Offshore processing mythbuster

February 2011

www.asrc.org.au

MYTH: Nauru is a signatory to the Refugee Convention now, so we can send asylum seekers there.
FACT: The Solicitor General has confirmed that neither Nauru or Papua New Guinea satisfy the High Court’s requirement of having adequate protections in place for asylum seekers. They would need to amend their domestic laws to guarantee asylum seekers’ safety. Alternatively Australia would need to amend our own laws to override the High Court’s decision.9

MYTH: Offshore processing is more cost effective
FACT: Offshore processing is even more expensive than detention on the mainland because of the increased cost of delivering services to remote locations. The Pacific Solution, which saw asylum seekers detained on Manus Island and Nauru, cost more than 1 billion dollars over five years, or $500 000 per person.10 The Christmas Island detention centre will cost almost 1 billion dollars between 2009 and 2014.11

MYTH: Australia needs to protect our borders from asylum seekers
FACT No boat arrival who may have been a potential threat to national security has ever gained entry into Australia. Boat arrivals are subject to the most rigorous security checks of all arrivals into Australia.
FACT: Offshore processing and mandatory detention only apply to boat arrivals, whilst the vast majority of asylum seekers arrive by plane with a valid visa, applying for asylum at a later date while living in the community. None have ever posed a threat to Australia’s national security and many are determined legitimate refugees and granted protection visas.

MYTH: ‘Stopping the boats’ is more humane than letting asylum seekers risk their lives on potentially dangerous journeys.
FACT: Under Operation Relex boats travelling from Indonesia were intercepted before they reached Australian waters. The Australian Navy was ordered to deter and deny entry but generally did not assist people on these boats that were placed in danger. 12. Many drowned as a result, including 353 men women and children in the widely reported SIEVX incident.13.

MYTH: Strong offshore processing policy reduces people smuggling

FACT: The Australian government has in fact contributed to the creation of people smuggling by restricting the legal avenues for asylum seekers to find protection in Australia. As the world’s leading authority on international refugee law, Professor James Hathaway explains:
The whole people-smuggling problem is a false issue. We created the market for human smuggling. If
asylum seekers could lawfully come to Australia and make a refugee claim without the need of
sneaking in by boat, they would do it. But we make it illegal and create the market that smugglers

thrive on.14

9 ‘PNG, Nauru near impossible, government says’, The Age, 4 September 2011, http://www.theage.com.au/national/png-nauru-nearimpossible-
government-says-20110904-1js2a.html.
10 Karlis Salna, ‘Abbott unveils new Pacific Solution,’ The Sydney Morning Herald, http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-newsnational/
abbott-unveils-new-pacific-solution-20100527-wen3.html, 27 May 2010.
11 ‘Cost of Christmas Island blows out to almost $1b,’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 2010,
http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/cost-of-christmas-island-blows-out-to-almost-1b-20100511-uurg.html.
12‘To Deter and Deny’, Four Corners, 15 April 2002, http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s531993.htm,
13 http://www.sievx.com/
14 http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/asylum-seeker-policy-international-refugee-law/3585712