The Rudd Government's decision to abolish Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) has been welcomed by refugee advocates, but there are still many areas of concern for asylum seekers, they say.
Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett said the removal of the TPV was "a wonderful thing" describing it as a "disgraceful, deliberately cruel visa that should never have been there in the first place".
Australia currently has around 1000 refugees on Temporary Protection or Bridging Visas who have been living in the community for long periods of time without work rights. That is where the most immediate impact of the abolishment will be felt, Refugee Action Collective spokesman Ian Rintoul told The Epoch Times.
"…There are a number of people still in Australia who have been processed through the [Immigration] centres at the time when people only got the TPV…The process of them getting Permanent Protection Visas (PPV) will start immediately as far as we're aware," he said. "Their future is much more certain and secure."
The move to abolish TPVs is seen by refugee advocates as a positive step in reaffirming Australia as a country that upholds and respects human rights, but that alone is not enough, Mr Rintoul said.
Among the issues still to be addressed are the long periods refugees must spend without working rights and relying on charity. The fairness of the legal process must also be reviewed.
Senator Bartlett says there are "too many unnecessary hurdles in the way" and "the legal process must be more streamlined".
"We do still need to reform mandatory detention and put an end to people being locked up for years at a time whilst their claims are assessed," Senator Bartlett continued. "That doesn't happen for every asylum seeker, but it certainly happens for some, including some from China," he said.
According to a 2007 UNHCR report titled Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialised Countries, asylum claims rose by 10 per cent from 2006 with some 338,000 refugee claims registered in 43 industrialised countries. Half of all asylum claims during that time came from Asia.
Iraq, the Russian Federation, China, Serbia and Pakistan were the top five countries of origin of asylum applicants in 2007. The largest group now seeking asylum in Australia are Chinese and it is "quite clearly on the record that there is a very serious range of major human rights abuses in China", said Senator Bartlett.
Around 17,000 Chinese nationals sought asylum worldwide in 2006–07 with 3743 coming to Australia. Two-thirds of the latter were unsuccessful, according to a Department of Immigration and Citizenship publication.
Senator Bartlett said the operation of the Migration Act needed reviewing to become much more transparent, fairer, less arbitrary and less open to being re-politicised in the future. "It's not just asylum seekers, but other people under the Migration Act, including people from China. We have huge visa numbers here from China, huge numbers of students come from China now and they all deserve due process as does everybody else."
Senator Bartlett referred to past cases involving asylum seekers from East Timor and West Papua "quite clearly sensitivities regarding Indonesia came into play and it's no secret that there are political sensitivities in regards to China".
"From my point of view, a refugee claim is a refugee claim and the strength of the claim is all that should be considered, not any other extraneous factors, like how they got to Australia and what visa they were on or how long they've been here – all those things," he said.
Senator Bartlett said it's about making Australia's overall immigration laws as fair and independent as possible so as to remove any extra suffering people endure when seeking asylum "regardless whether or not someone's claim ends up being successful, they should not have to be brutalised along the way".
He also said issues around immigration policy and protocol need to be addressed. "There's been previous examples of people in detention being visited by Chinese officials, which is completely inappropriate, and whilst that was under the previous government we need to be absolutely rigorous in preventing those sorts of problems," he said.
"The people who seek asylum when they're in Australia…should be confident that they'll get a fair hearing and I don't think people can be confident about that at the moment," he said. Also there is still "a need to address some of the immense harm to many of the people who were victims of the exceedingly cruel policies that have been in place for the last 15 years or so that have got progressively harsher".
The tragedy occurring in Burma right now is a further reminder that Australia is likely to experience refugee pressures as a result of natural disasters from global warming. Worldwide numbers of environmental refugees now sit at 10 million.
Senator Bartlett says that one could be "mildly positive" in regards to human rights awareness pertaining to refugees, but says there is a long way to go.
"I'd also say it's not just about governments, it's about community and we need, as a community, to indicate that we place human rights very highly because if we do that our government will do that."
It is an endless task, he says, but a necessary one as it addresses the ultimate solution for people seeking asylum "to remove persecution rather than just try to deal with its consequences. We certainly need to redouble our efforts at that end as well."
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