On Saturday two major reforms commenced regarding refugee processing. The first is the long awaited Complementary Protection provisions. The second is the abandonment of offshore processing and having all protection visa applications assessed in the same process, regardless of how the person arrived in Australia.
Complementary Protection was introduced back in October 2011, but the start date was delayed. It means that a person who makes a protection claim can now rely on one of three separate claims to be successful; a claim based on the refugee criteria; a claim under the Complementary Protection provisions; or a claim as a member of the immediate family (spouse, dependent children) of a person claiming under one or two above.
Complementary Protection is intended to simplify a process whereby previously people had to wait until their review case was decided before seeking the personal intervention of the Minister. This three stage process was cumbersome and the ministerial process was not transparent and had no review options.
Now, a person who has a real risk that they will suffer certain types of harm contrary to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) or the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) will have their case assessed at the first stage of processing rather than waiting until the end.
People will need to prove they are at risk of torture, of being subjected to the death penalty, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. There are exclusions for those who are a danger to the community or have committed serious crimes.
These changes bring Australian processing of asylum cases into line with similar provisions in the EU, Canada and New Zealand. For the first time, there is a domestic remedy for someone with such a case. Sadly, there are still gaps such as for stateless persons, but hopefully this will be reformed in the future.
The second major reform is the standardisation of processing for all refugee applicants onshore, regardless of how they arrived. This is also a long overdue reform. Now, all unsuccessful asylum seekers will have their case assessed by the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT), rather than by an independent contractor under the IMR (independent merits review ) system.
The IMR system was