This post originally appeared at GlobalPost.
The
world is sitting by and watching in a state of disbelief at the
“abhorrent” asylum policies of the Australian government, according to
one of the world’s leading refugee and migration experts.
Alexander Betts, professor in refugee and forced migration
studies at the UK's University of Oxford, says it’s time for the United
Nations and Australia’s “silent majority” to speak out against human
rights abuses under Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
“At the moment I think there’s almost a sense that because
Australia is an otherwise liberal democratic state, somehow there’s a
disbelief that its asylum policies can be quite as abhorrent as they
are,” he says.
Betts contends that despite Tony Abbott’s anti-asylum
seeker propaganda, refugees could actually be good for Australia,
because their skills and entrepreneurial spirit could help create jobs
and strengthen the economy.
Remarkably, he points to the refugee policy of Uganda — a country whose people on average earn less in a year than Australians do in a week — as a model for what Abbott should do.
The prime minister’s current strategy is one of rejecting
and demonizing foreigners in need of shelter. His ongoing campaign to “stop the boats,” however, reached new lows this month with confirmation that Australia had handed asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka — the country from which they had sought refuge and one with a questionable human rights record of its own.
The UN described the move as “deeply disturbing,” while refugee advocacy groups issued a High Court challenge to try to prevent a second boatload from suffering the same fate.
Despite his own unpopularity, a recent poll suggests Abbott’s hardline stance on asylum remains popular among some Australians, with 36 percent approving of the government’s asylum policy.
The role model: Uganda
In contrast to Australia, Uganda gives refugees the right
to work and freedom of movement. They have access to public services,
including health centers and schools. And the government employs health
workers and teachers to assist in settlement.
Betts is the lead author of a new report on Uganda that
challenges the myth — perpetuated by Abbott and commonly accepted in
Australia — that refugees are an economic burden.
The study, "Refugee Economics: Rethinking Popular Assumptions,"
found that refugees in Uganda are using economic freedom and social
support to become self-sufficient. Rather than taking the jobs of
locals, they are actually acting as job creators.
“Over 20 percent of the refugees we spoke to in Kampala
were entrepreneurs employing other people, and of those that employed
other people, 40 percent of their employees were Ugandan nationals,”
says Betts.
“If we give them freedom and opportunities, refugees can
make a positive contribution. If we restrict their ability to
contribute, then we are likely to create a notion that they are a drain
socially, politically, and economically.”
Uganda faces a far greater influx of refugees than Australia; in July 2013 alone, Uganda accepted more than 66,000 refugees fleeing civil unrest in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
By comparison, UN figures show that throughout all of 2013, Australia received just 24,300 applications for asylum.
“We need to get things in perspective and recognize that the
overwhelming majority of refugees — over 80 percent — are in the
developing world,” says Betts.
“It is often the countries with the least capacity that
actually take on the greatest degree of responsibility to protect and
assist refugees. The ability of the Ugandan government to contribute in
terms of its economic situation is far lower than Australia’s, but
they’ve taken pioneering steps with regard to refugee policy.”
Australian Asylum Seeker Resource Centre CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis agrees.
“We believe that asylum seekers and refugees are among the most resilient, entrepreneurial people on the planet,” he says.
Australia needs to create an infrastructure that allows
refugees to overcome barriers to employment and self-reliance so they
can thrive, he adds.
“The focus shouldn’t be on charity, but on supporting asylum seekers to
use their skills, experiences, resilience and ingenuity,” says
Karapanagiotidis.
He says the current Australian system is unfair and discriminates against so-called "boat people."
“While asylum seekers who arrive by plane are able to work
while they await the outcome of their refugee application, many asylum
seekers living in the community who have come to Australia by boat are
not afforded work rights,” he says.
“Asylum seekers in general are not eligible to access
Centrelink [employment benefits], and those who are permitted to work
can’t access Job Services Australia support to help them find employment, nor can they access apprenticeship and traineeship schemes.”
Betts says the deprivation of the right to work is intended as a
deterrent, “but it doesn’t work — it doesn’t stop people arriving.”
“Given how many of these people arriving by boat are
refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention definition, the sooner we can
enable them to be self-reliant and make contributions through their
work and their taxes, the earlier we can enable them to become part of
the community.”
He says more research is needed to make an economic case for refugees.
“The kind of data we now have for Uganda just doesn’t exist
in the Australian context,” he says. “It’s very rare that economists
have done research on refugees and asylum seekers, but it’s very
important [because] if we want to challenge the rhetoric of governments,
we can show these assumptions and claims to be false with that data and
evidence.”
Fixing Australia
Betts insists that Australians should reject Abbott’s
policies. “Politics needs to give voice to the country’s silent
majority, and that takes political courage and leadership by elected
politicians to ... mobilize that set of people who recognize that it’s
not acceptable to have refugees under international law in danger at sea
and not having access to the territory of another state when they’re
seeking international protection.
“Organizations like UNHCR [the UN’s refugee agency] and
international NGOs [need to] make it clear that the policies being
adopted by the Abbott government are a violation of human rights and
international refugee law.”
He said it was also the responsibility of the country’s
allies — including the United States and the United Kingdom — to quietly
condemn via diplomatic channels Australia’s “clear violation of the
minimum standards of human rights we expect of a civilized country.”
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