Refugee deal almost a decade in the making
Nine years and five prime ministers later, Australia has finally accepted New Zealand’s offer to settle 450 offshore refugees.
Refugees are pictured on Nauru Regional Processing Centre Credit: Jason Oxenham / The Associated Press
The longstanding deal was first struck by former prime ministers Julia Gillard (Australia) and John Key (New Zealand) in 2013. On March 24th 2022 outgoing Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews announced that 150 refugees from Australia’s Naru and Manus regional processing centres will be resettled in New Zealand each year, for three years.
We’ve boundless plains to share?
At twelve years old Danijel Malbasa, a former Yugoslav refugee came to Australia via the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) humanitarian visa to escape conflict in Croatia. More than twenty years later, Malbasa’s work as a senior national legal officer and 2022 inaugural winner of the Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition has advocated for the rights of refugees.
He says “conditions in offshore centres are appalling and inhumane” as reported by the Australian Human Rights Commission and Refugees Convention.
Danijel Malbasa Credit: The UN Refugee Agency Australia for UNHCR
According to Amnesty International, Australia devotes $4.3 million per annum towards the management of asylum seekers offshore. Equivalent to an approximate $12,000 per day, for every refugee. Yet, Ms Andrews maintains people who arrive illegally by boat will “never, ever” resettle in Australia.
Over the years, this hard-line approach had been maintained by politicians including Peter Dutton who said New Zealand resettlement would provide a “pull factor” for refugees and Scott Morrison.
Malbasa reframes “It is highly questionable whether offshore processing of people seeking asylum is a sufficient deterrent.”
Eelam Tamil activist: Kalyani Inpakumar fled persecution in Sir Lanka in 1983 and acts as a liaison between the Tamil Refugee Council and refugees. She says, “There is no flight they can take to come to the country...there is no option.”
Kalyani Inpakumar: Credit - Kalyani Inpakumar/Twitter
'It is time for a new story’
Experts have described the Australian-New Zealand resettlement agreement as a bandage on Australia’s failed refugee policy. In the lead up to the Federal election, Danijel Malbasa explains “undoubtably politics played a role” in its sudden timing.
As more than 20 million refugees are displaced each year, Malbasa claims “bashing refugees is getting tired and starting to wear out thin in our communities”.
UNHCR reports 82.4 million people were forcibly displaced in 2020, 20 million were refugees – Credit (IDMC)
The domination of teal independents in the recent election suggests voters noted the treatment of refugees as a growing concern.
Malbasa says “It is time for a new story...I would like to see us double our refugee intake from 13,750 per year to around 30,000 spots” through community sponsorship schemes.
In the coming months refugee resettlement claims will be processed by UNHCR. Ms Impakumar says Australia “needs to decide what kind of country it wants to be” as many refugees will be left behind.