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Treatment of asylum seekers by the Australian legal system

The treatment of asylum seekers by the Australian legal system is a controversial issue dealing with human rights and people from different sides have different perspectives on this subject .The Australian legal system has attempted to achieve justice for the parties affected by the matter through various court cases and legislation and policy changes. Has justice been achieved?

The current Australian government perspective on this issue is, to keep mandatory detention of asylum seekers as it is an “important component of border control” (immi factsheet 82).Also the government recently wanted to pass an asylum seeker bill which the Prime Minister said “we need effective action to ensure that we deter people from getting on boats and risking their lives at sea” (PM calls in expert group….). The bill which includes the Malaysian solution with a compromise with the Coalition was rejected the senate.

The Coalition standpoint on treatment of asylum seekers is that the current government’s policies is a failure because they believe the present laws are unsuccessful in protecting Australian borders (Abbott seizes on people smuggler claims) and that the Pacific Solution Policy is the solution. Furthermore the Coalition would send back the asylum seeker boats to Indonesia will prevent more people smugglers and asylum seekers making dangerous journeys to Australia. The coalition rejects the governments’ Malaysian Solution because Malaysia is not part of the UN Refugee Convention.

Refugee advocacy groups view that Australian laws are not effective in protecting the lives and rights of asylum seekers. Advocacy groups include Amnesty International and Refugee Council of Australia etc. They view mandatory detention is a breach of human rights and which greatly impacts on mental health as asylum seekers face trauma during their journey to Australia and worsened by detention .They believe there are better...
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