Can't Flee, Can't Stay: Report on Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers

Friday 14 March 2014 @ 10.32 a.m. | Immigration

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has published to its website details of a recent report on the plight of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, seeking asylum in Australia. The report titled Can’t flee, can’t stay: Australia’s interception and return of Sri Lankan asylum seekers found that Australia’s cooperation with Sri Lanka to prevent would be refugees from seeking protection in Australia is "riddled with human rights risks and should be stopped immediately".

Nature of the Report

The report is described as being based on interviews with government officials and on information obtained through the freedom of information process as well as, statements from the "public record". The HRLC says on its website that the report ". . . reveals a deeply flawed suite of policy measures and practices". The HRLC’s Director of Advocacy and Research and the report’s author, Emily Howie is quoted as saying:

“The entire approach is flawed because it fails to recognise that many Sri Lankans are in genuine and urgent need of protection. Instead of providing protection, Australia blocks their pathway to safety and puts Sri Lankan asylum seekers at risk of torture and mistreatment in the hands of Sri Lankan military and police . . .”

Further, the report suggests the risks are compounded by Australian domestic policy, particularly that of forcibly returning Sri Lankan boat arrivals in Australia without properly investigating and assessing their refugee status or monitoring their safety on their return. The report is critical of the current Immigration Minister who it says "has made it clear that his preference is for Australia to return all undocumented Sri Lankan arrivals".

Ms Howie is quoted in the Sri Lankan Guardian News as saying that government data used in her report indicates that 50 to 90% of the people who are intercepted by Sri Lankan authorities are likely to be genuine asylum seekers.

Areas of Criticism Raised by the Report

A particular area of criticism in the report is what is called the "enhanced screening process". Enhanced screening is a truncated assessment process in which detainees have no access to a lawyer and no independent review of the decision is allowed. Of this Ms Howie is quoted as saying:

“Enhanced screening is a flimsy short-cut and a grossly inadequate way to handle what are potentially life and death decisions. Sri Lankans have a legal right to have their protection claims heard properly – instead we subject them to a less rigorous process and expose them to harm on return . . .”

The report also disputes Australian claims that no returnees have been harmed upon being returned to Sri Lanka; indicating instead that the HRLC has through freedom of information sourced documents showing at least one instance where Australian authorities received a complaint that a returnee had been “severely tortured” and the Australian Federal Police failed to even consider the matter although they were in a position to do so. Of this type of situation Ms Howie says:

“This kind of monitoring is woefully inadequate considering the gravity of the complaints made. How can we accept assertions that nobody has been harmed on return when an official fails to take the most basic step to look into allegations of the most serious abuse . . .”

What the Report Recommends

Primarily the report recommends that Australia should cease aiding and assisting systems of interception and return as such systems put people at risk of harm despite, as Ms Howie says:

"[the]  evidence that the majority of Sri Lankans arriving by boat are genuine refugees, Australia bases its treatment of Sri Lankans on the politically expedient assumption that they’re economic migrants . . .”

Further the report recommends that Australia must properly monitor the safety of the people that Australia authorities  forcibly return by establishing a secure and confidential process within the Australian High Commission in Colombo.

Another recommendation is that Australia conduct due diligence on Australian border protection partners in order to make sure that Australia is not:

". . . training and working directly with individuals or units in the Sri Lankan military or police against whom there are credible allegations of serious human rights abuses, war crimes or crimes against humanity."

The overall view of the report is that there should be less focus on "stopping boats" and more on improving the human rights situation on the ground in Sri Lanka which  would address the root causes of why people leave as asylum-seekers in the first place.

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.

Sources:

Related Articles: