17 June 2011 Volume: 21 Issue: 11 Australia's ... - Eureka Street

Volume 21 Issue: 1117 June 2011How not to treat asylum seeker kidsPOLITICSKerry MurphyWatching Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on ABC1's Lateline late lastweek, I was saddened to note that the Government’s policy of sendingasylum seekers to Malaysia is less concerned with protecting the asylumseekers’ human rights and dignity than with breaking ‘the business modelof the people smugglers’.Asked by host Tony Jones if this involved ‘making an example’ of 800 unaccompaniedminors by sending them to Malaysia, Bowen said it’s ‘not a matter of making examples’ but of‘ensuring you have a robust system in place to break the model. And of course we will treatpeople with dignity and ... with regard to their circumstances.’‘I do not want to send the message that it’s okay to get on a boat if you fit a particularcategory,’ he added, with reference to unaccompanied minors. ‘The decision making is notbased on principles of human rights and dignity, but on ‘solving the boat people problem’.’The focus on the situation of unaccompanied minors is legitimate. They present theImmigration Minister with a number of legal and ethical dilemmas. As Minister, he is legallytheir guardian and should be acting in their best interests.Australia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the RefugeeConvention. This creates legal obligations, to provide security for children, act in their bestinterests, and provide for family unity or family reunification. So is sending them to Malaysia,not a signatory to the Refugee Convention, in their ‘best interests’?The political issue is that if minors are exempted from the Malaysian deal, it creates anincentive for people smugglers to fill up their boats with children, who will legitimately wantto be later reunited with their parents and family. There was a similar consequence when thetemporary protection visa was introduced in 1999, and men found themselves separated fromtheir families for years. By 2001, many of the passengers on the boats were women andchildren.This is a genuine fear. It is not as if the smugglers worry about these internationalobligations. However, to focus on people smugglers misses the point of the issue.I recall an incident in Woomera detention centre in 2001. It was late at night, and we hadbeen working for several days preparing cases. Many of the detainees were women who hadchildren with them. The fathers and husbands had arrived previously and had been grantedTPVs, but could not sponsor their families.©2011 EurekaStreet.com.au 39