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Tell Me About:
The ‘Enhanced
Screening Process’
1. What is the ‘enhanced screening process’?
Since October 2012 an ‘enhanced screening process’ has been applied to all unauthorised maritime arrivals from Sri Lanka to identify whether they are raising claims that engage Australia’s non-refoulement obligations.
Australia’s non-refoulement obligations prohibit the removal of anyone from
Australia to a country where they are in danger of death, torture or other mistreatment, including arbitrary detention.1
Under the enhanced screening process an individual is interviewed by two officers from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).
If DIAC determines that an individual raises claims that may engage Australia’s …show more content…

3. What does the Commission recommend?
The Commission recommends that all asylum seekers arriving by boat, including those arriving from Sri Lanka, should be provided with the following:
2

Australian Human Rights Commission
June 2013



Information regarding their right to seek asylum



Information regarding their right to seek legal assistance



Contact details for Legal Aid and community legal centres



Contact details for independent monitoring bodies including the Australian
Human Rights Commission, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees



Access to interpreters, communication facilities and interview rooms to allow them to make effective and private contact with independent monitoring bodies and/or legal advisers, as well as, information about their ability to access these facilities. Further, the Commission recommends that the ‘enhanced screening process’ be discontinued. Where protection claims are raised, all asylum seekers should be
‘screened in’ and should have their claims fully assessed under the refugee status determination and complementary protection system that applies under the Migration
Act, with access to legal or migration advice and assistance, independent merits review and judicial review.

1

See for example, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Advisory Opinion on the
Extraterritorial Application

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