The Consequences Of Being Too Good At Border Control

Image by Ben Thomson

This week while the Abbott government continued to revel in the victory of no boat arrivals in over 100 days, thousands of Australians took to the streets in protest. They marched, held signs, and chanted over a range of issues from children in detention to the reintroduction temporary protection visas. Nobody could deny that the Abbott government’s plan wasn’t working, but they also couldn’t deny at what cost. Here aboard the Hate Boat we investigate this week’s asylum seeker news, all of which points to increasing levels of desperation from all sides.

– In a strange twist the Abbott government’s strict policy of turning back boats has been so successful that three Pakistani asylum seekers have been left with no financial option but beg for Indonesian detention. The three men tried twice to enter Australia through people smuggling routes but failed. Now they’re only option is to wait years in Indonesia for resettlement through the United Nations process, but with no money left and without Indonesian permission to work. The situation is so desperate that the men are willing to exchange freedom for food, and try to enter one of Indonesia’s crowded detention centres. But they’re not the only ones. A spokesperson for Indonesian immigration confirmed the country had seen an unusual influx in asylum seekers surrendering themselves to detention centres. While these people may get fed, they’re also entering a slow process. In January and February of this year the UNHCR in Indonesia approved just 48 visas a month, while 100 new arrivals registered for processing each week. You do the math.

– Australian customs and border control have taken to YouTube as the latest tool in deterring asylum seekers, launching a video campaign featuring the commander of Operation Sovereign Borders Angus Campbell. The slogan for the campaign reads “No Way: You will not make Australia home”, a punch line that seems a little too dependent on asylum seekers being familiar with the Peter Allen classic, “I Still Call Australia Home”. In the videos Campbell highlights the tough new restrictions imposed by the government. “If you travel by boat without a visa you will not make Australia home,” he says. “The rules apply to everyone: families, children, unaccompanied children, educated and skilled. There are no exceptions”. To maximise exposure the video has been translated and released in twelve languages including Hindi, Arabic, and Vietnamese, with the most popular version in Dari being viewed more than 9,000 times. The YouTube video isn’t the government’s first attempt at utilising new media; in February they released a graphic novel that featured images of distressed detention centre detainees. It can only be a matter of time until we see some animated gifs.

– If you needed reminding of how fearful some asylum seekers are of their home country, it’s pretty hard to go past this story of a man who set himself on fire after finding out he would be deported. The man of Tamil origin and identified only as Janarthanan was living and working in Sydney on a bridging visa. Just days after finding out he would be deported back to Sri Lanka Janarthanan doused himself in petrol and set himself alight at a shipyard. He received burns to 70 percent of his body and is currently in a critical condition. Under the Department of Immigration’s process Janarthanan, “was found not to be owed protection and this decision was affirmed on appeal by the Refugee Review Tribunal earlier this month”.

­­–If you’re born in Australia you’re Australian, right? What if you were born in a detention centre in Australia—is there a difference? That question, in one form, is currently being played out in the High Court with the result holding implications for 26 Australian-born babies in detention. The case will decide on precedent for whether children of asylum seekers born in Australia are Australian citizens by birth. In the meantime legal firm Maurice Blackburn has acted to stop those Australian born babies being moved to offshore detention centres like Nauru. As of July last year, under changes in the Migration Act, anyone who arrived in Australia by boat could be removed offshore, the problem though is these babies didn’t arrive by boat. Jacob Varghese, principal from Maurice Blackburn, said the babies' parents had requested urgent legal assistance as they are at risk of imminent offshore dispatch. "It is bad enough that these newborn babies are in indefinite detention from the moment they are born. Even on Christmas Island they lack the basic medical services newborns should receive. Their parents are concerned that things will be even worse on Nauru or Manus Island”. As of yet the government hasn’t responded to the request.

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