
We are a group of legal and policy practitioners and academics with expertise in refugee and migration law. We strongly support measures to bring Australian law in line with our international obligations, but despite its title, the Migration Amendment (Clarifying International Obligations for Removal) Bill 2021 does not achieve that.
Rather, the Bill, which was rushed through Parliament with bipartisan support today, increases the risk that refugees and others in need of protection will be detained indefinitely, without adequate judicial review. This is contrary to international law and inconsistent with the practices of other democratic countries, which impose statutory time limits on immigration detention and allow judicial oversight of such detention.
Further, the Bill creates a complicated and inefficient administrative process which:
- does not guarantee protection against return to persecution or serious harm to all people who engage Australia's non-refoulement obligations;
- limits other fundamental international law rights, including the right to liberty and the rights of the child;
- grants the Minister a new power to disregard a person’s refugee status for the purposes of Australian law (despite that status being determined by international law); and
- will increase administrative burdens on the Department.
We are disappointed that this complex legislation was passed without appropriate consultation or referral to a parliamentary inquiry and with no government response to concerns raised by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills. Creating legislation in this way undermines confidence in the integrity of parliamentary processes, especially when it affects, with retrospective effect, some of the most vulnerable people in Australia as well as the fundamental right to liberty.
We maintain that the best way to ensure compliance with Australia’s international obligations to refugees and others entitled to international protection is to codify them unambiguously in domestic law. In various ways, Australia’s Migration Act does the opposite. For example, it provides that Australia’s non-refoulement obligations are 'irrelevant' to the duty to remove non-citizens with no prospect of obtaining a visa to remain in Australia, and allows for indefinite detention without adequate judicial review.
As we have done on many previous occasions, both individually and collectively, we stress the need for reforms to Australia’s migration laws to reduce administrative inefficiency while ensuring that Australia meets its obligations to those who are most vulnerable.
Amnesty International Australia
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
Assent Migration Lawyers
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
A.U.M Lawyers
Buttar, Caldwell & Co. Solicitors
Carina Ford Immigration Lawyers
Circle Green Community Legal
Clothier Anderson Immigration Lawyers
Dr Sara Dehm, University of Technology Sydney
Estrin Saul Migration Specialists
Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre
Associate Professor Daniel Ghezelbash, Macquarie Law School
Human Rights For All
Human Rights Law Centre
Jesuit Refugee Service
Associate Professor Mary Anne Kenny, Murdoch University
Liberty Victoria
Simon Mason, Summit Migration
National Justice Project
Dr Maria O’Sullivan, Monash University
Refugee Advice & Casework Service
Refugee Council of Australia
Refugee and Immigration Legal Service
Refugee Legal
Russell Kennedy Lawyers
Associate Professor Savitri Taylor, La Trobe University
SCALES Community Legal Centre (WA)
Visa Cancellations Working Group
Nathan Willis, Visa Assist Australia
WLW Migration Lawyers
Associate Professor Matthew Zagor, Australian National University
Media contacts
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
Lauren Martin, phone: +61 407 393 070
Email: lauren.martin@unsw.edu.au
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Dr Carolyn Graydon, phone: +61 498 552 227
Email: carolyn.g@asrc.org.au
Media release available here.
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
Matt Mitchell, phone: 0431 980 365
Human Rights For All
Alison Battisson, phone: +61 400 635 110
Email: alison.battisson@hr4a.com.au
Human Rights Law Centre
Evan Schuurman, phone: + 61 406 117 937
Refugee Council of Australia Media Team
Phone: +61 488 035 535
E: media@refugeecouncil.org.au
Refugee Legal
David Manne, phone: (03) 9413 0103
Email: davidm@refugeelegal.org.au
Visa Cancellations Working Group
Sanmati Verma, phone: +61 3 9347 4022
Email: workinggroup@visacancellations.org or sanmati@clothieranderson.com.au