Australia's offshore refugee policy in disarray.

Abstract

Australia's contentious way of dealing with refugees and asylum seekers arriving by boat, long condemned by human rights organisations, has come under renewed attack and public scrutiny. On April 26, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea (PNG) ruled that the offshore detention centre on Manus Island, PNG, which had been used by Australia under the so-called Pacific Solution, was unconstitutional and ordered its closure. In its ruling, the court said that the centre violated the detainees' rights to personal liberty under the PNG constitution. As The Lancet went to press, it was unclear what would happen to the 850 men or so on Manus Island but Australian Government officials reiterated that they would not be allowed to stay in Australia. In the same week, a 23-year-old Iranian refugee from Australia's other notorious offshore detention centre on Nauru, where about 450 asylum seekers—including about 50 children—are currently held, died after self-immolation.As Ryan Essex describes in a letter in today's issue, Australia's Government has taken every possible step to silence dissent and shroud the human suffering caused by its draconian policy in secrecy. He names the Border Force Act, a law that makes it a criminal offence for current or former employees, including doctors and health workers, to discuss their experiences in immigration centres, as an example. But such attempts to silence are met with vocal resistance by the Australian people, with disobedience by clinicians and health workers, who have refused to discharge children from hospital back into detention centres, for example, and with desperate attempts by asylum seekers to draw attention to their plight.With the possibility of an early election—Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has indicated July 2 as a potential date—the current Australian Government's approach to stem refugees arriving by boat should be part of an open nationwide debate. The health and wellbeing of people who have fled war and persecution must not be shrouded in secrecy and left to third-party countries. Deterrence is no excuse for Australia's way of shirking responsibility. Australia's contentious way of dealing with refugees and asylum seekers arriving by boat, long condemned by human rights organisations, has come under renewed attack and public scrutiny. On April 26, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea (PNG) ruled that the offshore detention centre on Manus Island, PNG, which had been used by Australia under the so-called Pacific Solution, was unconstitutional and ordered its closure. In its ruling, the court said that the centre violated the detainees' rights to personal liberty under the PNG constitution. As The Lancet went to press, it was unclear what would happen to the 850 men or so on Manus Island but Australian Government officials reiterated that they would not be allowed to stay in Australia. In the same week, a 23-year-old Iranian refugee from Australia's other notorious offshore detention centre on Nauru, where about 450 asylum seekers—including about 50 children—are currently held, died after self-immolation. As Ryan Essex describes in a letter in today's issue, Australia's Government has taken every possible step to silence dissent and shroud the human suffering caused by its draconian policy in secrecy. He names the Border Force Act, a law that makes it a criminal offence for current or former employees, including doctors and health workers, to discuss their experiences in immigration centres, as an example. But such attempts to silence are met with vocal resistance by the Australian people, with disobedience by clinicians and health workers, who have refused to discharge children from hospital back into detention centres, for example, and with desperate attempts by asylum seekers to draw attention to their plight. With the possibility of an early election—Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has indicated July 2 as a potential date—the current Australian Government's approach to stem refugees arriving by boat should be part of an open nationwide debate. The health and wellbeing of people who have fled war and persecution must not be shrouded in secrecy and left to third-party countries. Deterrence is no excuse for Australia's way of shirking responsibility. Children in Australia's immigration centresA Lancet Editorial (Feb 13, p 620)1 highlights the ongoing and widespread abuse in Australia's offshore immigration detention centres, in light of the recent High Court decision that ruled offshore detention of asylum seekers to be legal. While these issues are alarming on their own, they have come at a time when the government has taken steps to silence dissent and promote secrecy in Australia's detention process. One of the more publicised aspects of this government intervention was the introduction of the Border Force Act. Full-Text PDF