BUSTING THE ASYLUM SEEKER MYTHS

Illustration: John Spooner

THE AGE – 10 may 2011

It's time we confronted some of the myths about asylum seekers.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a deal had been cut to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia, in exchange for Australia taking 4000 UNHCR-assessed people from Malaysia. During her press conference, the Prime Minister used the same language she deplored last July when she revealed the now failed plan to establish a regional assessment centre in East Timor.

In a speech to the Lowy Institute, Ms Gillard said: "For too long, the asylum seeker policy debate has been polarised by extreme, emotionally charged claims and counterclaims; by a fundamental disrespect that I reject . . . I speak of the claim often made by opposition politicians that they will, and I quote: 'turn the boats back'. This needs to be seen for what it is. It's a shallow slogan. It's nonsense."

But on Saturday, Ms Gillard used similar inflammatory language long used by the Coalition: "The truth is, if you spend your money, you get on a boat, you risk your life - you don't get to stay. You go to Malaysia and you go to the back of the queue . . . We will take people from the front of the queue, people who are already in Malaysia and already processed as refugees."

FACT: There is no queue, something the Prime Minister herself acknowledged when Labor was in opposition. People fleeing wars and violence do not leave their homes in an orderly manner. There are arbout 92,000 people waiting in asylum seeker camps in Malaysia, including at least 3000 children who have been arbitrarily detained since 2004, according to the local rights group, Aliran.

When announcing the East Timor detention centre idea, the Prime Minister said she had told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees "that my Government is not interested in pursuing a new Pacific Solution".

FACT: The changes the Prime Minister announced at the weekend are the Malaysian solution. Prime Minister Gillard says sending 800 people to Malaysia will be lawful, and that's because she's using a law former prime minister John Howard created after the Tampa boat incident of 2001. This is on top of the impending return of temporary protection visas.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention – the same reason Ms Gillard has ruled out reopening the Howard government's detention centre on Nauru.

When an Amnesty fact-finding team from Australia visited in 2009, they learned 120 men were "detained in a building no bigger than a tennis court for 24 hours a day", at temperatures of more than 30 degrees. They were given "two small meals a day and the fish is so salty it burns your throat". The Prime Minister says "Australians are hospitable people and we believe in honouring our international protection obligations".

By that logic, we should not be sending 800 people to a country that considers asylum seekers to be illegal and has had them caned.

Australians are hospitable. A Red Cross survey has found 86 per cent of respondents would flee to a safe country if they felt they were under threat.

Nearly one in three people questioned told the Red Cross they know of someone who has come to Australia escaping persecution in another country.

The Australian Immigration Department has told me that "detention arrangements in Malaysia are a matter for the Malaysian government". It is also Malaysia's policy to detain children. We're going to spend nearly $300 million on the deal with Malaysia.

Finally, it is not illegal to seek asylum. No one matter how many times shock jocks and conservative pundits want to use the term "illegal immigrants" to describe asylum seekers, people can seek asylum - 95 per cent of asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat are found to be genuine refugees. The 800 the Prime Minister proposes to send to Malaysia should have their claims assessed in mainland Australia.