wr2014_web_0

ASIAIn July 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found that Australiahad breached the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and committed143 human rights violations by indefinitely detaining 46 refugees on thebasis of Australian Security Intelligence Organisation “adverse security assessments.”The committee directed Australia to provide the refugees with an effectiveremedy, including release from detention, rehabilitation, and compensation.So far, the government has yet to act on the committee’s recommendations.Australia has continued the practice of mandatory detention for those arrivingin Australia without a visa. As of September 30, 2013, 6,403 people were insecure immigration detention facilities (onshore and offshore), including 1,078children; 106 people had been in detention for more than two years.Another deterrent measure is the offshore processing of asylum seekers onManus Island, Papua New Guinea, and Nauru. Offshore processing was firstimplemented in 2001 and subsequently abandoned in 2008, only to be reintroducedby the Labor government in August 2012. In July and August 2013, theAustralian government concluded agreements with Papua New Guinea andNauru through which all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat afterJuly 19, 2013, are to be transferred to offshore processing centers. The UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeatedly expressedconcern regarding the mandatory and indefinite detention of asylum seekers inoffshore centers, where conditions are harsh and unsatisfactory and individualsget little help making their claims.The new agreements mean that those found to be refugees, despite the limitationsof the offshore processing system, will never be eligible for resettlementin Australia and instead will be permanently resettled in Papua New Guinea,Nauru, or another country.Upon taking office in September, Prime Minister Tony Abbott declared his intentionto expand the offshore processing and regional resettlement arrangementsand implement the government’s new “Operation Sovereign Borders” policy.The policy empowers military commanders to turn around boats at sea “wheresafe to do so.” The new government stopped referring asylum seekers torefugee casework organizations. Abbott also announced the reintroduction oftemporary protection visas for the approximately 30,000 asylum seekers in293