‘Brutal’: key advocacy agencies slam trio of ‘anti-migrant’ bills
Written by admin on November 27, 2024
Leading refugee and human rights advocates have slammed federal legislation they fear will erode the human rights of 80,000 migrant and refugee communities around the country.
A delegatation from groups including the Human Rights Law Centre, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), Refugee Council of Australia and Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) travelled to Canberra to protest against the vote of three bills which form part to the Albanese government’s proposed changes to the Migration Act.
The package of bills includes an “entry ban” bill that gives Immigration Minister Tony Burke the power to ban people from countries designated as a “removal concern country.” It also facilitates ministerial powers to force co-operation by enforcing a jail sentence of up to five years.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s deputy chief executive Jane Favero criticised the bills as “punitive and harmful,” saying that people seeking asylum, refugees and migrants are being used as “political footballs.”
Other bills in the package allow the government to pay unspecified third countries to accept deportees, from where they could either be detained or further deported.
They would also allow the Immigration Minister to determine “prohibited” items such as mobile phones, expanding the basis for officers to conduct searches.
The legislation regarding phone ban was originally introduced to parliament by former Coalition Immigration Minister Peter Dutton in 2017, with a recent iteration being shot down by Labor themselves in 2020.
Iranian Women’s Association member Nos Hosseini said ignoring the plight of vulnerable refugee and migrant communities, particularly in light of many of their positive contributions to Australian society, would be a “betrayal of the core values of our nation.”
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“How can our government say, on one hand, that places like Iran and Afghanistan are unsafe for Australians to travel to, yet be seeking powers to deport people back to where they came from?,” Ms Hosseini said.
“Refugees and asylum seekers are already in a precarious situation, having escaped unimaginable horrors in their home countries. Sending them back would be akin to condemning them to death. These are not simply statistics or numbers – they are human beings, worthy of our compassion and protection,” she said.
A further group of 20 signatories that consist of advocates, legal experts and frontline workers published an open letter criticising the “cruelty” of the legislation, saying that it escalates attacks on multicultural communities, migrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum.
