Australia has always found a way to bring in people from conflict zones
Aug 22, 2024
Australia has always found a way to bring in people suffering in conflict zones – when it wants to. There are well-established procedures that have worked effectively for decades between the immigration authorities and ASIO to make it happen safely.
This has usually been driven by a desire on the part of the Australian community to contribute to a tragic humanitarian situation, requests from family members in Australia for their relatives overseas to be assisted and/or requests from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We have often done this in parallel with other countries making a similar contribution.
There has always been close coordination between Commonwealth immigration officials and ASIO to screen out any risks to Australian security. The arrangements are calibrated according to circumstances. The record shows they have been effective.
These humanitarian rescues have involved people from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Latin America, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, numerous African countries, Kosovo and Syria. The government decision to give temporary stay to thousands of muslim Kosovars was almost exclusively driven by broad community pressure arising from media coverage of their plight. The rescued people have at times been in the country of origin, a country of first asylum next to the conflict zone or in Australia. The Royal Australian Air Force has directly rescued people from war zones in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Australia has never chosen to protect its security by excluding an entire population — men, women and children — from Australian assistance on the grounds that they are all in, or near, a war zone and dangerously suspect.
In the case of Palestinians from Gaza, the actual immigration assistance being given by the Australian Government — visitor visas and access to the domestic asylum system — is relatively modest, given the size of the Palestinian community in Australia and the absolute hellhole which the Gaza prison now constitutes. The response to Ukrainians was far more generous.
Peter Dutton’s call for a blanket ban on any refugees from Gaza has continued his well-established populist record of stoking fear about minority groups. Think of “African gangs” causing people to stay at home in Melbourne or legislation he (unsuccessfully) pursued to put ridiculously high barriers in front of migrants wanting to acquire Australian citizenship.
Dutton has not been specific about exactly what risk to Australian security we should fear. He makes a generalised implication that simply because people are Palestinian Muslims from Gaza, there is a strong chance that they will be a risk to Australian security. However, for a person receive an adverse security assessment, leading to exclusion or removal from Australia, there needs to be a good reason to believe they are a threat to Australian security. As the head of the ASIO has said, for example, merely having an opinion does not make a person a threat to Australian security. The reality is that Dutton wants to find a way not to help anyone from Gaza.
Dutton would do well to remember that the most significant recent terrorist act in Australia was committed by home-grown fundamentalist Christian extremists in his own state who ambushed and killed a policeman and policewoman going about their normal duties, and an innocent neighbour. The killers were heavily influenced by the online activities of an American “Christian” extremist who has now been charged by US authorities. It is interesting to reflect on what Dutton’s Gaza logic would mean if applied to these circumstances.
And then there is the elephant in the room…
Apart from threats to Australian security, the immigration system has always tried to prevent the entry of war criminals, even though they may not present any threat to Australian security. Under our immigration legislation, Australia can refuse entry to, or remove, a person who “the minister… reasonably suspects (has) been involved in… genocide, a war crime, a crime against humanity… whether or not … convicted of such an offence”.
An independent UN inquiry has found that both Palestinian armed groups and Israel have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. I am not aware of any statements by Dutton about blanket visa bans to prevent the entry of individuals reasonably suspected of being war criminals.
Peter Hughes is a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development. He had a long career in the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Citizenship, retiring as Deputy Secretary in 2011. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2005 for outstanding public service in the development of policies and programs to increase citizenship, multicultural harmony and the settlement of refugees.
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