DETENTION LAWS IN AUSTRALIA. A critique.

The immigration laws of Australia provides for mandatory detention of immigrants who have either arrived in Australia without a visa, overstayed their visa, or have their visa cancelled unless they are granted permission to stay in Australia. {Migration Act (1958)}[i] The object of Migration Act is to regulate, in the national interest, the coming into, and presence in, Australia of non‑citizens.[ii] The Act provides that the illegal immigrants be detained in the Immigration Detention Facilities (IDFs) and Residential Housing Centers (RHCs) by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, (DIMIA). Detainees can also be held in any other place approved by the Minister in writing, for example, a hospital, migrant center or a holding room at an airport.[iii]

Despite Australia being a signatory to many treatises protecting human rights including the United Nations 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol regarding the Status of Refugees, the detention system in Australia is far from meeting the international standards enshrined in those treaties. It is pertinent to note that in Australia, judicial review of detention laws is quiet restricted. Therefore, the detainees lack fair opportunity of being able challenge their detention on the basis of violations of their human rights under any international charter that Australia may be a party to. At the camps, the detainees are met with hardships and inferior conditions like overcrowding, lack of proper sanitation, ill treatment by the detention officials, prolonged periods of detention and in some occasions, the men are separated from their wives and children.[iv]

Consequently, many detainees have been reported to suffer mental, and psychological agony due to the indefinite stay at the camps. Their attitude and experience of Australia has been observed to have changed to one of disgust and disappointment making it difficult for those successful in acquiring legal status to immediately and effectively integrate into the society. In case of children detainees, the situation is made worse by the fact that they are forced to miss out on formulative influences in their development. The negative impact is conspicuously reflected in their health (including mental health) education and the lack of the ability to develop in a normal environment (HREOC, 2001)[v].

Humanity demands that all persons deprived of their liberty should be treated with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. Providing for mandatory detention of illegal immigrants without holding a preliminary inquiry is not only inhuman but also against the principles of natural justice. In fact, there should be a statutory provision compelling the authorities to advice the illegal immigrants of their right to make an application for protection visa and seek legal assistance.

Mandatory detention should be replaced by a legitimate process that provides for judicial review of decisions denying personal liberty to the victims. The government should push for amendment of the Migration Act (1958) to impose specific time limits for detention, provide better access to information and communication between the detainees and their legal advisors and set the minimum standards of treatment in consonance with the International Laws and Treaties. The administrative approach of the detention officials should be focused on protection and care rather than criminality and illegitimacy.

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[i] Australia migration Act 1958

[ii] section 4 migration act 1958

[iii] Section 5, Migration Act 1958.

[iv] Article 9.1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory, provides that parties to the Convention shall ensure that “a child is not separated from his or her parents against their will, except when it is necessary for the best interests of the child.” Cited in Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s report, 2001

[v] 3.1.2, excerps

HOW I'D LOVE TO HATE SUMMER IN INDIA

hello guys..well for those of you who have stayed in India long enough to be able to tell what I'm gonna talk abt here lets get straight with it. but for those of us in other parts of the planet cool enough to be lost in translating the words summer, welcome to hell. we have finally reached the dreaded season where your skin roast to the point of being called a barbecue, a time when the blood boils almost up to half the boiling point of water. I'm sure you are saying..it cant be that bad. ok it ain't that bad, but its bad enough to have me talking abt it here, or worse still to dare you to reply with a different opinion.

when i came to India almost five years ago i used to feel the same way whenever old folks here used to talk about their summer experiences. i thought to myself..these people must be homesick or tired with their boring lives with nothing to do. i imagined summer to be a holiday season with lots of merrying and partying as schools and colleges would be closed. with India being such an affordable place for most of us foreign students, i thought whoever has complaints about summer must be sick in the mind.

what i didn't figure out was that they were never worried of the summer season as such. as a matter of fact, they loved staying home and grabbing a bottle or two of the coolest jeremia's water they could dig from their refrigerators.{most of the old guards here were could have sworn by the bottle.) anyway the point is, its not the season that had them complaining but the heat waves that comes with it.

and how did i find this out, well as they say you never know how dark the corridors of hell are unless you lose your way out. my first summer experience, or should i say bakery experience was in 2003. till today i believe that was the hottest season any non deserted area has recorded. i cant begin to describe what i went through and actually i don't want to remember. but i can tell you i swear in the name of ice i don't want to live to face judgment day if the fire will be hotter that the summer of 2003. i remember i had rented a small cubicle with no fan at all. i didn't think it a good investment to buy myself a cooler by then and i had not mustered the knowledge of renting one so i just sat there for two good months getting boiled in the heat day and night. i almost went crazy. i had a couple of heatstrokes as well. when i went for medical check up, the doctor dismissed me without any examination. he had been flooded with cases similar to mine so he didn't think it worth his time to examine me. so i got out the same evening after being on drip almost since i was admitted. my prescription was...yeah u guessed right. a bottle of the finest beer.

thats when it dawned on me. in India, you don't acquire habits by peer influence alone, its the environment as well. if you have to keep your head above the water until you finish your degree and go back home, you must also be willing to adopt an exotic habit that might be hard to drop. honestly, i find it hard to believe it when i look back at the days when i used to drink. i always wanted to quit after each session but the more i drank, the more i wanted to drink so quitting was a hard alternative. so i thought i better admit my condition and live a drunkard's life. thats when i really became one.

now i thank myself and forces that be that I'm far from it and that the best part is I'm outta here. no wonder they always wanted to leave in a hurry after their degrees. but before i can celebrate my survival certificate, i have one more summer to go. this one promises to be my worst challenge. i can pride myself of having survived four such seasons but I'm scared stiff about another ordeal. i pray to God to keep my head cool..the rest of my body is burnt already. i wonder what you would do in my case. i hate to admit that despite being an old guard, i still solicit for an advice. kindly save my soul for that might be the only part of me that has survived unscorched.