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Offshore Refugees In Australia

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Offshore resettlement under the humanitarian program is granted to people outside Australia, usually in camps and settlements in developing countries. Offshore humanitarian program has been divided into three main categories, named, refugee, special humanitarian and special assistance. The Refugee category for people who subject to persecution in their country of origin and who are refugees as defined by the Refugee Convention or who are perceived to be in situations of particular need. The second category, special humanitarian program, for people who, while not being refugees are subject to substantial discrimination amounting to a gross violation of their human rights in their country of origin. The third category, special assistance, …show more content…
Following the most recent Regional Settlement Agreement between Australia and PNG all those arriving by boat on or after 19 July 2013 are transferred to PNG or Nauru for processing and resettlement, but do not give an opportunity to settle in Australia.’ Meanwhile the introduction of this offshore process, Australia’s offshore processing practices have come under extreme national and international enquiry. After examine the offshore processing the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, concluded that there is ‘a significant risk of being incompatible with a range of human rights’. As well as this offshore processing has been criticised by the UNHCR, while the UN Human Rights Committee has been critical of Australian refugee policy and condemned Australia on a number of occasions for breaches of its international …show more content…
Not only is it mandatory, it is for the purpose to ‘support the integrity of Australia’s immigration program’ and ‘management of Australian borders’ and to distinguish between those who have submitted themselves to offshore entry processes prior to arrival and those who have not, mandatory detention for asylum seekers was introduced in 1992. Section 14 of the Migration Act requires the detention of all unlawful non-citizens without a valid visa. Section 189 requires an officer of the federal or state police or the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to detain any person known or reasonably suspected to be unlawful non-citizen. Under s 196 an unlawful non-citizen must be kept in immigration detention until they granted a visa or removed from Australia. There is no limit under Australian law to the length of time for which a person may be held in immigration detention. According to Chu Kheng Lim v Minister of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs (Lim) the provision which authorised detention and remained valid as long as the detention was limited to what was reasonably necessary to achieve the purpose. That means there is no regular time to how long a person can be held in mandatory detention. As at 30 June 2015 the average period of time a person would spend in closed immigration detention was 405 days, but 348 people had been held in immigration detention

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