Depth of Australia’s coercive refugee family separation policy revealed in new report
The Australian Government has engaged in a strategic, deliberate and coercive campaign to separate refugees from their families and prevent them from reuniting in Australia, a new report by the Human Rights Law Centre reveals.
In 2018, the Trump Administration in the United States received widespread international condemnation for tearing apart families at US-Mexico border. However, for years, the Australian Government has escaped scrutiny for its own widespread and systematic policies that separate refugee families and keep them from reuniting.
Together in Safety is a landmark multi-disciplinary report that exposes the Australian Government's deliberate use of family separation to punish and deter refugees seeking safety in Australia.
The report finds that the Australian Government has used three main methods to keep families apart:
Separation by endless deprioritisation of certain family reunion applications, effectively denying permanent residents who arrived by boat the prospect of ever being approved to reunite with their family in Australia. Some people have lived in Australia for more than a decade.
Separation by complete ban on family reunion for refugees who hold temporary protection visas.
Separation by offshore detention, which includes people sent offshore while family members remained in Australia, and those separated during a medical evacuation.
In Together in Safety, five refugee families who have been deliberately kept apart as a result of Australian Government policy tell their story.
Among them is Ali (not his real name), who lives in Australia on a Temporary Protection Visa after fleeing Myanmar, while his wife and two children remain in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“Because I am not allowed to bring my family to Australia, they are suffering in an unsafe refugee camp, with their future escaping them day by day...I think that if the Australian people knew what has happened to me, and how I am separated from my family for so many years, they would understand my situation. Everyone has a family. They would understand. All I want is to hold my kids and my wife again, and to be safe together as a family.”
Together in Safety details the views of internationally renowned barristers and medical professionals to show that this separation is not just cruel, it is harmful to physical and emotional health and illegal under international law. Leading international law barristers Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC and Jennifer Robinson conclude that the intentional separation of refugee families may amount to torture in some circumstances.
Right now, the Australian Government is using the ties that bind families together to try to prevent people from exercising their right to seek safety. @JosephineHRLC speaks with @PCarisbrooke about our new report Together in Safety#FamiliesBelongTogether https://t.co/69mwlzFZne
— Human Rights Law Centre (@rightsagenda) May 3, 2021
Human Rights Law Centre Senior Lawyer Josephine Langbien said:
“All families belong together in safety. But the Australian Government is deliberately keeping refugee families apart for years on end, and forcing people to make unthinkable choices between their safety, their health and being with the ones they love.”
“This report tells the stories of mothers who have partners and children in refugee camps overseas, but cannot bring them to safety in Australia. Fathers who have missed their baby’s first steps and first words, because the Australian Government refused to allow them to leave offshore detention. There are thousands of people across Australia who are separated indefinitely from their loved ones, because the Australian Government has made a deliberate choice to use family separation to try to prevent people from exercising their right to seek safety.”
“Families thrive when they are together - the Australian Government can and must end this cruelty and allow these families to be reunited.”
“Australia’s family migration system is fundamentally broken, and is causing immense suffering for refugee families. We urge the Morrison Government to put families back at the heart of our migration policies. A fairer family migration system can play a crucial role in our recovery from COVID-19 as Australia begins to reconnect with the rest of the world,” Langbien said.
* Because Ali's fight to reunite with his family is ongoing, he has chosen to use a pseudonym.
Media contact:
Michelle Bennett, Engagement Director, 0419 100 519