Mary Anne Kenny

Refugees in Australia need to be able to access a fairer, faster and more affordable family reunion system. Policies in Australia have led to families being forced to live apart from each other for over a decade. People who have arrived by boat have already faced protracted delays, lack of social support, uncertainty, and ongoing separation from their families since arriving in Australia. A process that considers fairly the specific barriers people have faced and continue to experience, and their family visa applications should be high priority.

Recently the government has made some welcome announcements for refugees, including abolishing policies that placed visas for family members at the end of the processing queue, and allowing refugees on temporary protection visas access to permanency. Both announcements are important steps towards allowing refugees to reunite with families after a decade of separation.

Unfortunately, current laws, procedures and policies continue to add unnecessary barriers to family reunion for refugees, compounding their trauma.

A process that prioritises family visa applications and that gives fair consideration to the specific barriers people have faced is required. The process should be straightforward, affordable and fair.

This paper sets out the laws, procedures and policies requiring amendment in order to address the impacts of the decade-long separation from families experienced by refugees in Australia. These recommendations to government are framed to apply to Partner and Child visas, where the sponsor holds or has held a Resolution of Status visa, Protection visa or Refugee and Humanitarian visa.

The election of a new government in May 2022 provides an opportune moment to reassess Australia’s approach to refugees and people seeking asylum. The Labor government has signalled that our treatment of refugees and asylum seekers needs to change—to provide people with greater certainty and more durable protection, and to enable the Australian community to benefit more fully from their contribution.

One of the most detrimental elements of Australian refugee law and policy in the past decade has been the use of temporary visas. Temporary protection has been the only option available for people who arrived by boat and were recognised as refugees. Known as the ‘legacy caseload’, these people are caught in a system of law and policy that keeps them in a state of perpetual limbo.

This is an inhumane, unsustainable, and inefficient system that inflicts mental harm and creates costly, bureaucratic burdens. Providing permanent protection to the 31,000 men, women, and children in this group—many of whom have been recognised by Australia as refugees in need of protection—would provide them with a resolution of their legal status and enable them to move forward with their lives, while also acknowledging the significant contribution this group has already made to the community through work and social engagement.

This Policy Brief provides concrete recommendations about how to move refugees on temporary visas to permanent visas—using existing powers under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and minor amendments to the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth)—as well as recommendations for people whose protection claims have not yet been assessed, or have been refused. The 17 recommendations are intended as a package of coherent and inter-related measures, rather than a suite of different options.

This submission is made by the Australian OPCAT Network to the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in support of their upcoming visits to Australia in 2020.

The submission is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the issues faced by people in detention and people deprived of their liberty in Australia. It focuses on key issues to do with Australia’s implementation of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) which Australia ratified in December 2017. It makes recommendations, not necessarily to propose solutions to problems but, rather, to suggest lines of inquiry for the SPT and WGAD.

Since 24 March 2012, asylum seekers processed in Australia have been able to claim protection on broader grounds than those contained in the Refugee Convention, reflecting certain of Australia’s obligations under international human rights law.

This report was commissioned by Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

In 2008 the former Attorney General asked the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia to undertake the substantial and complex task of reviewing the coronial practices and procedures in Western Australia, including a comprehensive review of the operation of the Coroners Act 1996 (WA) (‘the Coroners Act’). The reference was timely in light of reforms in coronial law and systems internationally and across Australia. A complete review of the system was also important given the critical function that the coroner performs in making recommendations…

This Final Report contains 37 recommendations for reform. In making those recommendations the Commission has articulated a number of guiding principles for reform; namely, increasing access to court intervention programs (particularly in regional areas); ensuring protection of the rights of the offenders involved; adequate resources; and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The Commission has recommended a legislative and policy framework for existing and future court intervention programs in order for them to operate in a coordinated and effective manner.