A New Underclass in the Making

By United Nations convention a refugee is defined as "a person who, owing to well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion and is outside of his country of his nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

To suggest that some persecuted people are genuine refugees and others are not genuine, dependent on their method of arriving in Australia rather than focusing on the experiences that have lead to their seeking refuge, is a cruel misnomer and distracts us from the important considerations that we as a member of the international community should be engaged in.

Australia has had a program for providing permanent visas and eventual full citizenship to refugees for many decades now.

Most refugees apply, and are assessed, off shore. Always there has been provision for some on shore asylum seekers. Mostly these people have entered the country legally on temporary visas and have then applied for asylum once here.

A small number of people enter the country without legal travel documents and then apply for asylum. Sometimes these people are allowed to stay in the community whilst their future is decided, often they are kept in detention (with less rights than convicted criminals although their only crime is not have appropriate travel documents!).

In response to increasing numbers of on shore asylum seekers the federal government introduced hastily written legislation late in 1999 introducing a new visa category: Temporary Protection Visa 785. This has enabled the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to assess the large numbers of asylum seekers in detention whilst effectively delaying the real decision-making for the 3 years of the visa. The Minister for Immigration may choose to refer to these people as illegals, boat people, queue jumpers - however by the guidelines of his own department large numbers do meet the criteria for refugee status (hence our "problem").

The reasons behind the new influx of asylum seekers:

There are complex reasons for the increase in asylum seekers from the middle east and there is insufficient room here to explore them. However a cursory understanding of current affairs in recent years would suggest to readers that the unchecked regime in Iraq and the punitive economic sanctions against that country have harmed all citizens, and some religious/ political groups within that community disproportionately.

What may be less well known is some of the trends within Afghanistan. There has been civil war in Afghanistan for 22 years and the Taliban took control in 1996. This long term unrest has already resulted in about 3.5 million refugees fleeing to neighbouring Pakistan. Those fleeing Afghanistan currently tend to be young men who are persecuted on three grounds: they are Shi’a Muslims (the wrong sect), of Hazara ethnicity (the wrong ethnic group), and on notice for conscription into an army which would force them to fight against their own people. It is extremely unlikely that it will be safe for them to return in three years time.

What TPV Holders are entitled to (and what they are not):

Refugees with TPV’s are only entitled to a restricted range of services and benefits that other refugees are.

Entitlements: Not entitled to:

Centrelink payments Employment assistance

Special Benefits

Family Payment

Health Care Card

Rent Assistance Bond assistance

Medicare Only after additional application for

Permanent Protection is made

Right to paid work Employment assistance

English Language classes

Migrant and specialist services Settlement assistance

Information Financial and practical support

Some humanitarian programs Not able to apply for their families

eg. Torture and trauma counselling to join them

The reliance on the non government sector and volunteers:

Because refugees with TPV’s are not entitled to usual range of settlement services and resources there has developed a huge reliance on the non-government sector with a special need for volunteers to undertake much of the settlement assistance.

Locally it has been the Conference of Churches of Western Australia, coordinated by the Rev’d Eira Clapton, and the Coalition for Assistance of Refugees After Detention, which can also be contacted through Eira, which has coordinated the initial response to the ocean of unmet need.

Newly released detainees are taken by bus from Port Hedland, or Curtin (50 Kilometres from Derby), and delivered to a city backpackers with some printed information, their first part payment from Centrelink and little else. Many of them have no English and no other money or clothes. It is at this point which the volunteers are called upon. The needs of the refugees are enormous, even from a purely practical point of view. One of the strategies has been to provide temporary accommodation in church halls and with local families for a few weeks to help the new arrivals save up the bond money so that they can take up their own places. Various Anglican parishes and families have been part of this network of practical support. Once the bond money has been saved the need is then for the basics of independent living and every material relief agency in Perth has had additional demands placed on it, especially for blankets, mattresses and cheap food.

Readers with furniture can ring Brother Geoff Seaman at the Edmund Rice Centre on 9440 0625 who, through the Society of St Vincent de Paul, will make sure that the items go to refugees; donations of blankets and cash can be made to Anglicare, or any of the other blanket appeals on at this time of the year; and people who would like to offer their time can contact Eira on 9221 1732 at the Conference of Churches.

The cycle of Human Rights Abuse:

The asylum seekers have fled their countries of origin because of human rights abuses in their homeland. They then make a hazardous and often traumatic journey to Australia. Their arrival in Australia does not unfortunately mean the end of abuse and trauma for them. We now know that a number of detainees have been treated in ways that do not meet international standards, to which the Australian government is a signatory, for the treatment of refugees. This is both the appalling treatment of individual detainees and the institutionalised poor treatment of all detainees, and includes inadequate access to physical and mental health treatment, delays in assessment, overcrowding etc.

Perhaps of even greater concern is the treatment that refugees receive after their claim has been accepted and they are granted a temporary visa. The institutionalised punitive nature of treating one group of refugees differently to another, as detailed above, and the cruel comments of the minister and other government officials ensure that this already traumatised group of human beings is in no doubt - even without English classes - of their lack of welcome. For many of these people - mostly family men who do not know the well-being or even whereabouts or their families - the cruelest trauma is in the weeks after release from detention when they realise that they are in limbo: they cannot apply for their surviving families to join them and yet they cannot leave Australia (unless they have thousands of dollars for the one way only airfare and do not want asylum in Australia or any other country!); they can look for work but they are unlikely to get a job because they cannot have English classes and their qualifications are not recognised here; they desire to settle in their new country but are not given the welcome or resources to make that likely.

This is the "disappointment" that Mr Ruddock said he didn’t mind them experiencing as this would send a clear message home to other potential queue jumpers contemplating illegal entry into Australia. His comment prompts the question: "Mr Ruddock have you been the Minister for Immigration for so long and yet still think that however irrational and vindictive we are in Australia that this will stop people attempting to escape life threatening persecution and systematised torture and trauma?"

The treatment that these people received overseas, and their ongoing and very realistic fears for the wellbeing of everyone they love, ensure that they are traumatised and have much to recover from. The demands of resettlement and learning a new language, cultural expectations and work place skills ensures that they have a huge process of change to undertake. Our government’s treatment of these people in detention and even upon release ensures that these difficult tasks are being made almost impossible. This is not only cruel it is also an ‘investment’ in future strife as one cannot systematically abuse a sector of society and expect that it will have no ramifications for the rest of us.

When our elected representatives fail to act with compassion, justice or even intelligent foresight it is our responsibility as citizens of both the eternal kingdom and of this state to raise our voice for justice, to turn to our new neighbours with compassion and welcome, and to seek with one another, in prayer and conversation, a future which has room for us all.