Asylum Seekers to Australia. What is your view?

Over the last decade the Commission has worked to promote and protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. The Commission aims to provide clear, factual information to highlight the human rights issues involved in the treatment of these groups of people. Who are asylum seekers and refugees?

What are Australia’s human rights obligations in relation to asylum seekers and refugees? How many refugees does Australia grant permanent protection to each year? Why are asylum seekers and refugees in immigration detention?

How are asylum seekers’ claims decided? What is the 'enhanced screening process'? Who are asylum seekers and refugees?

An asylum seeker is a person who has fled their own country and applied for protection as a refugee. The United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as amended by its 1967 Protocol (the Refugee Convention), defines who is a refugee and sets out the basic rights that countries should guarantee to refugees. Racereligionnationalitymembership of a particular social group orpolitical opinion.

Asylum seekers or refugees and migrants have very different experiences and reasons for moving to another country. Migrants choose to leave their home country, and can choose where to go and when they might return to their home country. Asylum seekers and refugees, on the other hand, flee their country for their own safety and cannot return unless the situation that forced them to leave improves.

What are Australia’s human rights obligations in relation to asylum seekers and refugees? Australia has international obligations to protect the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in Australia, regardless of how or where they arrive and whether they arrive with or without a visa. While asylum seekers and refugees are in Australian territory (or otherwise engage Australia's jurisdiction), the Australian Government has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that their human rights are respected and protected.

These treaties include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). These rights include the right not to be arbitrarily detained. As a party to the Refugee Convention, Australia has agreed to ensure that asylum seekers who meet the definition of a refugee are not sent back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened.

This is known as the principle of non-refoulement. Australia also has obligations not to return people who face a real risk of violation of certain human rights under the ICCPR, the CAT and the CRC, and not to send people to third countries where they would face a real risk of violation of their human rights under these instruments. These obligations also apply to people who have not been found to be refugees.

For an overview of the key human rights issues that arise from Australia’s approach to asylum seekers and refugees, see the Commission’s publication Asylum seekers, refugees and human rights: snapshot report 2013. How many refugees does Australia grant permanent protection to each year? Under the Humanitarian Program, Australia accepts a certain number of people every year who are refugees or have special humanitarian needs.

Offshore resettlement for people who are found to be refugees (and others whose need for protection has been acknowledged) in another country before they come to Australia, andonshore protection for people who come to Australia with a valid visa and make a successful claim for asylum after they arrive. The Australian Government has indicated that in the 2014-15 financial year, it intends to provide 13,750 places in the Humanitarian Program. In addition, asylum seekers who arrived in Australia without a valid visa but are not transferred to Nauru or Manus Island may be granted temporary protection visas or safe haven enterprise visas.

Why are asylum seekers and refugees in immigration detention? Asylum seekers may arrive in Australia without a valid visa or other documentation for a number of reasons. For example, a person who is fleeing persecution by the government of their country of origin might not be able to obtain a passport from officials in that country.

Alternatively, a person fleeing persecution might travel without documentation to avoid being identified as they leave their country of origin in order to reduce the risk to themselves and their family. Under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Migration Act), asylum seekers who arrive in Australia without a valid visa must be held in immigration detention until they are granted a visa or removed from Australia. There is no limit under Australian law to the length of time for which a person may be held in immigration detention.

Some asylum seekers spend long periods of time in immigration detention waiting for their refugee claim to be assessed; waiting for the completion of health, identity and security checks; or awaiting removal from Australia if they have been found not to be a refugee nor someone who is owed ‘complementary protection’. Click here for more information about immigration detention and human rights. While the legal framework for mandatory detention remains in place, over the past few years, increasing numbers of asylum seekers have been permitted to reside in the community while their claims for protection are assessed, after spending an initial period in closed detention.

The Commission has welcomed the increased use of alternatives to closed immigration detention such as community detention and the grant of bridging visas, but remains concerned that thousands of asylum seekers and refugees are still held in closed immigration detention facilities. How are asylum seekers’ claims decided? Asylum seekers who arrive in Australia on a valid visa and then apply for protection (i.e.

As part of the onshore protection program mentioned above) have their claims assessed through the refugee status determination and complementary protection system that applies under the Migration Act. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (Department) will make a primary assessment as to whether the person is a refugee as defined by the Migration Act.