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, recommended the need for a thorough review of the refugee status determination process. Its report found that there was a high final refugee approval rate for people arriving by boat to Australia, but added this was broadly consistent with <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home">UN High Commissioner for Refugee</a> approval rates for similar caseloads. </p>
<p>As a result of the Expert Panel’s recommendation, a review of the refugee status determination process was ordered by the Gillard government and continued under Rudd. Whichever major party wins the election, no doubt they will continue with that review. <strong>- Sara Davies</strong></p>
<p><div class="callout">The Conversation is fact checking political statements in the lead-up to this year’s federal election. Statements are checked by an academic with expertise in the area. A second academic expert reviews an anonymous copy of the article.Request a check at checkit@theconversation.edu.au. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.</div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/17151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Davies receives funding from Australian Government (AusAID grant in partnership with University of Queensland) and has received funding from Australia Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Reilly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“We want to end the tick and flick approach of this [Labor] government that has seen nine out of 10 people found to be refugees when that doesn’t match what we are seeing in other places around the world…Alex Reilly, Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, Adelaide Law School, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160782013-07-15T20:53:26Z2013-07-15T20:53:26ZMalta’s ‘push back’ stand-off: what can Australia learn?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27451/original/nh4w642s-1373861674.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Coalition should heed the legal lessons of an attempt by Maltese authorities to 'push back' Somali asylum seekers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Lino Arrigo Azzopardi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Malta has become the latest country to try to “push back” asylum seekers, implementing a policy similar to that being <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/abbotts-copycat-towback-plan-wont-stop-the-boats-20130714-2pxyg.html">advocated by the Coalition</a> as its “Real Solution” to the phenomenon of boats arriving on Australian shores.</p>
<p>In policies reminiscent of Australia, the Maltese government is scrambling to appear tough on migration and depict the arrival of asylum seekers as a crisis that warrants a security response.</p>
<h2>Where has this ‘Real Solution’ landed Malta?</h2>
<p>Like Australia, Malta has seen a significant increase in the number of people seeking asylum arriving by boat on its shores or within its territorial waters. Numbers surged after 2011 following conflict in North Africa. The stretch of water between Malta and Africa is known as “one giant graveyard”, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/4fa908619.html">figures</a> suggest 1500 people drowned or went missing in this part of the Mediterranean Sea in 2011.</p>
<p>The Maltese government is currently trying to “push back” members of a group of 102 Somali refugees who <a href="http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/will-malta-push-back-latest-batch-of-illegal-alien-somalis-to-libya/">arrived by boat</a> on July 9. According to the Maltese NGO <a href="http://www.pfcmalta.org/uploads/1/2/1/7/12174934/pfc_about_expulsion.pdf">People for Change Foundation</a>, the UNHCR and all other NGOs were denied access to the group which included 41 women, two infants and 59 men.</p>
<p>The Somali women and children on board were transferred to detention, in accordance with Malta’s policy of mandatory detention. Detention centres in Malta <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/18/malta-migrant-detention-violates-rights">have been criticised</a> by various human rights groups – such as Amnesty International, Medicins Sans Frontières and Human Rights Watch – as inhumane and unhygienic.</p>
<p>The fate of the other Somali men on board is less clear. Media reports had suggested the Maltese government were preparing to deport them to Libya without assessing their claims for asylum.</p>
<p>Somalia is home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian and security crises. Statistically, those the Maltese government are trying to push back are highly likely to receive some form of refugee protection. In 2012, <a href="http://www.nso.gov.mt/statdoc/document_file.aspx?id=3622">90% of those</a> who applied for asylum in Malta received such protection. Similarly, most asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat will secure refugee protection.</p>
<p>However, deportation to Libya, a non-signatory country to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, exposes asylum seekers to arrest, detention and extortion.</p>
<p>On the planned deportation, Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23253648">reportedly told</a> the Times of Malta that: “this is not push back, it is a message that we are not pushovers”. University of Malta migration expert Maria Pisani <a href="http://academia.edu/934092/Theres_an_elephant_in_the_room_and_shes_rejected_and_black_Observations_on_rejected_female_asylum_seekers_from_sub-Saharan_Africa_in_Malta">notes</a> that Malta’s history and location between Africa, the Middle East and Europe, means “defending Europe from invasion” figures strongly in Malta’s national consciousness. Racism is a real consequence of policies that portray migrants as dangerous.</p>
<p>To prevent their deportation, a number of NGOs including the People for Change Foundation and the Jesuit Refugee Service <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/malta-forced-to-cancel-repatriation-of-african-refugees/1699185.html">successfully applied</a> to the European Court of Human Rights for an intervention. The Maltese government have agreed to suspend the deportations until the matters before the Court are resolved and a standoff continues.</p>
<h2>Malta and ‘push backs’</h2>
<p>Up until now, the Maltese government’s participation in other push back schemes had been unclear, although they supported Italy’s previous policy of interdiction. Italy’s interdiction practices were struck down by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of <a href="http://www.refworld.org/docid/4f4507942.html">Hirsi v. Italy</a>.</p>
<p>An <a href="http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101215/local/amnestys-report-peppered-with-inaccuracies-ministry.341108">incident</a> in 2010 had brought the Maltese government into the spotlight. The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) rescued half of the occupants of a vessel, taking them to Malta. The others boarded another vessel that returned to Libya. Amnesty International found those returned to Libya were placed in detention and beaten. AFM crew members stated that the people “volunteered” to go back to Libya, yet the UNHCR has questioned the logic of this.</p>
<p>Push backs are against international human rights law. States <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/61a-complementary.htm">are obliged</a> to temporarily admit asylum seekers intercepted at sea and not to commit refoulement by returning them to where they have left. In essence, push backs and turning boats around offer no solutions at all.</p>
<h2>Leadership from the Catholic Church</h2>
<p>Recent comments by the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, ought to make a significant contribution to the national debate on migration in the predominantly Catholic Malta. Their impact on Australia is yet to be felt.</p>
<p>Last week, Pope Francis visited the Italian island of Lampedusa where numbers of asylum seekers have arrived by boat from North Africa. The Pope <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/08/pope-francis-condemns-indifference-suffering">criticised</a> the “globalisation of indifference” and those that had “deadened their hearts” to the daily reality of asylum seekers and migrants kept out of the Global North. He was critical of policy that contributed to loss of life at sea. </p>
<p>Perhaps these comments will influence those attuned to religion on both sides of politics in Australia, and foster a more sophisticated global migration policy than the current “stop the boats” or <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/no-advantage-asylum-policy-needs-explanation-minister-20130709-2pnlw.html">“no advantage”</a> mantras can offer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/16078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Gerard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Malta has become the latest country to try to “push back” asylum seekers, implementing a policy similar to that being advocated by the Coalition as its “Real Solution” to the phenomenon of boats arriving…Alison Gerard, Senior Lecturer in Justice Studies, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150822013-06-12T01:25:41Z2013-06-12T01:25:41ZTowing back the boats: bad policy whatever way you look at it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25356/original/pjn5xpwb-1370994274.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Coalition remain steadfastly in favour of an asylum seeker policy that seeks to turn back the boats, but is this really feasible?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Jon Faulkner</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is not much bipartisanship in Australian federal politics these days, but the ALP and the Coalition are in agreement on one matter: the boats must be stopped. </p>
<p>They just don’t agree on how to do it.</p>
<p>According to the Coalition, the only way to stop the boats is a complete return to the Howard government’s policy settings. In other words, a return not only to offshore processing, but also to towing back asylum seeker boats to Indonesia and a temporary protection visa regime.</p>
<p>In order to evaluate whether the Coalition’s tow back proposal makes policy sense, we first need to be clear about why we want to stop the boats.</p>
<p>If the reason we want to stop the boats is to spare fellow human beings from suffering and death, deterrence strategies make no policy sense. <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/overwhelming-majority-of-boat-arrivals-deemed-to-be-refugees-20130519-2juty.html">More than 90%</a> of irregular boat arrivals are refugees. They flee their homes out of necessity and then keep fleeing through country after country which cannot or will not provide effective protection. </p>
<p>As long as the underlying predicaments which prompt perilous sea journeys to Australia persist, all deterrence strategies will achieve is to ensure that we will not have to see asylum seekers suffer and die. They will be forced to do so out of our sight in the course of attempting to flee in directions other than Australia.</p>
<p>If, on the other hand, the reason we want to stop to the boats is simply to uphold the <a href="http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/discoverycentre/identity/videos/politics-videos/john-howards-2001-election-campaign-policy-launch-speech/">principle</a> - in the words of former prime minister John Howard - that we should be able to “decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”, deterrence strategies make perfect policy sense. </p>
<p>However, the question still remains whether the particular deterrence strategy of towing back the boats is one which is feasible or desirable to implement.</p>
<p>The Coalition <a href="http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/law-of-the-sea-versus-the-dictates-of-canberra/story-e6frfkp9-1226295248652">has stated</a> that it will turn back boats only when it is safe to do so, and only in a manner consistent with Australia’s international legal obligations. In light of past experience, safe and lawful turn back seems as achievable as porcine flight.</p>
<p>Between October 2001 and December 2001, four suspected irregular entry vessels (SIEVs 5, 7, 11 and 12) were intercepted at sea by the Australian navy and <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=maritime_incident_ctte/report/c02.pdf">towed back</a> to the edge of Indonesian territorial waters. In at least three of these cases, the navy had to contend with incidents such as asylum seekers jumping overboard, threatening self-harm, and/or attempting to sabotage the vessel. SIEV 7, which had 230 people aboard including women and children, ended up running aground in Indonesian waters a few hours after being abandoned by the navy. Three lives were <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s531993.htm">reportedly lost</a>.</p>
<p>The Australian navy also attempted to turn back three other vessels (SIEVs 4, 6 and 10) in 2001. All sank at some point during the course of interception and tow back towards Indonesia. The passengers who were successfully rescued (two were not) were transported first to Christmas Island and then to Nauru in some cases PNG in others.</p>
<p>The fifth and final tow back of the Howard government period took place in November 2003. At this point, Indonesia, which had not publicly protested the 2001 tow backs, hardened its stance. A spokesman for the Indonesian foreign minister told the media that Australia had informed Indonesia of its intended course of action but knew that Indonesia had not agreed to it. Indonesia also threatened to deport the 14 Turkish Kurds on board the towed back vessel to Turkey as soon as they made landfall, though in the end it did not carry out this threat.</p>
<p>All public utterances of Indonesian officials since the 2003 incident (and there have been many) have only served to confirm that Indonesia will not tolerate reinstitution by Australia of a tow back strategy. The Coalition’s assertions that it will be able to <a href="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/towing-back-asylum-boats-dangerous-20130611-2o0v7.html">obtain Indonesia’s cooperation</a> in such an endeavour after it has formed government must, therefore, be treated with some skepticism.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25357/original/z3zhhn6w-1370994855.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Coalition believe they will be able to obtain cooperation from Indonesia to help turn around the boats, but will this come to fruition?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Made Nagi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The asylum seeker boats now making their way to Australia are <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/smugglers-cram-more-women-kids-on-to-boats/story-fn9hm1gu-1226637230708">increasingly unseaworthy</a>. The boats are also increasingly overcrowded with women and children constituting a large proportion of those on board.</p>
<p>In these circumstances, it is difficult to conceive of situations in which it would be safe to attempt to tow back boats with the passengers still on board, or safe to leave such passengers to their fate at the edge of Indonesia’s territorial waters. Apart from the risk of death by drowning, the unsanitary and volatile conditions on board such vessels would constitute a serious risk to health and well-being especially of children.</p>
<p>Towing back boats when unsafe to do so would not only be morally reprehensible, it would be a breach of Australia’s obligations under the <a href="http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/Titanic100years/documents/Media%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20SOLAS.pdf">International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea</a>. Fortunately, the navy has made it clear that it is not prepared to breach these obligations whatever government policy may be.</p>
<p>The other international obligations which we risk breaching by reinstituting a tow back strategy are our obligations under the UN’s <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html">Refugee Convention</a> and other treaties to refrain from sending individuals directly or indirectly to places where they face a real risk of persecution or other serious harm. </p>
<p>The next time an asylum seeker boat is returned to Indonesia without that country’s agreement, it may decide to go beyond threatening to return the asylum seekers to their country of origin and actually do so. Such an action would place us in breach of our international obligations in respect of those asylum seekers.</p>
<p>The last - but by no means the least - consideration is the damage which we will cause to our ability to implement a wider suite of prevention, deterrence and protection strategies, if we implement a tow back strategy without Indonesia’s agreement. Doing so will put at risk Indonesia’s continued and crucial cooperation in a great many other bilateral endeavours including those designed to improve the situation of asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia. </p>
<p>Doing so will also put at risk the gains, including refugee protection gains, which we have <a href="http://www.dfat.gov.au/issues/people-trafficking.html">made through</a> the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime. Other countries in the region will realise that when we talk about regional cooperation, we really only mean that they should cooperate to solve our problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/15082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Savitri Taylor has previous received research funding from the Australian Research Council, the Jesuit Refugee Service Australia and Oxfam Australia. She is a member of the Committee of Management of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre. The views expressed in The Conversation are her own and not necessarily those of any organisation with which she is associated.</span></em></p>There is not much bipartisanship in Australian federal politics these days, but the ALP and the Coalition are in agreement on one matter: the boats must be stopped. They just don’t agree on how to do it…Savitri Taylor, Associate Professor, Law School, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130992013-04-02T23:20:15Z2013-04-02T23:20:15ZDeadly borders: women and children seeking asylum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21813/original/cn8cv4ck-1364425792.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For women and children the risks when crossing borders are far greater than men.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Yuri Kochetkov</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Crossing borders is far more dangerous for some. The facts are that <a href="http://tcr.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/20/1362480612464510.full.pdf">women and children</a> are more likely to die crossing borders in environmentally hazardous conditions than men. </p>
<p>When boats sink or encounter difficulties between Indonesia and Australia, crossing the desert between the US and Mexico or across the Mediterranean into Europe, women and children face far more risks. </p>
<p>Recently stories of increasing numbers of pregnant women dying during these crossings are making their way into the mainstream press. Last week’s asylum boat drownings off Christmas Island <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/asylum-seekers-drown-with-officials-on-board-20130325-2gqd6.html">claimed the lives</a> of a woman and young boy. But this is not just the story of women and children pitched against the environment. </p>
<p>Those environmentally hazardous journeys are overwhelmingly undertaken because of the lack of legalised options for entry into Australia, the US or Europe. They are the result of what is known as border hardening – the fortification of borders making them all but impossible to cross but in some of the riskiest places.</p>
<p>Border hardening disproportionately impacts women and children for a range of reasons, including - but not limited to - lower levels of swimming ability, their location below deck, the clothes they are wearing, their vulnerability to sexual violence during crossings, and succumbing to exposure and hyperthermia sooner than men.</p>
<p>Seas, deserts, rivers, and mountain ranges have all been harnessed as what former US president Bill Clinton referred to as “<a href="http://www.isreview.org/issues/18/gatekeeper.shtml">allies</a>” in deterring irregular migration. Following the <a href="http://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/us-mexico-border-crossing-deaths-are-humanitarian-crisis-according-report-aclu-and">intensification of border control</a> in the United States in the mid-1990s, migrants were funnelled into the most inhospitable terrain in the hope that those seeking to cross the border would undertake an elaborate calculation of risk and choose against making the crossing. </p>
<p>The hope was that stories (and indeed, sightings) of drowning victims and the decaying bones of those who had failed before them would serve to deter similar attempts. The authorities hoped those who lost their lives would prove a general deterrent to any that might follow. And that those who were proximate to lives lost would be individually deterred from repeat attempts.</p>
<p>But in Australia, the United States and Europe, the data reveals a very different story. The risk calculations undertaken by irregular migrants are simply not the same as those designing and implementing policy. The hazardous environments have remained uncooperative: they claim lives and they fail to deliver deterrence outcomes. The calculations don’t add up.</p>
<p>In the meantime what occurs on the high seas raises many questions regarding the operation of border control. In the most recent Christmas Island incident of a young boy and woman dying at sea there are questions to be answered in relation to the duty of care of border protection staff. These question must be asked by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-the-deaths-rescuing-asylum-seekers-is-an-integrity-issue-13071">coronial inquiry</a>, and in the context as to why we pursue policies which depend on migration management being played out on a big grey boat in the middle of nowhere. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21758/original/4j8bz7pt-1364275820.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite the known dangers thousands still risk their lives crossing borders to escape persecution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/CNN</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The invidious position of border protection personnel is emblematic of how so many are left to sort out the very human consequences of failed macro-level policies. The existing architecture of refugee policy is unworkable for its inability to put human security at its core.</p>
<p>If concern for human security and a rational approach to permanent and temporary migration were its bedrock, refugee policy would look very different. As Australia <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-19/australia-wins-seat-on-un-security-council/4321946">takes up its seat</a> at the UN Security Council, these policies need to demonstrate far more engaged and practical concern for the regional operation of security and of Australia’s part in the coming “<a href="http://www.asiancentury.com.au/">Asian century</a>”.</p>
<p>As the people charged with patrolling our border are further required to rescue asylum seekers and deaths in custody inevitably grow, the impetus for the kind of paradigmatic shift needed again becomes apparent. This was the kind of shift that alluded the <a href="http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au/report">Houston panel</a>, but one that ought be made to keep asylum seekers safe on the treacherous journeys they make.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Pickering will participate in a workshop of Australian and International researchers discussing the policies and practices of national migration systems and the human rights of migrants in Sydney on the 4th and 5th April. The workshop is part of the Academy of Social Sciences 2013 series. She is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow on Border Policing and the Director of the Border Crossing Observatory.
</span></em></p>Crossing borders is far more dangerous for some. The facts are that women and children are more likely to die crossing borders in environmentally hazardous conditions than men. When boats sink or encounter…Sharon Pickering, Professor of Criminology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130712013-03-26T00:34:32Z2013-03-26T00:34:32ZStop the deaths: rescuing asylum seekers is an integrity issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21724/original/28ndxn9f-1364248167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yesterday's fatalities highlight the importance of ensuring Australian authorities continue to respond to asylum seekers caught at sea.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Sharon Tisdale</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We received news yesterday of the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/two-dead-after-capsize-off-christmas-island-20130325-2gpg4.html">latest fatal capsize</a> of a boat carrying asylum seekers towards Australia – the 20th reported sinking event in four years. The two deaths yesterday brought the confirmed and probable death toll to 865 people from sinking events since 2009.</p>
<p>As usual, key facts about the event are still scarce. According to home affairs minister Jason Clare’s <a href="http://www.jasonclare.com.au/media/transcripts/1458-press-conference-customs-house-canberra.html">media conference</a> late yesterday, the boat had sent out a distress call on Sunday afternoon, but it was not boarded by officers from a Customs Border Protection Command response vessel - the ACV Ocean Protector - until Monday morning due to safety concerns over boarding at night. It was then handled as a normal maritime boundary interception. </p>
<p>The boat had way, but incomprehensibly, it was instructed to “<a href="http://sailing.about.com/od/learntosail/ss/How-To-Heave-To-A-Sailboat.htm">heave to</a>” to enable boarding. This was an irresponsible and dangerous decision in yesterday’s <a href="http://www.syqwestinc.com/support/Sea%20State%20Table.htm">sea state 3</a> (usually waves of around 0.5 to 1.25 metres): the waves reached up to 2.5 metres according to border protection commander, Rear Admiral David Johnson. The boat’s foreseeable capsize minutes later put the Australian boarding party and the passengers at great risk. </p>
<p>Had the Ocean Protector simply instructed the boat by loud-hailer to follow it into safe waters behind Christmas Island, two passenger deaths and three critical injuries could have been avoided. There should be a coroner’s inquest to investigate responsibility for these poor decisions that defied elementary Safety of Life at Sea practice.</p>
<h2>The stats don’t lie</h2>
<p>This is all, sadly, familiar territory. First, there was Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X (<a href="http://www.sievx.com/">SIEV X</a>) in October 2001 – a pivotal event that stopped the boats coming for many years. Then, over the past four calendar years (2009-2012), my colleague Marg Hutton and I have monitored and researched each one of the 18 known founderings, sinkings or disappearances of asylum seeker boats bound for Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21731/original/xp7nqwd7-1364253766.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sinking boat with refugees aboard and a child in a life raft in the early 2000s - a decade on, little has changed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Defence</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These <a href="http://www.sievx.com/articles/background/DrowningsTable.pdf">18 recorded events</a> caused an estimated 860 confirmed or probable deaths over the four calendar years between 2009 and 2012. Then, in January 2013, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/asylum-seekers-drown-on-way-to-australia-20130129-2djcg.html">another reported sinking</a> with three people drowning; and two more people reported dead yesterday. </p>
<p>This is an average death rate over four years of between 2.5 and 3%, against reported numbers of arrivals.</p>
<p>Deaths peaked in the nine months between December 2011 and August 2012 with 515 confirmed or probable deaths in eight events. There were <a href="https://theconversation.com/columns/asylum-seeker-expert-panel-20">months of urgent public debate</a> in Australia: both major parties pressed humanitarian arguments that to stop the deaths, offshore processing solutions must be quickly agreed. The mounting casualty rate seemed to strengthen those arguments.</p>
<p>Since <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3587017.htm">laws to reopen Nauru and Manus Island</a> were passed in September 2012, there have been only two reported sinkings, on <a href="http://www.sievx.com/articles/miscellaneous/2012/20121125MichaelBachelard.html">October 26</a> last year and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-29/aslum-seekers-die-as-boat-sinks-off-indonesia/4489712">January 29</a> this year before yesterday’s events.</p>
<h2>Stop the boats: the rhetoric hasn’t worked</h2>
<p>Despite Nauru’s reopening, the boats are still coming at quite a rapid rate in 2013, as recorded in the regular media releases issued by the Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare. </p>
<p>The minister’s <a href="http://www.jasonclare.com.au/media/portfolio-releases/home-affairs-and-justice-releases.html">media releases</a> show that between January 25 and March 20 this year there were 21 interceptions and eight rescues at sea. While exact locations are not stated, most rescues were in international waters and in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone, north of Christmas Island or Ashmore Reef. It would seem that every boat in distress is being rescued or intercepted.</p>
<p>My book, <a href="http://www.reluctantrescuers.com">Reluctant Rescuers</a>, analysed public evidence in the four cases of sunken or disappeared boats between 2009 and December 2011: two missing boats in 2009 and 2010, the Christmas Island shipwreck in December 2010, and Barokah which foundered south of East Java in December 2011. </p>
<p>I found that despite Australian intelligence-based knowledge of these four voyages, and publicly reported phone calls to Australia from each of them, over 400 people died because prompt and effective Australian <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1998/31.html">Safety of Life at Sea</a> responses were not forthcoming.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/asylum-boat-deaths-avoidable-coroner-rules-20120223-1tqt7.html">Western Australia coroner’s inquest</a> into the shipwreck of SIEV 221 at Christmas Island reported explicit reluctance by the Australian border protection system to acknowledge its own responsibilities to protect asylum seekers’ lives at sea. </p>
<p>Essentially, an official view was presented that until a boat physically appears on Australia’s maritime borders in distress, there is no requirement for Australian authorities to search and rescue. Prior intelligence-based knowledge of lives likely to be in danger on incoming asylum seeker boats creates no legal obligation to act.</p>
<p>Yet it is clear that intelligence-based information, and even in some cases distress calls directly telephoned to Australian authorities from boats in trouble, have triggered every Australian maritime interception or rescue action. Most times, our response vessels get there in time to save most lives. But 860 deaths in four years is no small matter.</p>
<p>This issue is not about interception resources, which are on station anyway. It is about a willingness to evaluate and promptly to manage known or anticipated risks to life on boats trying to reach Australia, but that would sink if left unaided by Australia. This is both an ethical and a governance issue.</p>
<h2>Formulating an ethical response</h2>
<p>As sinkings continued between May and August last year, I gave <a href="http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/public-submissions/KevinT.pdf">written and oral evidence</a> to Angus Houston’s expert panel on asylum seekers. Their <a href="http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au/report">report</a> helpfully lists Australia’s <a href="http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/report/attachment_3_australia_international_obligations.pdf">rescue at sea responsibilities under international law</a> for asylum seekers in distress.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21725/original/5zwdhqmv-1364248681.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asylum seekers from Sri Lanka on their way to Christmas Island, inside a detention centre in Indonesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Dedi Sahputra</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The record of the past four years and yesterday’s events - as well as the earlier SIEV X tragedy - shows that continued public vigilance is needed to ensure Australia’s high rescue at sea values and practices are not eroded or compromised by considerations of deterrence of irregular boat voyages under present or future governments. </p>
<p>The indivisible obligation to protect all human life in distress at sea is embedded in international maritime law and custom. Every professional mariner, military or civilian, understands and respects this. It is important that Australia’s politicians and border protection policymakers continue to understand it too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Kevin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We received news yesterday of the latest fatal capsize of a boat carrying asylum seekers towards Australia – the 20th reported sinking event in four years. The two deaths yesterday brought the confirmed…Tony Kevin, Emeritus Fellow, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.