The Australian has yesterday reported on a spike in boat numbers, and that the election “has supercharged the people-smuggling industry”. The department of immigration and citizenship is worried that more women and children are getting on unseaworthy boats. But is enough being done to give would-be asylum seekers meaningful options before they leave the docks?
In September last year, when I was in Jakarta on a holiday, I received a phone call asking if I could meet with two Afghan men. I’m a lawyer who had worked with Legal Aid in Perth helping asylum seekers, and was volunteering with a community legal centre for refugees at the time.
The men had just survived a boat sinking on the way to Australia, been rescued, and rounded up by Indonesian immigration authorities. They escaped detention soon after, and needed advice.
Batoor and Barkat Ali’s amazing story was later related on SBS’s Dateline. Batoor is a talented photojournalist who worked on the PR team at the US Embassy in Kabul before he was targeted for a bold and confronting photo essay on the exploitation of Afghanistan’s "dancing boys" in the Washington Post.
He had been denied a visa to visit Australia to exhibit his photographs and when he started getting threats, he had no choice but to go through a smuggler. Batoor took photos on their ill-fated boat trip that were published at the Global Mail, giving a rare insight into what life is like for Indonesian asylum seekers looking to journey to safe haven.
When I met Batoor and Barkat Ali, I told them about applying for refugee status through the office of the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) in Jakarta – and that getting on another boat to Australia was a terrible idea: we’ll lock you up in detention, I said, you’ll be there for years, waiting in despair. We’ve recently introduced a policy to punish people who come on boats by sending them to Nauru or Manus Island. Don’t get on a boat.
They worried about staying here. Indonesia is not a party to the UN’s refugees convention, and has no obligation to look after asylum seekers. The immigration detention centres are sometimes run by corrupt officialswho extort bribes and, in 2012, a young Afghan boy was beaten to death by guards.
The UNHCR is desperately under-resourced, and simply does not have the capacity to adequately deal with people of concern here. There are no "camps", and asylum seekers must live in the shadows, not knowing what will happen to them.
Batoor and Barkat Ali had to make a choice.
Batoor was lucky. Because of his profile, his application for refugee status was fast-tracked, and he was resettled in Australia just a couple of weeks ago. Others I have met in since I moved to Jakarta to volunteer providing advice and assistance have been waiting over a year just for an interview with the UNHCR. They can’t work, constantly worry about being arrested, and children cannot go to school.
I have explained to asylum seekers why they shouldn’t get on boats – but they know the dangers and they make their choices regardless. Staying here is getting increasingly difficult and dangerous for them. Despite all the talk of a “regional solution”, there’s still no sign of real options for them.
Before the "expert panel" reported last year, I wrote that policies focussed on deterrence will not "stop the boats". With the latest estimate – 25,000 people expected to arrive this year – I am ashamed about being correct. What we`re doing is causing more harm than good.
It’s interesting to see the “saving lives” rhetoric return without mentioning that the Gillard government’s new “no advantage” policy means refugees cannot apply to bring their families here; it was the same under Howard’s temporary protection visas. It’s not smugglers pushing kids on to boats – it’s us.
We’re the ones who are sitting smugly at the UN security council while“excising” the operation of a key UN convention from our domestic territory. We’re the ones obsessed with counting the numbers of people coming on boats, without bothering to give them options.
We’re the ones spending $2.3 billion on offshore centres while the UNHCR is expected to deal with crises in Syria, Mali, Afghanistan and elsewhere to assist 25 million people around the globe this year with a budget of $3.7 billion.
A bit of guilt about having that little blue passport with the emu and kangaroo on it is one of the reasons why I’m here. Of course, we can’t fix everything. But stick around in the comment thread – I would like to tell you about some of the things we can do to make a difference.
