“Crimes
of Silence” in Australia against Refugees and Asylum Seekers
The
Turnbull Government, Nauru and Frustrating Due Process
By
Binoy Kampmark
17
October, 2015
Institutionalised
brutality is a rather easy thing to replicate. It begins with a
selected language, and ends up justifying monstrous conduct. It
pardons behaviour, and it condemns victims. The global debate on
refugees is characterised by its distinct lack of humanity, and
Australia, leading the charge, knows no limits on how far that lack
of humanity can go.
The
response to the claims that a Somali woman was raped, and then
brought back to Australia for an abortion from Nauru, only to then
have her returned back to the offshore prison camp, is yet another
inglorious tale. Canberra’s response was one of genuine disbelief
that a traumatised individual might have required counselling about
the procedure.
The
immigration minister Peter Dutton decided to go one step further
about this perceived wobbliness on her part – a “racket”
exploited by asylum seekers had grown up to subvert Australia’s
mandatory offshore system. (Repulsively, Australian detention
centres, privatised and immunised from legal scrutiny, may designate
asylum seekers refugees but not send them back to the Australian
mainland.)
Accordingly,
Dutton’s statement takes aim at refugee advocates and refugees
generally. Regarding the circumstances of her rendition, Dutton was
convinced that, “Comments from some advocates to the contrary are a
fabrication, while some others appear to be using this woman’s
circumstance for their own political agenda. They should be ashamed
of their lies.”
Dutton
certainly baulks against any notion of humanitarianism, a significant
handicap given his ministerial portfolio. At 9:00am on Friday, he
authorised immigration officials to take Abyan from her room at
Sydney’s Villawood detention centre. The intention was to
effectively render her back to Nauru. Before her legal team could get
an injunction preventing her effective expulsion from the mainland,
government lawyers informed the Federal Court that the application
was futile – she was already in Honiara on her way to Nauru.[1]
When it comes to expelling and rendering refugees, Canberra’s
snail-paced bureaucrats suddenly get busy.
The
Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul explained to ABC’s AM
program that, “What we now know is that she was at some point put
on a jet to Honiara to get her out of the country, to avoid court
action that might have prevented her being removed from Australia.”
The
Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, preferred a different
tact to explaining why the government effectively sabotaged due
process by speedily whisking Abyan away and out of the court’s
jurisdiction. “The information I have is that [the] woman in
question changed her mind about seeking a termination and that’s
all I know.”
Abyan’s
lawyer George Newhouse also disclosed to the ABC that his client
wished to see a counsellor before going through with the abortion.
“We asked for counselling, support and for her to understand the
procedure she was about to undertake.” According to Newhouse, it
was precisely in asking for such assistance that the government
retaliated. “We are gobsmacked.”
There
is certainly more to come. Authorities in Nauru, ever willing to show
a colonial like submissiveness to the Australian metropole, have been
happy to target alleged victims of rape by releasing police file
details and names. A Somali woman known as Najma was one such
individual. Nauru’s justice minister, David Adeang, shows little
interest in the rampant sexual abuse taking place in what effectively
are prison conditions for refugees and asylum seekers. He prefers to
see detainees as habitual liars and detainee guards as victimised
saints.
Adeang,
and Dutton, may have minds cut from the same cloth, but ample
evidence has been adduced to the Senate select committee
investigating the Australian-funded facility of atrocious conditions.
Effectively sending detainees back to such conditions brings the
Refugee Convention into play, with such rendition violating the rule
against non-refoulement.
Last
month, the committee inspired by the gruesome findings of the Moss
Review, which revealed the alleged sexual exploitation of detainees,
including children, by the staff at the processing centre, found it
was “not adequate, appropriate or safe for the asylum seekers
detained there.” The committee further observed that, “There
appears to be no other pathway for those affected by what they have
seen and experienced in the Regional Processing Centre (RPC) on Nauru
to disclose allegations of mistreatment, abuse or to make
complaints.”[2]
Dutton’s
desensitised response? It was an obvious witch hunt that
unnecessarily rubbished a strong response against scoundrels seeking
to come to Australia by unconventional routes.
With
the rendering of a pregnant Somali woman back to Nauru, away from
judicial scrutiny and review, on a Royal Australian Airforce
Aircraft, the deeply militarised approach to refugees have been
confirmed. It is a world of secrets guarded by threats of punishment;
it is a world policed by former service personnel. And it is one
treated as non-Australian, an issue for the Nauru authorities.
Dr.
Binoy Kampmark was
a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at
RMIT University, Melbourne. Email:bkampmark@gmail.com
Notes
Australia
dumps tetraplegic
Australia
extradites wheelchair-bound Kiwi under controversial new law.
18
October, 2015
A
tetraplegic sent to New Zealand after 36 years living across the
Tasman is the latest victim of Australia's tough new immigration
laws.
The
56-year-old New Zealander, who asked to be identified only as "Paul",
said the Australian Government "dumped me at Auckland Airport"
three weeks ago.
He
has no friends or family here and landed with only $200 and a voucher
for a week's accommodation.
The
case is a fresh embarrassment over the treatment of New Zealand-born
convicted criminals by Australia.
It
comes as Prime Minister John Key and his Australian counterpart met
in Auckland yesterday when Turnbull described the transtasman
neighbours as "family".
Australia's
Department of Immigration and Border Protection would not comment to
the Herald on Sunday last night.
Paul
- who is wheelchair bound but has some feeling in his arms - said he
was jailed twice after being caught self-medicating with controlled
painkillers.
After
the first incident in 2012 he served 13 months in jail. A few months
after his release he was caught again and served a further seven
months.
He
was extradited last month under a controversial new Australian law
which allows foreign nationals who have served a year or more in jail
to be deported.
The
man says he would be begging on the streets of Auckland had it not
been for government-funded charity Prisoners' Aid and Rehabilitation
Society (Pars).
"I
feel like I've just been dumped - away from all my family and
friends. I have nothing here."
Earlier
complaints about the deportation system include Angela Russell who
has spent 37 of her 40 years in Australia but is being sent here
after being convicted of theft.
Junior
Togatuki, 23, died while in a detention centre after his pleas not to
be deported were rejected. He was 4 when he moved from Auckland to
Sydney and told authorities he had "no memory" of New
Zealand.
More
than 200 New Zealanders are held in seven detention centres,
including some who have lived in Australia their whole lives.
Key
tried to force a backtrack on the law but Turnbull has refused to
budge, saying only more resource would be poured into the appeal
process to speed it up.
Turnbull
said there had been a large number of revocations since the law was
introduced last year but the numbers would go down as the backlog was
cleared.
Paul,
who broke his neck in a 2010 accident, said the deportation policy
didn't take into account the severity of someone's crime.
"I'm
not making excuses for what I did, but I didn't hurt anyone and I
wasn't dealing anything," he said.
He
was told his visa was being withdrawn by the Australian Government
two days before his second jail term was up. He said he then spent an
additional four months in a detention centre while his deportation
was organised.
Paul's
case, and that of other Kiwi deportees, is putting strain on Pars'
resources, the Department of Corrections-funded service.
Tui
Ah Lo, Pars' executive director, said the level of resource available
to them has posed serious difficulties in trying to offer Paul the
service he needs.
A
lawyer representing New Zealanders detained in Australia says the
outcome of talks between the countries' leaders is disappointing.
At
talks in Auckland yesterday Prime Minister John Key discussed the
deportation policy under which hundreds of New Zealanders with
criminal convictions had their visas revoked.
Australian
prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said no special dispensations would
be given to New Zealanders facing deportation in Australia.
Lawyer
Craig Tuck has two clients being detained in Christmas Island and
Sydney who were hoping for more.
"Well
the outcome is a wet tea towel really. Because nothing has changed
except as I understand it they are going to speed up the appeal
process which may or may not put more resources into it.
"But
clearly the timeframes are extended now. It's open ended, it would be
good to hear some specifics about how that is going to be dealt
with," Mr Tuck said.
University
of Otago law professor Mark Henaghan said the talks were hopeless.
Professor
Henaghan said the situation was intolerable, and the talks went
nowhere with little leeway from the Australian prime minister.
"I
think basically he is saying we are doing the best we can, but at the
end of the day he is not prepared to speed up the process. And there
doesn't seem to be any explanation coming from Australia as to why
the process is taking this long.
"Obviously
deportation requires some paperwork and things to be carried out. But
it seems incredible that the paperwork would take years."
Labour
said it was encouraged Australia was taking steps to speed up the
appeal process for those facing deportation.
Leader
Andrew Little said a simpler, quicker appeal process was helpful, but
warned there was still a major issue about the discretion being
exercised for those subject to deportation.
"What
we are seeing is people who have been born in New Zealand but left in
childhood, grown up there, gone to school there, to all intents and
purposes Australian. But when they offend and do a prison sentence,
and are subject to deportation, they are effectively sent back to a
country they have no links to."
John
Key confident fewer kiwis will be held
Mr
Key said he was reasonably confident progress could be made on the
subject of New Zealanders awaiting deportation in Australian
detention centres.
He
said more resources being put into speeding up the appeal process for
those wanting to stay in Australia should help bring down the number
of New Zealand detainees.
"When
somebody's visa is revoked, that happens early on in the process and
actually they know the outcome of that by the time they finish their
sentence in prison and therefore they don't need to go to a detention
centre."
Mr
Key said he hoped Australia would take on board this country's call
for compassion for some of the affected New Zealanders.
Mr
Turnbull said New Zealanders who had their visas revoked could choose
to return home rather than be detained.
He
said New Zealand citizens who committed crimes in Australia would not
receive special dispensation from immigration laws.
But
he said they were free to return to New Zealand and undertake their
appeal to the Immigration Minister from there.
"They
are able to travel to New Zealand. They are able to undertake their
appeal to the Minister from New Zealand. And so there is no need for
any New Zealander whose visa has been revoked and is in detention in
Australia to stay there."
we should do away with the anzac treaty ..the aussies dont deserve to have us help them .for years their banks have sucked the econemy out of new zealand ..lets use the same laws against them ..ive herd south auckland is a wash with aussie bikers ,causing trouble .
ReplyDelete