Onlookers gather near the body of one of the victims of a boat that sank off Java island washed ashore on a beach, in West Java, The boat, carrying about 100 asylum seekers from Lebanon, Pakistan and Iraq capsized and sank en route to Australia. (AP Photo)
Displeased with how their government handles asylum seekers and the types of policies Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has put into place regarding refugees, thousands of Australians participated in a grassroots March in March movement over the weekend.
Since 1992, Australia has required those entering the country without a valid visa to be held in a detention facility until officials can verify the health and security status of each person. While the detention program was intended to be a “risk-management tool,” the reality for about 10,000 men, women and children in these facilities is a life that more closely resembles a concentration camp than anything else.
Immigration reform advocates say the Australian government is pressuring asylum seekers to return to where they came from, and has allowed police officers who mistreat these refugees to continue working in these facilities.
The peaceful protests, largely organized via social media, were a chance for Australians throughout the country to express which policies they believed needed to be revamped, including, among others, those regarding climate change, marriage equality, education funding, indigenous rights and the government’s attempt to ban protests in public spaces.
In total, there were about 30 rallies held during the weekend, with protests largely occurring in regional cities on Saturday and in state capitals on Sunday. On Monday, protesters delivered a notice of no confidence to the Australian federal government’s Parliament House.
Though there were a slew of issues Australians came out to protest, one of the biggest issues drawing out protesters concerns how Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has treated asylum seekers, including placing them for an indefinite amount of time in facilities — sometimes as long as five years — that are known as breeding grounds for rape, rioting, malaria and mental illness.
Since Australia is already holding thousands of people waiting to enter the country in its detention facilities, the Australian coast-guard equivalent and military reportedly actively watch for groups of people attempting to enter the country via boat, then send them back to where they came from, usually Indonesia.
All Aussies seeking change were invited to the protest via an invitation that reminded voters “Democracy doesn’t end at the ballot box.” Some families such as Dyan and Andrew of Blackburn, Australia, said they brought their three children with them because they wanted to teach them the importance of speaking up if they don’t agree with what the government is doing.
“I’m not going to treat refugees as second-class citizens,” Dyan told local media.
Many Australians agree, which is why many came out for this March in March protest.
“The Manus Island asylum seekers need support and security, not threats,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “They need legal support and they need to be brought to Australia. Scott Morrison cannot guarantee their safety on Manus Island.”
David Mann, head of the legal team at Melbourne’s Refugee and Immigration Legal Center, agreed.
“If a liberal democracy decides a group of people, depending on where they come from, can have their liberty placed in jeopardy without the ability to defend themselves, then the consequences are very dire – not only for that specific group but for everyone in that country that supposedly lives under the rule of law,” he told Time magazine before the protests. “It casts a very dark shadow over Australia’s commitment to human rights and fundamental respect for human dignity.”
This is not the first time Australians have publicly asked for reform regarding the government’s treatment of those seeking asylum. Last month there was a candlelight vigil for Reza Barati, a 23-year-old Iranian refugee who died during an outbreak of violence at a detention facility that started after locals and security personnel broke into the refugee camp. At least 70 other refugees were injured in the incident, which local media are reporting was a warning to all refugees that they should find somewhere else to seek asylum.
The government does not agree that its policy on people seeking asylum needs reform, explaining that the policy and the detention facilities are anything but a human rights violation. Officials have denied allegations of any misconduct.
“Security assessments are an important part of ensuring the safety of Australians,” the Attorney-General’s office said in a recent statement to Time magazine.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Immigration and Border Protection agreed, saying, “These policies are proving to be highly effective, with 75 days having passed without a successful people smuggling venture to Australia.”
The conditions in the detention facilities are so bad, however, that they have caught the attention of Catholic bishops in the country, who have released a statement encouraging the government “to find a more humane solution to people seeking asylum in their country.”
In August 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Committee called Australia’s asylum seeker policy and indefinite detention program “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” and asked that refugees be released into the community, which Australia agreed to do under the 1951 Refugee Convention treaty. The deadline expired earlier this month and Australia’s Attorney-General’s office released a statement saying it was still debating how to respond.
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