Could Changes to Asylum Seeker Processing Save the Budget?

Image by Ben Thomson

Supporters of the government’s tough asylum seeker policy often rebut concerns about detention centres with the same comment: now that the boats have stopped, the government can start clearing the backlog of detainees currently in detention. Unfortunately, that argument doesn’t hold up. Now, over five months since a boat arrival, it’s been revealed asylum seekers are spending the longest amount of time in detention since November 2011. The average time asylum seekers are detained is currently 275 days, almost four times longer than the average of 72 days in July last year. President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs accused the government of using prolonged detention as a deterrence method: “It’s very common to hold people in detention to do security, identity and health checks. But anything longer than one or two months starts to look like arbitrary detention". When compared to other countries the length of detention for Australian asylum seekers grossly exceeds first world standards. The average detention time in the US is 30 days, Canada 25 days, and in France only 10 days.

– Not only is the excessive length of detention concerning in terms of its effect on asylum seekers’ human physical and mental health, it’s also concerning for the Australian government from a financial point of view. According to the government’s commission of audit report, the cost of mandatory detention has soared from $118.4million in 2009-10 to $3.3billion in 2013-14, with forecasts that costs will exceed $10 billion over the course of the current government. Currently the cost of detaining one asylum seeker in Australia is $239,000 while offshore detention costs $400,000. In comparison it costs less than $100,000 a year to hold an asylum seeker in community detention and less than $50,000 to hold them on a bridging visa. You’d think that a government determined to return the budget to surplus might consider these numbers closely. Or you could just cut funding to education, medicare, and unemployment.

–On Friday PM Abbott mysteriously cancelled his plans to travel to Indonesia this week. His cabinet ministers attributed the cancellation to a busy schedule, but whatever the reason, it definitely/maybe didn’t have anything to do with the asylum seeker boat that was found returned to Indonesia yesterday. Imagine meeting with the Indonesian President with all that going on the background—no thankyou. It would have been embarrassing for basically everyone. On the other hand, the timing was horrible, with the invitation from Indonesian President Yudhoyono considered a significant step in repairing the bilateral relationship which soured after spying revelations. And by soured we mean all ties were cut and essentially nobody spoke to each other for four months. –In regards to the story of the boat that sparked the whole cancellation saga, well that plot also thickens. The crew of the vessel told Indonesian navy officials that three extra passengers were added to the boat before it was turned back. According to crewmembers they were travelling in Australian waters with 18 passengers when the Australian navy stopped them and handed over an Indonesian persons and two people from Albania before being escorted back to Indonesian territory. The incident raises questions about the three additional passengers, particularly how long were they in Australian navy custody for, and where were they held before being dumped on this new boat. It’s a question the Department of Immigration would love to answer, if only it wasn’t an operational matter that they refuse to comment on. – In more uplifting news, Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers continues to give us a bad name internationally. This week Port Moresby Governor Power Parkop wrote an open letter calling on Papua New Guinea to not “act like Australians” and to distance itself from Australia’s “treatment and attitude” towards asylum seekers. The letter titled “(SOFT) APPROACH TO ASYLUM SEEKERS” was sent to the PNG government, the Australian High Commission, and printed as a full-page advertisement in two PNG newspapers. In the letter Parkop calls on PNG to adopt a kinder, more humane, morally superior process to asylum seekers. “This is an Australian practice which we should guard ourselves against,” Parkop wrote. “We are a compassionate nation and people known for our hospitality and compassion in reaching out to people in hardship, distress or seeking comfort… While their destiny is Australia and our people oppose to their settlement here, as a Government we must show leadership and raise above our people’s prejudices”.

Ouch.

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