HUman rights and social justice

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Curtin University *

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NETS3010

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Anthropology

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Jan 9, 2024

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HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Research Essay Noor Al Wadaah ANTH3003

Introduction As countries around the world become more concerned about national security and demographic composition, asylum seekers are often the target of these anxieties. They are not allowed to vote, and as a result, their voices are often disregarded within political debates. The growing number of people being held in remote offshore facilities has reinforced the division between the 'us' and the 'them'. It does not help that politician as well as the media are raising concerns of the threat they supposedly bring to Australian boarders (McAdam, 2013). Its seems that many Australians would agree that the government has every right to determine who is eligible to enter the country and under what circumstances (Maley, 2003), however their rightful claims of seeking refuge (United Nations, 2022), has been poorly assessed as they are not receiving the justice they rightfully deserve. This issue will be assessed with further insight from a representative discussing the success rate of interventions for the rights of asylum seekers and how this can be prioritised. The best method of intervention is helping asylum seekers to overcome their past experiences of trauma as well as helping them achieve their settlement and citizenships so that they may adapt within Australian society and call it their home without discrimination. Research findings Despite Australia's long history of accepting refugees, the country's acceptance of asylum seekers has generated significant debate and division. This is due to the media's portrayal of people who are seeking asylum as threats rather than victims (Haw, 2021). As a result, the public's understanding of the issue has been affected by the media's depiction of refugees. The portrayal of asylum seekers within the media has been circuitously constructed them to be ungrateful and “unwanted invaders” (Parker, 2015). An estimation of 2.0% of Australia population is made up of refugees and asylum seekers due to the increasing amounts of conflict, persecutions, and violations of human rights within third world countries (Parker, 2015). As this number grows, so does the media attention targeting them as a problem. The media's portrayal of asylum seekers as distant "others" has been an deceptive feature of its operations (Haw, 2021). This is because it sees them as dehumanized individuals due to their incompatibility with society. This is often reflected in the news discourse, where the threat that asylum seekers pose is exaggerated to highlight the urgent need for community or government action to protect Australian.

During the time of August 2001, a boat carrying 438 individuals making its way to Australia sank within international waters and drowning the people with it (Gelber 2003). This incident was blamed on the idea that they were an unauthorised arrival attempting to “jump the queue” and later known as the “Tampa crisis” (Gebler, 2003). Asylum seekers who are waiting in offshore processing procedures have no assurance that they will be able to get their claim processed and sent to a country where they can be safe. this is due to the overload of applicants looking for asylum, and chances of resettlement are increased only if persons have co-existing contacts in Australia (Gebler, 2003). It is an almost impossible process and considering that people are coming from dangerous countries where their lives are constantly at risk, the chances of living through the approval process is so unlikely to due to the living conditions they may be facing. Interview analysis & dicsussion An interview was taken out by a member within a human rights organisation that attend to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers. A series of questions was conducted to further support the assertions stated in this this study whereby the discriminatory perception of asylum seekers is heavily a result of the medias portrayal of them, and the importance of establishing their rights to asylum must be considered alongside their state of mental health due to the fleeing of their country. The interventions addressed in this essay discuss the settlement and citizenship implementations as well as improving the mental health of asylum seekers. The interview accelerated into the discussion that although asylum seekers face a great deal of outlash from the Australian society, there are voices out there who speak for their freedom. One note I fund particularly useful to support my accumulation of research on the matter discussed in this essay is the interventions in place that work towards helping asylum seekers. Zahraa, the interviewee mentioned the widespread of volunteer work available for people to partake in that assists asylum seekers. I did my own research into this and found out of many, an organisation known as CARAD who attends to refugees and asylum seekers with a temporary protection visa (TPV). This organisation provides basic settlement assistance and support relating to the individuals that are placed under strict visa laws (CARAD, 2022). It is one thing to find comfort in settlement, but to re-settle is another. Asylum seekers dispatch from their home countries with hopes in finding a new and safer home for

resettlement. Attainting citizenship is a cruciality in securing a home, however the process of this can be daunting and unfair. A global citizenship is a concept that emerges from the post- colonial era and is underpinned by the re-inscriptions of the “West and the rest” (Haggis, 2010). Through the experiences of being refugees in Australia, these individuals are able to approach citizenship through the lens of their past experience, considering that citizenship is very important to the claims of refugees, and that territorialised citizenship doesn't capture the various ways in which people are able to claim it. The concept of citizenship is no longer the priority, but instead the enlisting and prioritising of claiming political, social, and civil rights (Haggis, 2010). The government's refusal to accept asylum seekers has prompted the UN refugee agency to launch a comprehensive resettlement program for refugees (Haggis, 2010). This strategy aims to help them settle in Australia more quickly and effectively. Citizenship legislations are raising concerns that the citizenship test indorses exclusion amongst individuals as it preforms as a disincentive for already disadvantaged people, and that English proficiency is an essential requirement of gaining citizenship (Betts & Birrell, 2007). The ongoing debate about the proposed legislations shows that Australia still has a long way to go in defining citizenship due to their biased concern about the ability of refugees rather than focusing on their rights of seeking asylum. What our community fails to consider is the trauma that a majority of asylum seekers are left to face with every day as a result of fleeing their countries and forced migration. Taking this into account, various sources suggest the culturally based interventions that have been applied by our community to attend to the traumas of asylum seekers (Slobodin, 2015). Regardless of how they arrived, refugees have the right to enter a country legally to seek asylum. This is true regardless of their mode of transportation or whether they have valid identity documents. The three phases of migration are described as: pre-migration, which involves the preparation of the new environment; migration, which involves the physical move to the new place; and post-migration, which involves the assimilation of the new society (Slobodin, 2015). Prior to the start of the migration process, refugees are exposed to high levels of trauma, many refugees will be victims of human trafficking, held for ransom or victims of sexual exploitation and labour abuse (Slobodin, 2015). It doesn’t help that these experiences are met with inadequate social support, poverty, discrimination, cultural barriers, and identity crises. To top it all off, many seekers will face hostile conditions such as sexual harassment, denial of proper food, health care and isolation within processing facilities

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