Sana
Yasmin Chaudhry.
Sana
Yasmin Chaudhry of University College of London can be reached at sana.chaudhry.12@ucl.ac.uk.
Australia’s engagement with
international humanitarianism is continually undermined by mean-spirited national
policies toward asylum seekers. This took a turn under Hawke-Keating in 1992
when delayed legal access and court amendments of the Migration Acts severely
impeded the assimilation of Cambodian asylum seekers (Manne 2013: 19). Since
then, callous policies have continued despite Australia’s open programme of
accepting refugees during World War II, at a time when political leaders
espoused multiculturalism as a bedrock policy for the nation. However during
the 1990s, appeals to xenophobia were proving to be politically profitable,
therefore punitive policies were introduced for all those who arrived without
proper documentation (Kipnis 2004: 262).
Today, “those seeking asylum who make
it to Australia are sent to detention centres where conditions are harsh and
access to legal aid and the media is strictly limited, if not curtailed
completely” (Mares 2002). What is more, these
detention centres are geographically located in “marginal spaces where social ‘unmentionables’ and dangerous
wastes are located and removed from mainstream society” (McLoughlin and Warin
2003) thus stripping asylum seekers of their rights to a strong network of
social capital. Furthermore,
Howard’s creation of a ‘temporary safe haven’ VISAs means those asylum seekers
continue to live in limbo, constantly fearing forcible repatriation. This temporary
status “legalizes the ambiguity through which asylum applicants are positioned
outside the nation-state” (Mountz et al 2002: 340), consequently leading to
further marginalisation.
