We all lose when governments trash the law

11 December 2012

In recent months more than 400 Sri Lankans have been summarily repatriated. After arriving by boat, they were screened out by Immigration officials. This action has received little attention, as public attention has been focused on the brutalities of Nauru and on the five year sentence to bare survival that awaits other recently arrived asylum seekers. But it is deeply disturbing nonetheless.

It is also arguably unjust and illegal — 'arguably' not because the evidence for the claim is lacking or weak, but because the screening-out is so totally lacking in transparency. There is no way of knowing whether in fact those repatriated did not wish to claim asylum, or whether they would have been found to be fleeing persecution. We rely on the arbitrary and unreviewable judgment of officials.

Doubts about this process are intensified because, together with the new Pacific Solution, the deprivation of work rights and prolonged delay in processing claims, it forms part of a desperate and ad hoc attempt by the Government to be seen to be serious about stopping the boats.

The introduction of summary repatriation was accompanied by extensive publicity by Sri Lankan and Australian ministers and officials. They declared that the growing number of Sri Lankans arriving by boat were not asylum seekers but were deluded by people smugglers into seeking a better life in Australia. Both Governments agreed that Tamils could return with impunity to Sri Lanka. This publicity implied that repatriation would not be unjust.

In the last week, however, evidence that summary repatriation is neither just nor legal has mounted. Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka has added weight to widespread reports from within Sri Lanka by warning that asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka face harassment, restriction on their freedom and other penalties. He has begged Australia not to return asylum seekers.

These continuing reports of serious human rights abuses in Sri Lanka raise serious questions about the cooperation between Australia and the Sri Lankan Government on asylum seekers. This is the Government against which asylum seekers claim persecution.

Evidence about the persecution of returned asylum seekers calls into question the justice of summary repatriation. At the same time the actions of the Australian Government itself have thrown doubt on its legality.

Lawyers for 56 Sri Lankans screened out and facing repatriation brought a High Court case against their treatment. But before the case could be heard, the Government agreed to

AUSTRALIA

We all lose when governments trash the law

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