A better way
Mark Raper and Frank Brennan, in the Jesuit Lenten Seminar series given around the nation, made the case for a new attitude to asylum seekers. (extract)
'There are many alternatives to mandatory detention. In my own view, the best alternative to detention is simply liberty. However, to meet the concerns of governments about the need to keep track of asylum seekers and ensure their compliance with asylum procedures, there are still many alternatives that stop short of imprisonment. These non-custodial measures include the supervised release of children and young adults to community services; the supervised release to a non-government organisation; release on bail to an individual citizen; release with restrictions on place of residence and with reporting requirements; accommodation in open centres to which the asylum seeker returns each evening. In the USA, where there is widespread use of detention of asylum seekers awaiting hearings or deportation, there have nonetheless been many experiments with release to community groups and release on parole. The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service maintains a website called the 'Detention Watch Network News', which lists successful alternatives that have been established by non-government organisations together with the immigration agency of the government. (See www.lirs.org)
It is true that direct, on-shore boat arrivals are relatively new for Australia. But we cannot cut ourselves off from the world. This is one of the ways refugees seek safety. This is one of the 'queues' available to them. Indeed, Australia is better equipped than most states to handle this situation.
Our immigration officials in fact have a fine reputation for their methods of refugee status determination. Teams flew to Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis and gave a remarkable service in helping to assess the claims of people and moving the most needy to safety. Why misuse this capacity now?'
- Mark Raper SJ
'Since the end of the Cold War, there have been at least 20 million refugees a year, most of whom have not been able to find protection because of a balance-of-power arrangement between the superpowers. Many of them are fleeing internal racial and ethnic conflicts which have been exacerbated by the new world order. Since 1997, we have received a modest 6000–9000 refugees a year - less than our 50-year average at a time when there are more refugees than ever. Our injustices to women and children in remote detention centres are simply a stark reflection of the injustices meted out to all asylum seekers whose detention is not required for migration, health or security purposes. Humane deterrence does not work because it is only one more deterrent and it pales into insignificance beside the risk of the sea voyage. It is immoral because it treats people, including the innocent and most vulnerable, as means rather than ends.'
- Frank Brennan SJ
http://www.uniya.org
http://www.jrsau.org
Photograph by Grant Somers.
- For Mark Raper's and Frank Brennan's full speeches, please see Eureka Street April 2002 print edition, available by subscription and at bookshops and newsagents.
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