Facts & Statistics

Myths and Facts about Asylum Seekers

Myths and Facts about Asylum Seekers
December 2008

Myth1: Getting rid of Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) sent a ‘green light’ to people smugglers.

Fact: The coalition has repeatedly used the ‘green light’ argument but the facts prove them wrong. Former Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock repeatedly claimed that letting children out of detention centres would send a ‘green light’ to people smugglers. In 2005, in response to community concern, the Howard government let kids out. There was no increase in boat numbers.

In 2005, the Howard government changed TPV laws so that people could apply for permanent visas after 30 months of being on a TPV, essentially relaxing their own TPV policy. There was no increase in boat numbers.

After TPV’s were introduced in 1999, Australia experienced the greatest spike in asylum boat numbers. Much of it was actually caused by TPVs, as wives and children of refugees on this visa were ineligible for family reunion programs and had to make their own way to Australia to make an asylum claim or remain a split family forever. The TPV policy was first put forward by Pauline Hanson. Phillip Ruddock at the time said ““Can you imagine what temporary entry would mean for them? …I regard the One Nation’s approach as being highly unconscionable in a way that most thinking people would clearly reject”

Myth2: Getting rid of mandatory detention will send a ‘green light’ to people smugglers.

Fact: There is no evidence to suggest that mandatory detention is a deterrent to boat arrivals. Australia has had a mandatory detention policy since 1992, and since then there has been an increase in asylum seeker arrivals, due to ‘push’ factors in source countries such as the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Asylum seekers are fleeing extreme danger in their home country caused by war, persecution or violence.  The movement of asylum seekers, which mirrors global trends in asylum numbers, is controlled by world events such as war, not by Australia’s immigration policies. 

What we do know for certain is that the policy of mandatory detention of boat arrivals is inhumane and is in breach of international law as it is arbitrary, non-reviewable and discriminates against people for their mode of arrival regardless of the legitimacy of their claim.

While Australia has the right to protect its borders and its security, it also has the responsibility to uphold its human rights obligations.  The way in which we choose to treat vulnerable populations of our society, such as refugees and asylum seekers, speaks volumes about our values.

Myth3: Policies against asylum seekers will stop people smugglers

Fact: Punishing refugees and asylum seekers will not stop people smugglers, many of whom have a commercial interest and don’t care what conditions they send people to. Other people who bring refugees by boat may also have a concern for their wellbeing rather than just being driven by commercial interest. And most asylum seekers either no idea what the domestic policies of Australia are, so will not be a deterrent, or they are fleeing much worse conditions such as war or torture.

The only way to stop unauthorised boat arrivals into Australia is to cooperate internationally to resolve conflict and promote stability and to initiate regional joint policing operations against people smugglers. Policies that target asylum seekers do not impact people smugglers and will have no effect.

Myth4: Recent policy changes have increased boat arrivals

Fact: Since 2005 Australia has had 5-7 boats arrive per year. In 2008 there has been 5 boat arrivals with 83 people. Compared to the Australia’s general immigration intake for 2006-07 (148,200 people), unauthorised boat arrivals that year (133 people) represented less than 0.09% of this intake [i].

In 2008 UNHCR has been warning about increased refugee numbers, which soared by 1.5 million to 11.4 million at the end of 2007. This results in more people fleeing to seek asylum, some of which will come to Australia but most will flee to other countries. In 2007, a total of 19,900 people arrived in Italy’s islands or the mainland by boat from North Africa, compared with 22,000 in 2006.  “There are very few asylum seekers coming to Australia compared to other parts of the world.” said UNHCR Representative Mr Richard Towle.[ii]

Myth5: Without mandatory detention, boat arrivals are a health risk to the community

Fact: Over 5.5 million people visited Australia in 2006.  Most of these were tourists and were not required to have health checks.  In addition, the government does not detain asylum seekers who arrive by plane and allows them one to two months to get a health check, because the government knows that there is minimal risk to the community.  There is no reason why asylum seekers who arrive by boat should be treated any differently, and DIAC has admitted that boat arrivals are no less healthy than other visitors to Australia [iii].

Myth6: Boat people are not ‘genuine’ refugees because they pay people smugglers

Fact: Asylum seekers who use people smugglers are mostly desperate people whose options have run out.  They see this route as the only way that they will gain safety for themselves and their families.  Extended families may sell everything they have, and live on tiny incomes for years, to send one person to safety.

Many families end up with large debts to the smugglers.  A study by the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres in refugee camps on the Iranian border, found that nearly all families were in debt, with members held hostage by smugglers until the debt was paid. One does not have to poor or uneducated to be a refugee.  In fact, many people have experienced increased persecution because of their educational, professional or political backgrounds.

Sometime even refugees in camps have to pay large bribes to processing officials to have their refugee claims assessed.

Myth7: People who arrive unauthorised are not ‘genuine’ refugees.  They are illegal immigrants.

Fact: Asylum seekers are not criminals or illegal immigrants. Under Australian and international law, a person is permitted to enter Australia for the purpose of seeking asylum, whether by boat or by air.  A refugee’s claim for asylum has nothing to do with how they arrive in a country, but everything to do with the persecution that they are escaping. 

The idea of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ refugees has been promoted by some Australian politicians for their own political advantage.  In order to justify ‘getting tough’ on unauthorised arrivals, these politicians have inaccurately labelled asylum seekers as ‘illegal’ and ‘not genuine’. However, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s figures indicate that 84% of those who arrive unauthorised in Australia seeking asylum are found to be refugees.

There are people who can be classified as illegal immigrants.  These are people who overstay their visas (at any one time there are about 50,000 over-stayers in the country[iv]).  Most of these are from western countries, particularly the US or UK, and are not seeking asylum in Australia.

Myth8: Refugee advocates want unrestricted entry of refugees, which will allow terrorists into Australia

Fact: No credible organisation who speaks on behalf of refugees advocates a policy of unrestricted entry.

Australia does not allow, and has never allowed, unrestricted entry of any person.  People who arrive without authorisation have their claims for asylum scrutinised at length.  Most are found to be genuine refugees.  There is zero evidence that any asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia by boat have connections to terrorism.  In fact, in August 2002, the Director-General of ASIO told Parliament that of 5,986 boat arrivals, not one was found to be a security risk [v].

Myth9: Refugees have no right to come here and expect us to help them

Fact: "Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries freedom from persecution". - Article 14, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Australians are lucky in that we are born in a country where human rights are respected.  Unfortunately, others are not so lucky. But they still have the same human rights as we do and they have the right to seek safety in a country that upholds human rights.

This does not mean that Australia alone must take the full burden for protecting the persecuted.  It does mean that we have to play a part in an international response that includes a wide spectrum of initiatives from addressing root causes to providing asylum to people whose human rights have been violated.

Myth10: Refugees are too “culturally different” to fit in with the Australian way of life

Fact: That accusation has been levelled at just about every immigrant minority group since white settlement in Australia began, from the Irish and the Chinese, to Jewish refugees after WW2, Greeks, Italians and Vietnamese.  All of those groups have settled successfully in Australia.  The process has not always been smooth or easy, but compared with the strife and hatred elsewhere, Australian multiculturalism is a demonstrable success.

Afghanis have lived in Australia for over a century, and played an important role in the opening up of trade routes through some of the country’s most inhospitable areas. Afghan explorers brought camels to Australia!

Myth11: Refugees who get to Indonesia should stay there and not come to Australia

Fact: There is no requirement in international law for refugees to seek asylum in the first country they come to, but some developed countries have made this an additional requirement in order to avoid processing claims.

Very few countries between the Middle East and Australia have signed the Refugee Convention. There is no real or permanent protection in these countries, so many asylum seekers have to continue to Australia before they get their first reasonable opportunity to apply for protection.

Myth12: Boat people are ‘queue jumpers’, stealing the places of ‘genuine’ refugees waiting patiently in camps for their turn at orderly processing by the UNHCR

Fact: The myth of a 'queue' - where refugees from around the world have their names recorded in an organised database and 'wait their turn' - is completely untrue. 

Many asylum seekers come from countries where there is no UNHCR office and no Australian embassy (e.g. Iraq or Afghanistan).  Even in a country with a UNHCR office, a refugee may not physically be able to get there to register, perhaps because of roadblocks, curfews and travel restrictions.  Sometimes, going to a UNHCR office and/or expressing a desire to leave may literally put your life at risk or expose you to a greater degree of danger.  Sometimes refugees are prevented from registering for political reasons.  In one instance reported by an Australian Federal MP in 2008, UNHCR was not allowed to register refugees from a certain country, as government officials did not wish to acknowledge that there was turmoil in that country [vi]. 

Many refugees will try to avoid taking refuge in a camp, as they don’t believe doing so will increase their chances of escape, or even survival.  Conditions in refugee camps have been frequently reported to be as dangerous as the situations from which people fled.  And in many countries, Australian officials do not visit refugee camps to see if people have protection needs.

Some people say that asylum seekers arriving by boat ‘steal’ the places of people who could come via the off-shore Humanitarian program.  However, there is no logical basis for the concept of playing one type of refugee off against another, and no logical reason why these two separate pathways should be linked. 

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Acknowledgements

Debunking the Myths about Asylum Seekers by The Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education and the School of Education, Australian Catholic University

The Truth Hurts, by the Centre for Refugee Research at UNSW

Examining Australia’s Asylum Seeker and Refugee Policies, by Researchers for Asylum

Australia’s Unfair Shores, by Amnesty International Australia

Long-term Immigration Detention and Children's Mental Health, by Dr Sev Ozdowski, Human Rights Commissioner, to the XXIV World Congress of OMEP, Melbourne 24 July 2004

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