After three years living in Melbourne, Iranian refugee Hossein has been told he owes the Department of Immigration $200,000, the cost of keeping his wife, daughter and son locked up in Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia for three years. (Source: The Australian newspaper, 22 April 2008)
As a party to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, Australia is obliged to uphold the human right to seek asylum in any territory.
The mandatory detention of asylum seekers who arrive on-shore without a valid visa is a choice of the Australian Government. Asylum seekers are not criminals, and are not charged with any criminal offence. They flee oppressive regimes, leaving their own country in search of a life without persecution, torment and discrimination.
In 1992, under the Keating Government, the Migration Act was amended making those asylum seekers held in mandatory detention liable for the cost of their detention, even when they have subsequently been recognised as a refugee.
It is unreasonable and immoral to punish refugees by billing them for the cost of their detention.
Even more perverse are cases where the Government has refused to grant refugee status to someone whom a court later determines is a refugee. Their detention is prolonged by the Government’s failure to recognise their refugee status.
This policy is a barrier to refugees fully integrating into the community, and continues to put significant pressure – both emotional and financial — on people who have already experienced so much trauma and uncertainty in their lives.
Significant debt also makes it extremely difficult for refugees to pursue family reunion.
The Rudd Labor Government has committed itself to treating asylum seekers and refugees fairly and with dignity. Collect signatures on this Uniting Church petition to press for change. Return to the Justice and International Mission Unit by 29 August.
