Trading in refugees

The Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews recently announced that Australia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States that will enable the two countries to “swap refugees”.

Under the MOU, Australia will be sending the United States up to 200 refugees annually who have been processed and are currently being detained on Nauru as part of Australia’s “pacific solution”. In return, the United States will be sending to Australia refugees processed and currently detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

For many years the United States Coast Guards have patrolled the high seas in search of people who may be attempting to come to the United States without permission. In 1991 George Bush I became the first US president to set up a detention centre in Guantanamo Bay for people who were intercepted on the high seas. Since that time the detention centre has been used to process some asylum seekers rather than giving them direct access to the US mainland.

The United States has used the threat of detention in Guantanamo Bay as a deterrent to would-be asylum seekers attempting to seek protection in the United States.

The detainees in Guantanamo Bay are treated very differently to asylum seekers who enter the United States mainland. For example, asylum seekers in Guantanamo Bay do not have a right of appeal on their refugee decision and many have been denied the right to legal assistance.

The conditions for asylum seekers in Guantanamo Bay are also reported to be appalling with little access to adequate health care. There have been many suicide attempts and hunger strikes by refugees and asylum seekers in Guantanamo Bay who have become overwhelmed with despair.

The United State’s processing of asylum seekers in Guantanamo Bay became a blueprint for Australia’s refugee policies in 2001. A few months before the 2001 Federal election, the MV Tampa, a Norwegian flagged container ship rescued 433 asylum seekers on the verge of drowning.

The Tampa requested permission to enter Australian territory. The Australian government refused permission and John Howard declared that the rescued asylum seekers would not set foot on Australian soil.

Inspired by the US practice of processing asylum seekers in another country, the Australian Government set up detention facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru for asylum seekers intercepted at sea and those who land in “excised territory”: that is territory the government declared not to be part of Australia.

Since 2001, more than 1,500 people had been detained and had their refugee claims assessed in Nauru and Papua New Guinea in detention centres paid for by Australia. The majority have been given refugee status and resettled in Australia. The detention centre in Papua New Guinea was mothballed in 2004. However, the detention centre in Nauru continues to operate as a detention facility and currently holds a group of Burmese and Sri Lankan asylum seekers.

The offshore processing of refugees by Australia has had similar problems to the United States. There have been hunger strikes and suicide attempts in the detention facilities on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. There has also been a death in the Nauru centre.

Australia’s offshore processing centres share another very important feature with their US counterparts: there is a common feeling of despair and hopelessness among the refugees and asylum seekers. People who have escaped persecution in the hope of finding safety and a new life are instead trapped in a strange half-way house, unsure of what future awaits them.

The refugee swap is a strange addition to the already complicated systems in place for people seeking protection in Australia and the United States. The bizarre arrangement where refugees are shipped from country to country will only add to the uncertainty faced by people fleeing persecution and deny them agency over their lives.

There is the additional danger that under the arrangement, vulnerable peoples may be left without protection and the responsibility for their care may become more and more difficult to enforce.

The United States and Australia are interested in the arrangement because it may deter people from seeking protection in their country. However, the arrangement is unlikely to discourage people who know that the prospect of safety in Australia or the US is better than a life of maltreatment in their home country.

In fact, there are reports that the number of Haitians attempting to reach the United States has increased following the announcement of the refugee swap. In March 2007, there were only five reported cases of Haitians intercepted by US coastguards. Following the announcement in April, more than 700 Haitians have risked their life to travel without valid documentation to the United States.

According to media reports Haitians interviewed have given the prospect of protection in Australia as a reason for their journey to the United States. The prospect of protection in the United States is also unlikely to deter refugees and asylum seekers who would otherwise seek the protection of Australia.

The arrangement between Australia and the United States, which allows for the exchange of human beings as if they were commodities, will not be reviewed until April 2009. We wait with baited breath to see the next strange twist of this sorry saga.