Asylum Seekers Centre welcomes three new Board members
The Asylum Seekers Centre (ASC) is delighted to announce the appointment of three new directors, Giles Gunesekera OAM, Nawaz Isaji,… Read More
Last month, Labor’s three brutal migration bills became law. They are a devastating setback for the rights of people seeking asylum and refugees, with countless powers contained within them being of great concern.
Fundamentally, they undermine human rights and are woefully out of step with Australia’s international obligations. They also come at the worst possible time for displaced peoples around the world.
In more than thirty years, the ASC has never seen the scale of global displacement around the world and a poverty crisis here at home that we do today. Over 122 million people globally have been forced to flee their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations.
Australia is obliged under international law to consider the claims of all people seeking asylum and refugees who arrive in Australia, and to protect their human rights, regardless of how or where they arrive.
The 1951 Refugee Convention states countries are obliged to consider the claims of refugees who arrive in their territory and people must not be expelled or returned to situations where their lives or freedoms would be in danger, while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Other measures contained in The Convention on the Rights of the Child, The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are also put at risk by this new legislation.
The breach of the non-refoulement principle and the risk of people being returned to countries where they face harm is particularly harrowing, and while it is still too early to know how these powers will be used and who will be affected, the impacts will be widespread and go far beyond the immediate consequences of enforcement.
And yet, it remains an irrefutable fact that seeking asylum is a human right, while being treated with dignity and fairness when doing so is a moral imperative.
This Human Rights Day, and every day, we all have a role in providing a bulwark against this attack on fundamental rights and freedoms.
We must continue to send the message that people seeking asylum are welcome here, that seeking asylum is a human right, that diversity makes us richer as a society, and that justice must be accessible to all.
