Regional cooperation

Refugee protection in the Asia-Pacific

The protection environment in the Asia-Pacific region is extremely challenging. Conditions in major countries of origin (such as Afghanistan and Burma) are characterised by protracted conflicts, ongoing insecurity and widespread violations of human rights. These conditions continue to compel flight and prevent refugees from returning home safely. Until these conditions improve – which, in most cases, is unlikely in the near future – refugees from these countries will continue to be in need of protection and assistance.

However, very few countries in the region are willing or able to provide this protection and assistance. The majority of countries in the region are not signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and don’t have a legal and administrative framework for addressing refugee protection issues. In these countries, refugees and asylum seekers are generally treated in the same way as illegal migrants and living conditions are often extremely difficult.

Few refugees or asylum seekers in these countries have official permission to work and as a result face destitution, remain heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance or are forced to work illegally, risking arrest and detention. Many refugees and asylum seekers in the latter category report being exploited by employers who take advantage of their lack of status and by corrupt officials pressuring them to pay bribes. Additionally, refugees or asylum seekers usually cannot access health care, education, welfare assistance or other forms of social support necessary for an adequate standard of living.

The lack of recognition of refugee status places asylum seekers and refugees, including in some cases those who have registered with UNHCR, at serious risk of detention. Detainees often experience violence and ill-treatment (including, in some cases, torture), and deterioration of physical and mental health due to the often deplorable conditions in detention centres. Access to justice and avenues for release are often very limited – corruption among law enforcement officials is widespread, monitoring of detention is inadequate and there is often little or no access to legal counsel and judicial review. Once detained, refugees and asylum seekers are at serious risk of refoulement (forcible return to their country of origin).

Even among countries in the region which have signed to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the credibility of refugee status determination is frequently questionable, protections against refoulement are insufficient and standards of reception for asylum seekers are often poor. Other signatory states lack the financial and institutional capacity to uphold their protection obligations effectively.

Statelessness in the Asia-Pacific

Recognition of the status of stateless persons is even more limited than that of refugees. Only three countries in the region (Australia, Fiji and South Korea) have ratified to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and just two (Australia and New Zealand) have ratified the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. This is in spite of the fact that more than three-quarters of the world’s stateless persons currently reside in the Asia-Pacific region.

Unfortunately, addressing statelessness has not been a priority in the Asia-Pacific states hosting the largest populations of stateless persons, with the result that these populations are often living in seriously protracted situations.

Why do we need regional cooperation?

The primary goal of regional cooperation on refugee protection is to safeguard the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Currently, refugees and asylum seekers in the region often face human rights violations not only in their countries of origin, but also in the countries where they seek protection and assistance. Regional cooperation would help to enhance protection standards throughout the Asia-Pacific and ensure broader recognition of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

The extremely difficult living conditions faced by many refugees and asylum seekers in most Asia-Pacific nations often make long-term residence intolerable. As such, they are frequently driven to seek protection elsewhere, with some enlisting people smugglers or undertaking extremely dangerous journeys in hopes of finding genuine safety and effective protection. Effective regional cooperation could prevent refugees and asylum seekers from having to undertake these risky journeys by ensuring that they can find effective protection no matter where in the Asia-Pacific they seek it.

Currently, responsibility for refugee protection is unequally distributed throughout the region. Some countries host tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, while others host comparatively few. Moreover, many of the countries hosting the largest refugee populations are developing countries with limited financial and institutional capacity to provide protection. Additionally, some countries simply refuse to provide any form of protection or assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. Regional cooperation would encourage all countries to take their fair share of responsibility for refugee protection, thereby creating a more equitable distribution of protection obligations.

Regional cooperation could also facilitate collaborative efforts to respond to conditions in countries of origin, so as to address the root causes of forced displacement and create opportunities for refugees to return home safely.

What can Australia do?

As a developed nation with well-established systems for refugee status determination and strong settlement support infrastructure, Australia is well-placed to play a leading role in the development of a framework for regional cooperation. Strategies for developing this framework should include:

Responding to protection issues in refugee-producing countries by proposing international action to support states unable to protect their populations and putting international pressure on those unwilling to do so; and funding programs to improve situations in refugee-producing countries, for example development initiatives and peace-building projects.

Promoting greater understanding of refugee protection needs and encourage and support change in countries of asylum, for example through lobbying countries to develop domestic asylum legislation in line with the principles of the Refugee Convention, promoting training for government and NGO officials on refugee protection issues and providing aid to improve living conditions for refugees.

Modelling best practice in asylum procedures by reforming Australia’s asylum seeker reception and detention arrangements to model the protection-centred practices Australia would like to see replicated in the region, and discarding policies which, if copied elsewhere, would undermine refugee protection (for example, mandatory detention).

Focusing on statelessness by lobbying for the development of strategies to resolve statelessness in the Asia-Pacific region.

Expanding Australia’s offshore resettlement program to offer additional places for vulnerable refugees within the region, so as to demonstrate our commitment to genuine cooperation and equitable burden-sharing.