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Submission to the National

Inquiry into ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ in Immigration Detention

Australian Human Rights Medallists

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An Open Letter from Australian

Human Rights Medallists

We appeal to the

humanity, decency and sense of fairness of our fellow Australians in respecting

the human rights of men, women and children escaping persecution.

We urge all Australians

to remember that:

In 1954, under the

Menzies Government, Australia adopted the International Convention

on the Status of Refugees as part of the law of this land. Since then,

we have had a proud and compassionate tradition of accepting a flow of

asylum seekers fleeing persecution. We have been glad to accord them refugee

status after due process. Such people are neither 'illegals' nor migrants

for they have a right to claim asylum as refugees.

This Refugee Convention

is part of our international law obligations, but it has now been undermined

in two ways. First, by the withdrawal of some Australian territory from

the application of the processing provisions of the Australian Migration

Act; and secondly, by the active removal of asylum seekers to Pacific

nations where the Refugee Convention does not apply and the processing

of their applications for refugee status will be carried out by the United

Nations at our expense.

This is not our normal

policy towards refugees. Our multicultural society formed over the past

fifty years, has been founded on the non-discriminatory entry of people

who have arrived either through the official migration program, or from

the relatively small number of asylum seekers granted refugee status.

There is no queue in Australia for admission as a refugee because our

refugee quota remains unfilled. Both of these groups, migrants and refugees,

have always been a major factor in helping the Australian economy and

community life to expand and grow in wealth and diversity.

We urge the Australian

people:

• Not to turn away

  asylum seekers from our shores but, with compassion, to imagine their

  despair. Let there be no more inhumanity to man, woman or child in our

  land.
  

  
  

• Not to approve

  the setting up of detention camps in neighbouring countries where all

  refugee applications for asylum will be processed by the United Nations

  at enormous cost to the Australian taxpayer, with the result that many

  of those accepted as entitled to refugee status will either remain stranded

  or eventually be admitted here anyway.
  

  
  

• Not to discriminate

  against a particular racial and religious grouping of people (including

  children) fleeing from persecution and seeking asylum with us. We now

  add to their suffering, instead of helping them as was previously our

  normal practice. Why treat in this way a group of refugees whom we used

  to welcome? It may be discrimination that breaches Australian anti-discrimination

  law. Such

  negative stereotyping of a particular racial and religious group of

  people can be a warning of a disastrous future for our country. Is there

  any 'fair go mate' left at all?
  

  
  

• To call upon the

  government to reform the conditions and treatment of asylum seekers

  held in detention centres run by punitive regimes, and seek alternatives

  to the policy of mandatory detention itself. These camps have been described

  by Malcolm Fraser as 'cruel' and 'brutal'; some are extremely isolated

  and some, due to lack of facilities, are filthy and unhealthy. Such

  treatment by Australia of these people, particularly of the children,

  is both unwarranted and avoidable. Let us once again be a nation that

  is held in high repute by the international community because of our

  respect for the dignity and human rights of all those people who seek

  our help. We did not fail them in the past as we are failing them now.

We call for:

• the immediate

  removal of all children and their families from mandatory detention
  

  
  

• a judicial inquiry

  into the conditions and treatment of asylum seekers held in detention

  camps inside and outside Australia
  

  
  

• a change in present

  government policy towards asylum seekers and a return to the normal

  non-discriminatory welcoming policies adopted by past Australian governments.

Signatories:

Australian Human Rights

Medallists

• 1987 - Rose Colless
• 1988 - Reverend Dorothy

  McRae-McMahon

• 1989 - Reverend Robert

  Ridley

• 1992 - Father David Passi

  and James Rice.

• 1993 - Barbara Hocking
• 1994 - Dr Robert Sykes
• 1995 - The Hon. Elizabeth

  Evatt AC

• 1996 - Rebecca Peters
• 1997 - Dr Faith Bandler

  AM

• 1998 - Vivi Germanos

  - Koutsounadis

• 1999 - Helen Bayes
• 2000 - The Rt Hon Malcolm

  Fraser
  

Last

Updated 9 January 2003.