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The Australian Government's policies relating to asylum seekers and refugees have been formulated in response to issues of border security, people smugglers, and what the Government regards as concern for 'proper' international processes. The policies are intended to deter asylum seekers, who have fled their home and passed through another country, from entering Australia as a second or third country. They also aim to prevent people smugglers from reaching Australian waters. As a consequence, the policies are harsh and punitive. Asylum seekers and refugees entering Australia are treated inhumanely and without proper regard to their human rights and their dignity and well-being. The Uniting Church believes that Australia is in breach of both our moral obligations and our international human rights obligations with many of our current policies: Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) granted on the basis of a person's movement; indefinite mandatory detention; the Pacific Solution; and denial of access to crucial public and social services. We are particularly concerned about the detention of children and the lack of support given to both child asylum seekers and children who are granted TPVs. We are also concerned that, in many of the policies that the Government has introduced, the issues relating to asylum seekers and refugees have been deliberately confused with issues of border protection and people smuggling playing on the fear and insecurity of the Australian people for support. In contrast, the Uniting Church believes that the policies relating to asylum seekers and refugees should be formulated in response to the needs and issues relevant to asylum seekers and refugees. Government policies must uphold the human rights and dignity of all asylum seekers / refugees. They must acknowledge the problem as one of global humanitarian concern. They must reflect commitments to working as part of the global community and to shouldering our fair share of the responsibilities as a relatively wealthy and lucky country. Instead, the Australian Government has responded to asylum seekers with punishment, deterrence, and border protection policies. An insistence on the existence of an orderly queue and the language of 'queue jumping' and 'illegal entry' have been used by the Government to undermine the rights of asylum seekers and refugees and to excuse a callous unconcern for their well-being. As a Christian movement, born out of a history of exile and seeking to respond to the call of Jesus Christ to care for the stranger and love our neighbour, the Uniting Church believes that the current policies are immoral, inhumane, and unjust.  The
Uniting Church believes that our country's responses to refugees / asylum
seekers should encompass respect for the dignity of all people, affirm
our human rights commitments, and be clearly focused on the needs of
those who seek our protection. The primary policy considerations in
relation to asylum seekers, refugees, and people of humanitarian concern
should be human rights, our commitments to international treaties and
protocols, and the moral responsibility that a safe and wealthy country
has to care for people in need and at risk.Instead, our Government uses the circumstances that refugees inevitably find themselves in - by definition being outside the country that they have a 'legal' right to be in - against refugees in order to undermine their status and take a minimalist approach to Australia's responsibilities. By questioning the legality of people's status they have sought to legitimise practices, policies, and legislation that undermine human rights. In the treatment of asylum seekers / refugees who arrive unauthorised (labelled as illegals) and in the denigration of the status of refugees for those who make a secondary movement (labelled as queue jumpers and forum shoppers) the Government has fostered fear and has fed and elaborated on existing misconceptions in an attempt to excuse human rights violations and the punishment and vilification of those we are meant to protect. TOP Punishment and Deterrence Deterrence is the policy of attempting to divert the world's problems to other nations. It is rarely effective - as refugee flows are the result of 'push' factors - both the persecution faced by the person in their home country and the inability to access protection and rights in neighbouring countries, often poor and developing nations who lack the resources and structures needed to provide effective protection. Through punishment polices, the Government attempts to deter asylum seekers from leaving the first country that they reach and from entering Australia. The most well known punishments used include mandatory detention which denies asylum seekers freedom and sees them treated as though they are criminals, the grant of temporary protection visas (TPVs) which deny holders many basic rights and entitlements in our country, and the offshore processing arrangements ('Pacific Solution') that deny people access to our onshore protection program. Other punishment and deterrence policies include the denial of work rights and Medicare to asylum seekers who do not make their protection application within 45 days of arrival in Australia, and the lack of support available for asylum seekers who seek review of DIMIA and the Refugee Review Tribunal's (RRT) decisions - with many ineligible for support to meet their most basic needs.  These
punishment policies aim to further constrain asylum seekers from the
moment they are forced to flee their home to the outcome of a protection
claim. The Government attempts to: deter people from moving on from
the first country that they reach, (and if they do) deter people from
travelling to Australia from a third country that they have travelled
to, (and if they do) prevent people from entering Australia, and (and
if they do) deter (those who arrive 'legally') or deny (those who arrive
'unauthorised') peoples access to our program of onshore protection,
and (if they do apply) deter people from seeking review if their claim
for protection is rejected.Some of these policies are designed to send a message to people smugglers - a pointless approach as those who make profits from the movement of desperate people are not likely to convey the message to asylum seekers. Others are intended as a direct deterrent to asylum seekers and refugees, 'designed to encourage asylum seekers to remain in their country of first asylum' - despite our knowledge that most asylum seekers do not know what they will face when they reach Australia. The Government views punishment as the most effective deterrent, based on their belief that it is 'pull' factors - the benefits that refugees receive in Australia - that result in asylum seekers travelling to our country. We believe it is both inhumane and naïve to treat asylum seekers and refugees as migrants with choices. The Uniting Church believes that punishment can never be an appropriate response to the needs of a refugee. Australia's responsibility, in pursuing policies of deterrence, is to work to address the problems that force people to flee from their homes and to provide support to the countries that take on most of the burden of the world's refugee population. The best deterrent to the unregulated arrival of refugees is a safe and secure home. TOP Border Protection The Government has failed to introduce effective border protection policies that distinguish between unlawful entrants and those who are entering our country to seek protection - they regard unathourised arrivals as 'illegals' regardless of whether they are also asylum seekers. One of the consequences of this has been that asylum seekers have been locked up, adults and children alike, with fewer rights than our country's convicted criminals in remote areas surrounded by razor wire or electrified fences, in detention centres run by a company that runs prisons. The Government's border protection policies are not viable in the long-term. The Pacific Solution is unnecessarily expensive and wasteful - this money would be better spent on funding UNHCR, assisting first asylum countries, or providing support for asylum seekers and refugees in the Australian community. Many of our border protection policies, such as the excision of islands and territories, have absolutely nothing to do with protecting our borders and have simply been avenues for the creation of fear and hostility, so that the punishment and deterrence of asylum seekers will continue to be supported. The Uniting Church believes that Australia does not need protection from asylum seekers. Asylum seekers travel to Australia because they are in need of protection. TOP The 'Orderly Queue' The punishment and deterrence policies, and the emphasis on Australia's need for protection, are rationalised by the Government on the basis that, somewhere in the world, there is an orderly queue of asylum seekers. The notion of an orderly queue provides the rationale for the treatment of those who arrive 'unathourised' or make 'secondary movements' as a second-class of asylum seekers / refugees who are undermining and exploiting the system of protection. The Government treats these people as though they are, at best, economic migrants (though even migrants receive some support that TPV refugees aren't eligible for), and at worst, criminals. Our Government frames its response to asylum seekers around an ideal notion of an international system of protection - it is a system that might work if the countries of first asylum had the finances, resources, and infrastructure to provide protection to refugees, if the conditions from which people fled were dramatically improved in reasonable time, and if the need to reach beyond first asylum countries to seek protection was a rarity. In reality, the burden of first asylum falls on poor nations, causes of refugee flows are often protracted and long-standing problems, and the numbers of refugees worldwide who are not adequately protected (that is, the rights guaranteed under the Convention and major human rights treaties are not being upheld) overwhelms the number of resettlement places offered. Ignoring these realities sees the Government promoting a system where developing nations take on almost all of the burden of providing asylum, refugees suffer for years without a home, and the wealthier nations get to pick and choose which refugees they help (often making the decision on the basis of people's links with the country, their English language and employment skills, etc rather than on the basis of need). The 'orderly queue' simply does not exist. Many asylum seekers who come to Australia have come through countries that are not signatories to the Convention and Protocol on Refugees (eg. Indonesia). These are countries that are under no obligation to provide refuge. Others have travelled through places where they are unable to access even the minimum rights and conditions guaranteed under the Convention and Protocol - with no hope to begin rebuilding the life they left behind. For others, years are spent in refugee camps and / or as non-residents in countries where they do not have full rights or effective protection, are unable to rebuild their lives, and are effectively left in limbo waiting for a solution that may never present itself. A Humanitarian Program? The Uniting Church in Australia has been providing services to asylum seekers and refugees in the community and in detention for many years. We have first-hand knowledge of the consequences of our country's policies. Current government policies are inhumane. Our Government unjustly punishes asylum seekers and refugees. We are using traumatised and desperate people, homeless and marginalised people, to make a point. We are exploiting the vulnerability of these people in order to validate taking a minimalist approach to our human rights obligations. The emphasis on punishment, deterrence, border protection, and the notion of an orderly queue is being used to distract from the real issues. The real issues are the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, our responsibility to protect, and our moral obligation to help those who come to us seeking refuge. Australia's humanitarian migration program no longer has integrity. Commitments to human rights, and the safety and well-being of all people, are increasingly being subsumed by inhumane and inappropriate policy responses. Asylum seekers are held in detention or intercepted and sent away from Australia. Refugees and humanitarian entrants are denied access to permanent visas, assistance, and support - simply because we don't like their movements. When processing a claim for protection involves prison and resettlement is redefined to exclude a permanent home and support from the government, the use of the word humanitarian in this policy area has become a cruel irony. A humanitarian program that has integrity is one that is broadly based on all of our moral and legal obligations. We need to maintain a commitment to effective complementary programs of onshore protection and offshore resettlement, within a broad commitment to humanitarian support through aid, assistance, and support for UNHCR. 
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