Improving Rights of Asylum Seekers in Australia

The term "human rights" refers to the basic freedoms and protections that all people are entitled to, simply for being human. Today, Australia faces the challenge of Asylum seekers, many of whom which have currently been denied their basic human rights. The government’s policy of creating Immigration Detention Facilities as a way of detaining unauthorised asylum seekers may be a solution the problem of controlling Australia’s borders, however, violates the human rights of this group in Australia. One strategy that addresses this issue is the implementation of community detention, which has many positive and negative aspects.
Many people seek refuge in Australia to escape the terrors of their past lives back home. Due to Australia’s strict visa policy, many asylum seekers arrive in Australia by boat because they are denied other means of entry, such as the closing down of other possibilities for legal travel. This has led to an increase in the number of asylum-seeker boats coming to Australia over the past year, with the number of people held in immigration detention reaching record highs. The policy was put in place to act as a deterrent to future undocumented arrivals, which clearly has not been working as in the past year, the number of people held in detention centres increased to 12 967. Immigration detention centres differ little from prisons, with conditions such as no psychiatrists, community and support groups allowed no access, lack of interpreters and extreme isolation. This can lead to long term effects on already traumatised people, not to mention the substantial economic costs involved. The Australian Government has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that the human rights of asylum seekers are respected and protected; however, these rights include the right not to be arbitrarily detained, which Australia violates. The detention policy also contravenes with article ‘14’ of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which