Asylum Seekers Research Paper

200 bare back lashes, publicly shaming you in front of your whole community. A minimum of 6 months imprisonment. Post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses left untreated. This is the punishment for a woman in Syria who has been gang raped by 7 men. (pause) In 2011, the Syrian civil war broke out, affecting the whole population. Displacement, house arrest and kidnapping, are just some of the things civilians experience. These innocent victims are petrified to live in their own homes, and are brave enough to flee and strive to seek asylum in Australia. The issue concerning asylum seekers in Australia has been prevalent for more than 15 years now. However, rather then the debate of “letting them in”, it is now an issue of the safety and mistreatment of these refugees.

The refugee crisis has been a contentious issue for the past decade as the amount of people seeking refuge in foreign countries is rising exponentially, with many countries turning to off shore detention as a way to deal with this issue (Coffey, Kaplan, Sampson & Tucci, 2010; Crock, Saul & Dastyari; Ljungholm, 2014). As a result of this influx the demand for human rights lawyers has increased, because the indefinite nature of the detention it is seen to be a breach of human rights (Saul, 2012; Evenhuis, 2013; Ljungholm, 2014). It is evident from the literature that long term indefinite detention of children and young adults has a significant adverse effect on their mental health, both long and short term. The two major themes that this literature

According to SIM, various social determinants of health can dictate the presentation and severity of the patient’s illness. The main challenge in delivering effective care of refugee mental health is the complexity and the multi-factorial nature of their suffering. A refugee is identified as someone who was forced to flee his or her country due to traumatic factors such as war, persecution, violence and racism (Moussalli M., 1992). The exposure to these factors instills an overwhelming feeling of fear, submissiveness and vulnerability. As a result, refugees can be at a higher risk of developing debilitating psychological conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety (McKenzie et al., 2010). On the other hand,

Australia, among many places, has legal restrictions and conventions in reference to the captivity and treatment of asylum seekers. These are seen through the ‘1951 Refugee Convention’ and it’s 1967 protocol. Legal guidelines are also seen in significant human rights treaties.

Australian detention centres have been known to violate the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s (UNHRC) human rights obligations, which has resulted in detrimental repercussions for the refugees and asylum seekers accommodated there. With respect to the UNHRC human rights obligations, individuals that are detained must be respected of their humanity and dignity (Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), 2013, pp.7). In December 2012, however, the UNHRC had uncovered overly strict and unsatisfactory living circumstances, for instance overcrowding, which had been known to promote depression and alternate mental illnesses among asylum seekers and refugees (AHRC, 2013, pp.17). Similarly, Burnside (2014) stated that refugees were refused to

In the reality, asylum seekers who come across the seas by boat are not welcomed by Australian government. However, in the Advance Australia Fair, it says: “For those who've come across the seas we've boundless plains to share.” Locking up the asylum seekers who come across the seas to escape from persecution in the detain centres is absolutely not the way people share their “boundless plains”. Also the detain centres have a poor hygiene conditions (Greene & Sveen, 2014) and may have frequent raping and beating (Whyte & Gordon, 2014). Moreover, the new Border Force Act that has already assented recently in May (Parliament of Australia, 2015) will probably imprison the staffs in detain centres who tell the public the real situation inside the detain centres up to 2 years. This act will “effectively turns the Department of Immigration into a secret security organization with police powers” (Barns & Newhouse, 2015). Asylum seekers who come over the seas from India, Indonesia or some other countries to find a new home in Australia will not only not being welcomed as what Advance Australia Fair’s says, but also suffer from life threatening conditions in the detain

Recently, concerns have been raised by political figures and the people of Australia regarding the ‘abysmal treatment’ of asylum seekers (Claire Mallinson, 2015). The violations of their human rights in regards to the conditions they are forced to live in inside detention centers show that these centres do not operate within the humanitarian requirements Australia has agreed to abide by. The current process that handles the arrival and subsequent treatment of asylum seekers does not allow the migratory system to properly address the complications that the present circumstances impose. The Universal Declaration Human Rights (1948) (UDHR) and the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention were signed by Australia to recognize its support of these

The scientific literature shows that immigration detention violates human dignity because it damages people. Detainees often experience severe decline in their mental and physical health across a spectrum of symptoms, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, bed-wetting, anxiety, depression, and

When enacting policies toward asylum seekers and refugees, countries always examine the impact of the economic burden that an influx of vulnerable people is going to have on the country. Accepting refuges requires to government of the asylum country to provide access to housing, welfare, healthcare and education to the new immigrants. Access to career services is also required in order for the new immigrants to receive training and certification needed for them to get employed. However, all these services cause an economic strain in the lives of citizens of asylum countries that is reflected in their taxes. In order to minimize the burden, many countries enact laws that decrease the access to social rights and educational institutions.

Additionally, it was also discovered that refugee resettlement also has some effect on the health system of the host country. In 2002, it was discovered that approximately 7,500 refugees had resettled in Canada annually, according to the Canadian Council for Refugees; Citizenship and Immigration 2009. As a result of the introduction of Canada’s Immigrant and Refugee Protection Act, IRPA in 2002, the criteria for eligibility for government-assisted resettlement lessened to give greater consideration of refugees’ needs. With less emphasis being placed on their ability to integrate quickly, “many refugees now have different settlement needs that include special requirements arising from years of trauma or torture following years in camps, (Pressé & Thomson, 2007). The level of torture and trauma experienced as long been a standing point of discourse for many countries, as the events these refugees experience often resulted in the occurrence of mental health issues, which present some amount of strain on the host country and its citizens.

Asylum seekers and refugees have been left and deserted on Nauru and Manus Island following the act to shut down detentions centres by the government. These refugees are unable to contact the Australian public and they lack legal support as well as medical services. And although Australians are protesting the unjust and unfair treatment of these people who are in need, the Australian government has refused to help these people out of what the Government placed them in the first place, despite their knowledge of their terrible living conditions and treatment.

Holmes and Keith look at how asylum policies and asylum giving have changed in response to 9/11 and compare them to overall changes in the system. They point to specific factors that have shaped the group of asylum applicants that make it to court.

The article is qualitative, descriptive and analytical looking at court cases in the United States and Canada. Grover references international law including the Convention on the Status of Refugees and human rights law to define qualifications for refugee status.

Taking into account that discriminating and prohibiting people from lodging an asylum claims based on nationality is a violation of international law as well as human

People worry about population control, jobs, crime, disease, and any other social problem people decide to connect immigrants with. When someone applies for refuge in a country this is called "asylum seeking" ("Refugees and Asylum" 2011). European countries are popular for this because they usually have stronger human rights foundations ("Refugees and Asylum" 2011). Unfortunately, because of anti-terrorism efforts, it has become increasingly hard for people to seek asylum in these countries ("Refugees and Asylum" 2011). Many asylum seekers in the past have gained citizenship, and have become normal members of society, but often times their only hope is for repatriation ("Refugees and Asylum" 2011). A problem faced by both host nations and refugees is that the accommodations given at the detention camps are meant to be temporary. They are only meant to hold the persons until the conflict in their country has stopped, but millions of refugees around the globe have been detained anywhere from 10 to almost 60 years (S. Feldman 2010).