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The Secrecy Over 157 Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers Is Dehumanising And Irresponsible

Disinformation and labels such as 'illegals' and 'queue jumpers' forms a barrier to empathy and stops Australians from seeing asylum seekers as actual people.

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A High Court hearing that could potentially find Tony Abbott’s government in breach of its obligations under international human rights law was postponed on Monday. This comes after they made the decision to bring 157 Sri Lankan asylum seekers (all Tamil) to dry land at Western Australia’s Curtin Detention Centre, by way of Cocos Island. Now, a compensation claim for unlawful detention has been added to the equation.

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The story began with the hushed imprisonment of the boatload of human beings (including 50 children) at sea for almost a month. Then an urgent High Court hearing on July 7th revealed the government had covertly handed over 41 Sri Lankan asylum seekers back to the Sri Lankan government without processing their claims for protection. The hearing also uncovered the existence of the 157 being held on an Australian Customs vessel.

A concerning issue highlighted throughout this ordeal is that of secrecy. Both Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott consistently brushed off any and all questions about the whereabouts of the 157 Sri Lankans, either avoiding the topic or accusing the asker of speculation. When queried about their whereabouts during parliamentary question time and by the media, the Morrison fell back on the convenient excuse that it was now a “matter before the High Court.” Prior to that, he had told reporters in Melbourne that there was “no significant incident at sea to report.”

In addition to the public interest in knowing how the government is conducting itself, an open flow of accurate information is imperative for free and informed thought. The irresponsible way in which information has been delivered (or withheld) is by no means unrelated to the way it has been processed by the public, according to Julian Burnside QC, lawyer and human rights advocate.

“The government’s relentless secrecy about the asylum seekers on the ship stands in sharp contrast to its response to the tragedy of MH17, the Malaysian Airlines flight which was shot down over Ukraine,” he explains, discussing the problem of dehumanizing an inherently human issue.

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“Every day since that event, we have been shown photographs of people who died and sad, detailed stories of their lives,” he said, of the July 17th tragedy. “The difference in treatment means that Australians have difficulty seeing the Sri Lankan asylum seekers as human beings who deserve to be treated decently. To the contrary, their existence was initially denied; and even now their individual humanity is suppressed or ignored.”

This obstacle to empathy blocks the recognition that real human beings are being dealt with, prohibits proper application of basic human rights principles, and destroys livelihoods en masse.

Supporters of Operation Sovereign Borders may take this opportunity to consider the actual lives at stake, but let’s not hold our breath. The Australian government’s classification of asylum seekers as “illegals” and subsequent pledge to “protect” us from them is, on its own, contemptuous and degrading. The embedded discourse around asylum seekers is misleading, and dehumanizes from the outset. When addressing the public, a foreign vocabulary is employed which alienates by eliciting a sense of “otherness.” Asylum seekers are commonly described as “boat people” and “queue jumpers”; rarely as mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, or—god forbid—victims.

Without proper authority or evidence (seeing as not one of the Sri Lankans who arrived at Curtin this week has yet had their case addressed), Morrison continues to deny them a fair go, publicly declaring that their claims are all a load of rubbish anyway. He told the ABC this week that the 157 asylum seekers’ passage to Australia was "an economic migration seeking to illegally enter Australia," and pre-determined their claims for refugee status as “absurd.”

It has not gone unnoticed by the international community. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, is among those who have officially slammed Australia’s recent dumbing down of proper procedure with regards to asylum seekers as “deeply disturbing”, noting that “international law requires that each and every case be properly and individually examined on its own merits.”

On July 8th, the High Court granted an emergency interim injunction to prevent the government from returning the asylum seekers to Sri Lanka without first giving 72 hours notice. A hearing by the full bench was originally scheduled to commence on August 4th, which would determine whether Australia had breached international and domestic law in its treatment of these people. The hearing will still proceed at a later date, according to Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh De Kretser, representing the asylum seekers. “The case that remains on foot currently before the High Court is about two things: was it legal for the government to take people away from Australia and detain them for a month at sea, and if so, should the asylum seekers receive compensation for that?” said Mr. De Kretser, as reported by The Australian . While he and his team update their case, the Abbott government are surely plotting ways to address their continued criticism; including recent accusations by religious leaders of “state sanctioned child abuse. ”

Follow Shanrah on Twitter: @shanrahw