Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison began their attacks on refugees from day one. On his first day as PM Abbott re-introduced Temporary Protection Visas, meaning that refugees have the prospect of being sent back when their visa expires after three years.
TPV holders will not have access to even basic settlement supports such as English language lessons and will be denied the right to travel or to bring family members to Australia. Under the Howard government this policy was shown to exacerbate post traumatic stress and mental illness in huge numbers of refugees who ultimately ended up settling in Australia.
This will apply not only to those who arrive after the recent election, but to the 30,000 asylum seekers that arrived under Labor’s “no advantage” rule. The government will also cut off legal assistance for asylum seekers and hopes to restrict court appeals.
- For more on TPVs see Michael Leach, “Back to the future on temporary protection visas” The Conversation
Abbott has appointed three-star General Angus Campbell to run his “Operation Sovereign Borders” with a promise to turn back asylum boats. But neither the Indonesian government nor the Australian navy want to implement such a policy. Retired Admiral Chris Barrie, who ran Howard’s turn back policy, condemned the plans again recently, saying it puts lives at risk and will make no difference to refugee arrivals.
In late September Morrison outlined plans to imprison an extra 2000 asylum seekers on Nauru and a further 1230 on Manus Island. Although he blustered about sending new arrivals offshore within 48 hours, Morrison says that only half of the 523 new boat arrivals since the election have been sent so far.
This huge expansion of offshore processing will be almost impossible to implement. Already the camps on Manus and Nauru have become unmanageable, with an epidemic of self-harm, protests and riots. Refugee boats are continuing to arrive, and there is a limit to the numbers that can be sent offshore.
The “PNG solution” could implode at any minute. Health problems with malaria are constant—the Labor government was forced to evacuate all family groups from the centre. And PNG still has no plans in place to allow the resettlement of a single asylum seeker, let alone the 3000 planned.
The new governments’ attempts to “hide the boats” by restricting information about boat arrivals shows they are not confident in their own policies, and tend towards deception over transparency. If we keep up our protests and force attention on the offshore detention centres, the refugee movement can help get them closed. The Howard government was forced to bring all but two of those imprisoned on Nauru back to Australia by 2005, granting them refugee status. We can do this again.
