Asylum seekers: Australia's shame

Abstract

To deter refugees from reaching its shores, Australia has a policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers. Unauthorised boat arrivals are sent to Australian-run camps on Nauru or Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, without the prospect of resettlement in Australia. Last week, the Australian Government settled a class action brought on behalf of 1950 people who have been detained on Manus Island by agreeing to pay AUD$70 million, likely the largest human rights settlement in Australian history. But money cannot make good their suffering, nor can it absolve Australia of its responsibility for the 1186 camp residents on Manus Island and Nauru as of May 31, 2017. Reports from the UN, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and others have detailed the disgraceful human cost of this policy. Arbitrary and indefinite detention has caused detainees severe mental anguish and suffering, which has been compounded by insufficient medical care and unsafe living arrangements. The full extent of this tragedy is beyond enumeration here, but includes high rates of self-harm and suicide attempts, including by children; sexual and physical abuse of adults and children by guards and other detainees; the murder of Reza Berati on Manus Island in 2014; the death of Hamid Kehazaei by sepsis following delayed medical transfer from Manus Island in 2014; and the self-immolation of two detainees on Nauru in 2016. Amnesty International's 2016 conclusion that “the Australian Government has set up a deliberate system of abuse” is plain. The Australian Government asserts—without evidence—that this policy is the only effective strategy to protect the nation's borders from “illegal” and potentially dangerous arrivals, and to prevent further deaths at sea. The claim that the lives of these men, women, and children are the cost of national security or somehow serve an altruistic purpose is perverse and the Australian public deserves better. In April, 2017, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants reported that the current system “cannot be salvaged”. Australia must immediately close the camps, swiftly process all outstanding claims on the Australian mainland, and implement a rights-based approach to migration. In the land of the fair go, anything less is unacceptable. Ending our shame: call for a fundamental reconsideration of Australian refugee policyWe, as members of the Australian public health community, reaffirm The Lancet's call for urgent action to end mandatory detention in the Editorial “Asylum seekers: Australia's shame” (June 24, p 2444).1 We highlight the compelling evidence of deleterious health impacts caused by current arbitrary immigration detention practices in both offshore “processing centres” and indefinite detention in Australia.2,3 Full-Text PDF