Waiting to register at the Iridimi Transit Center in eastern Chad. This woman’s husband and 6-year-old child died amid the violence in Sudan. She fled with her remaining children and first arrived at the Chadian border town, Tine. She then walked 60 km to the transit center for assistance (some generous Chadian villagers helped her along the way). She now waits under a plastic sheet to register – the next day, she hopes – for shelter, food and water for her family.
© Women’s Commission/Megan McKenna
From The Age Editorial:
No Africans allowed. Has our way of life come to this?
IT TOOK one letter, published in this newspaper yesterday, to clarify what is so wrong with the Federal Government’s decision to reduce the numbers of African refugees it allows into Australia on the grounds some of them have not integrated into the Australian community. The chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Phong Nguyen, wrote that “Australia’s refugee program should be conducted on the basis of need”, not “discrimination and racism”. It is worth noting that Mr Nguyen’s own community has overcome initial settlement difficulties to become an established part of Australia’s multicultural life — a continuity emphasised by Mr Nguyen’s reference to African refugees as “our latest community”.Yesterday on this page, The Age referred to the remark by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews — “some groups don’t seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope” — as unpleasant and inflammatory, and aimed specifically and unfairly at Sudanese refugees who have fled a land of war and famine.
This was Mr Andrews’ explanation for the Government’s cuts in the African quota of refugee places from 70 to 30 per cent. Since then, the minister has said the Government will not accept any new applications from Africans until mid-2008, with no guarantee of acceptance even then. The same reasons apply. This puts things beyond the pale.
Why has the Government waited until now to impose this restraint? Are its reasons justifiable or are they designed, in the face of an election, to arouse a predictably base reaction from those sensitive to immigration on racial grounds? Yesterday Prime Minister John Howard, denying the reduction in African refugee numbers was racially based, said the program was being “rebalanced” to favour Middle Eastern and Asian refugees. This may be so, but any “rebalancing” should be conducted on the basis of correct decisions and not spurious ones open to misinterpretation
or dispute. For a Government whose grasp of the language is sufficient to understand the subtleties involved in renaming the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs by substituting “citizenship” for the last two words, there should be no trouble in telling the semantic difference between the words “immigrant” and “refugee”. It appears not. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says in response to Mr Andrews’ argument, it is hoped that “the doors will remain open to refugees from any part of the world on the basis of their need for protection, not on the basis of race, religion, nationality or perceptions about their ability to integrate”.
There may indeed be problems in the resettling of some African refugees, but these are not strictly of their making; rather, they represent the bridging of a wretched, traumatised past and a new, vastly different, society with its own rules and structures. Just as the refugees must learn to adapt, so, too, should Australians learn to be encouraging, not dismissive. For example, African migrants in Dandenong are able to enrol in a driver-education program set up in response to a spate of incidents, including drink-driving. In May, Victoria Police sent two officers to Sudan to learn about a culture that includes an inherent distrust of those in authority. The man who sent the officers, Assistant Commissioner Paul Evans, told ABC Radio yesterday that such prejudices would be overcome, but in time. “There’s no quick fix,” he said.
No such compassion or understanding is to be found in the Government’s own quick fix. Instead there is dispassion and obduracy, along with the ominous feeling that Australia is tightening its borders for short-term political advantage that can only further this country’s unfortunate racially intolerant reputation. Is this really how we want to be seen by the rest of the world?
Furthermore:
The chairman of Victoria’s Multicultural Commission has lashed out at the Federal Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, calling him incompetent and irresponsible after he announced this week that Australia would not accept any more African refugees until July 2008.
We have failed the refugees who need the most help to resettle
About half of the arrivals are children and young people with poor literacy and numeracy. Some have not been to school at all. Some have spent years in camps. Many have suffered abuse. Their families have typically experienced torture and trauma, the loss of relatives and spent considerable time in refugee camps.
HAS “African” replaced “queue jumper” in the loaded lexicon of Australia’s immigration policy?
Costello fears more cuts could follow
Human rights campaigner Tim Costello fears that claims Australia has clamped down on its intake of African refugees because of violence and a failure to assimilate could have a trigger effect around the world.
From The Telegraph
John Howard has been accused of electioneering after the Australian government announced it would bar African refugees from entering until the middle of next year.
The prime minister said the country’s 13,000-a-year refugee intake would be allocated to Asian and Middle Eastern countries, such as Burma and Iraq.
“It’s not in any way racially based – the programme is just going to be rebalanced,” he said. He acknowledged there had been issues with some African refugees struggling to assimilate into Australian society.
Refugee groups accused the government of picking on Africans in the lead-up to a federal election, expected to be held by next month.
Ian Rintoul, of the Refugee Action Coalition, said the government was trying to replicate the boost it received before the 2001 election when it refused to accept hundreds of Afghan refugees who had been rescued by a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, in the Indian Ocean.
“They can’t manufacture another Tampa but they’re trying to tap into the same redneck sentiment,” Mr Rintoul said.
Two years ago 70 per cent of Australia’s refugee intake came from Africa.
The chairman of the African Federation Communities Council, Abeselom Nega, said 12,000 African migrants had arrived in Australia and there was no evidence they had failed to integrate.
Human rights watchdog slams Andrews on refugees
Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner has labelled the Federal Government’s position on African refugees “un-Australian”.
And Labor has criticised Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews’ handling of his portfolio in recent days, describing it as clumsy and contradictory.
Refugee advocates also say they are dismayed by the Government’s handling of the issue.
The decision to cut this year’s African refugee intake was announced back in August, raising barely a ripple in the media.
But the row was sparked on Tuesday, when Mr Andrews was asked a question about the death of 18-year-old Sudanese refugee Liep Gony in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park last week.
Mr Andrews said the African intake had been cut amid concerns that some groups don’t seem to be settling into the Australian way of life as quickly as the Federal Government would like.
By last night, the story was leading commercial television bulletins, with the networks treating it as a race issue in Melbourne’s south-east.
“If you can, put racism claims aside for a moment, because tonight we can show you the terror experienced by a Noble Park shopkeeper at the hands of an ethnic gang. They’ve been identified by police as predominantly Sudanese youths,” one journalist said.
Another news report said a local survey showed 70 per cent of residents in the area were too scared to use public transport after dark.
A third reporter said residents were scared to leave their homes.
“Noble Park residents say the violence has reached boiling point, with gangs of up to 30 to 40 members roaming the streets at night, leaving many too scared to leave their homes,” the reporter said.
Clumsy handling
Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke says Mr Andrews has handled the issue badly.
“It’s been clumsy, it’s been contradictory, and as I say, his biggest opponent in all of this has been Kevin Andrews, because he’s on the record all over the place, saying the decision was made for completely different reasons to what he’s started to talk about in the last couple of days,” he said.
“We want people to be starting a new life in Australia, to feel at home in Australia, and to be given the support that they need to be learning English, finding their way in the work force, and moving forward. That’s what integration’s about.
“The Government’s been pretty bad at supporting some of those services – nine out of 10 people leave the adult English language programs without even reaching functional English now.”
Mr Burke says the Government needs to provide real support for integration.
“They’re the issues that need to be focused on, and some of the hurt and pain that’s been reported in the last few days is certainly a sad outcome,” he said.
Human rights concernsAustralia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Graeme Innes, has described the Federal Government’s stance on African refugees as un-Australian.
He says he will investigate any complaints of discrimination made against the Government.
“I think it’s troubling to single out one community or group as not settling or integrating well,” he said.
“It’s not really the Australian way to deal with issues of settlement.
“People shouldn’t be treated differently on the basis of race or ethnic origin.”
When asked for evidence to further the Federal Government’s decision in recent days, Mr Andrews has said it was based on advice from an inter-departmental committee that looked at refugee settlement services across the board.
But he says he is unable to release the advice publicly. Mr Andrews says the committee’s advice was submitted to Cabinet, and Cabinet submissions are confidential.
For his part, Mr Innes says the evidence he is aware of does not support claims that African refugees are not settling into society as well as others.
“This is a major variation, and I haven’t seen any evidence of any greater settlement problems for African Sudanese refugees than I’ve seen for other refugee groups over the years,” he said.
The Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia has labelled the Federal Government’s new policy on African refugees as “race politics“.
Andrews changed reasons for refugee reduction: Labor
The Federal Opposition says Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews appears to have changed his justification for slashing Australia’s intake of African refugees.
Mr Andrews has come under fire for saying the cut was partly driven by concerns African refugees are not integrating properly in Australia.
Labor Immigration spokesman Tony Burke says the capacity to integrate has always been taken into account when visa checks are done in the countries refugees are fleeing.
But he says Mr Andrews is giving a new reason for reducing the intake of African refugees.
“The reasons he’s giving now and getting a lot of publicity for are not the reasons that were given at the time of the decision,” he said.
“The decision enjoyed bi-partisan support because it was being made for the same reasons that both sides of politics have always made these decisions.
“That is that the Government has gone to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and said ‘where in the world can we help best?’ and the Minister has brought back a submission to Cabinet.”
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