The Royal Australian Navy has reportedly intercepted two boats carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers on the high seas. It is further reported that Australian officials are summarily assessing their refugee claims at sea, and that those whose claims are rejected may be handed back to the Sri Lankan authorities at sea. The Abbott government has refused to comment. Is this illegal? And if it is, will Australia be held to account?
The operation raises a number of potentially serious violations of international law. An immediate problem is that it appears the asylum seekers have not been permitted to contact anyone, whether lawyers, the Australian courts, family, friends, or even the elected members of the Australian Parliament.
In legal terms, this means that the asylum seekers are being held in incommunicado military detention, also described as enforced disappearance. Under international law, it is illegal for any government to detain a person without access to a court or legal representation. Governments cannot simply disappear people into a legal blackhole. This is one of the most important of all red lines in international law.
A second legal problem is that the expedited processing of refugee claims on the high seas is almost certainly inconsistent with Australia’s obligations under the Refugee Convention and human rights treaties. These require Australia not to return a person to a place where they fear persecution, torture, or other serious harms.
Australia can only comply with that obligation if it provides asylum seekers with a fair procedure for determining their claims. While the Refugee Convention does not specify the procedure, minimum international standards have developed out of the guidelines of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the jurisprudence of United Nations human rights bodies, and the interpretive practice of governments worldwide.
Asking asylum seekers some questions over the phone while they are still at sea does not meet minimum international standards, as asylum seekers do not have adequate time to prepare their claims. They are deprived of legal assistance and other support. They may not have adequate interpreters. They may be confused or traumatised from their journey at sea and incommunicado military detention by our navy. Australian officials do not have adequate time to make the necessary further inquiries. No Australian tribunal or court is available to review and correct any mistakes bureaucrats may make.
The genuine dangers of return to Sri Lanka may not be properly appreciated. Sri Lanka is effectively a one-party, military-backed state, which peremptorily dismissed its Chief Justice, kills journalists and tortures political opponents. Contrary to what the Prime Minister says, it is not making progress on human rights. Every sign suggests regression.
So what remedies are available for these violations? As is well known, the United Nations has no binding power of its own to take enforcement action against human rights violators like Australia. There is no UN human rights police. There is also no international refugee court.
Any number of countries could sue Australia in the International Court of Justice for breaches of the Refugee Convention or human rights treaties, as Australia has submitted to its jurisdiction and the court’s decisions are binding. But countries are extremely reluctant to sue each other to protect human rights.
While the UN Security Council can impose sanctions on governments for human rights violations, realistically that is not likely to happen in this case. Nor is there any realistic prospect of a case being brought before the International Criminal Court.
All this leaves is the non-binding UN human rights mechanisms. Complaints could be made under a number of formal procedures Australia has agreed to participate in, including the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee against Torture. If the asylum seekers could access these procedures, including through their representatives, the committees could issue “interim measures” to protect them from the immediate risks they face, namely incommunicado detention and possible return to persecution or torture.
Interim measures can be issued within a matter of days by the UN. Interim measures are binding on Australia, but although Australia often respects them, it sometimes ignores them, flouting its treaty obligations. A final decision on the merits of a complaint, however, can take five to six years to resolve, bringing little joy any time soon. Final decision are also not binding.
Australia may also claim that the Refugee Convention and the human rights treaties only apply in Australian territory and not on the high seas. That objection is, however, legally rubbish and certain to be rejected by UN bodies. In international law, countries bear human rights duties wherever they act outside their territory, especially where they detain people.
There is also a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the meeting of peer governments, the UN Human Rights Council. Ultimately, all of the UN procedures rely on countries implementing their treaty obligations in good faith. Where the UN calls out a government for violating its obligations, all the UN can do is persuade or shame governments into doing the right thing, to living up to the bargain they made by signing the treaties, and to being a good international citizen that respects fundamental rights. The UN gets nowhere if a government is not open to persuasion, or simply has no sense of shame.
The current operation at sea involves extremely grave abuses of government power. It is not authorised by Parliament under the Migration Act and is being conducted purely under the sweeping, unwritten executive power of the government. It is not subject to public scrutiny or supervision by the Australian courts. Its secrecy is contemptuous of the rule of law and our democracy. It is a government out of control, overawed by its perverse obsession with border control at whatever the cost, and a danger to freedom, liberty and legality.
I hope we can keep track of some of these “recyclables” – so that if anything happens to them, we know who to hold complicit in culpability.
That is if we ever get to read about it – protected as this government is, by whom/what.
The important thing is to NEVER FORGET what is being done in our name and for which we, as a people, must fully take collective responsibility. These arseholes were legally elected through an open democratic process so we can’t blame anyone but ourselves. It will probably take many years but just as Tony Blair is now likely to be called to account, it is important the same happens to these nasty, Australian people.
The rAbbott coalition christians are in charge no compassion to be displayed under any circumstances.
No one cares what happens. A SL man in Melbourne waits 2years for an answer to his refugee application. He came in 2010 by boat. Was refused and deported. Was tortured- hung up for hours day after day with arms shackled behind back then tied to a pulley system , hauled up so feet off the floor and left to hang as slowly and painfully his shoulders dislocated. Eventually released but with constant harrassment and threat of more torture.
He came back to Australia by boat with this proof of torture plus other too awful to speak of here. He is in constant pain which intra joint injections can only temporarily relieve.
His life journey will be physical pain and the sort of psychological terror which does not leave a torture victim.
He came, he asked, we turned hm down, we got it wrong, he came back but now Morrison simply freezes the application.
He is not the only one in this position.
A week ago people of South Australia found out a one time refugee or “boat Person” from Vietnam is to become our next State Governor. A title he has earned as a proud citizen of his adopted country. However, at the same another migrant, who has also been adopted by this country; and is the head the current Federal government. Is violating international Law, a Law that we as a country voluntary signed up to, and is handing over a group of people, who are seeking asylum, to the Navy of a foreign country that history has shown has violated the Human Rights of many of its population. At this stage I don’t know if the people on these boats, were genuine refugees or not, but I do know that it will be odds on, they will be when they are forced on board the Sri Lankan Navy Boats. While I’m not saying we as a country should have to keep them, however as we have signed up to the UN Human Rights and Refugee Convention then we should at the very least honour the rules and our word.