THE PROCESS OF SEEKING ASYLUM

IN AUSTRALIA TODAY: A FLOW CHART Australian officials may visit your camp and, if you meet the definition of a refugee (or other specific criteria), offer you a protection visa through Australia’s offshore refugee resettlement program. 3 Australia’s policies regarding asylum The following flow-chart puts you in However, there is only a small chance of this happening. seekers have changed a lot since the position of an living Australia currently offers 18,750 protection visas per year. Federation. As of July 2017, Australia somewhere around the world. It shows Recall that in 2015, there were approximately one million has a Liberal federal government, and the processes that you would go through around the world who needed to be resettled.³ Operation Sovereign Borders is ongoing. as a result of the Australian government’s policies, depending on your circumstances.

You are likely to have to travel through several different countries on your way to Australia. Countries that asylum seekers pass through on their way to their final destination are called ‘transit countries’. Two very common transit countries for asylum seekers on their way to Australia are:

Indonesia Malaysia 1 2 • has a huge and diverse population • Malaysia has a population of 29 million, …in a refugee camp in a UNHCR officials of 240 million people. There are around made up largely of Malay, Chinese and source country or host will interview you 14,000 asylum seekers and refugees in Indian people. country? to determine if you Indonesia today. • In 2017, UNHCR reported that there were meet the definition • Asylum seekers from , , 102,849 refugees and 47,531 asylum seekers of a refugee. and Myanmar move through Indonesia by air, in Malaysia. The majority of refugees in land and sea seeking protection. Malaysia are from Myanmar. • Indonesia has not signed the Refugee • Malaysia has not signed the Refugee 3 Convention. The Indonesian government Convention and does not have a system Are you has not established a system for providing to determine the status of refugees. The an asylum protection to refugees. Instead, it gives Malaysian government gives UNHCR seeker UNHCR responsibility for registering and responsibility for registering and settling resettling asylum seekers. asylum seekers. who is… • Asylum seekers in Indonesia are detained • Asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia in centres or live in are at risk of being returned to their home the community without the right to work, country or detained for no reason. Refugee and receive only a limited education. People children do not have the right to attend found to be refugeesa receive a small government schools in Malaysia, so they stipend while they await resettlement. have no access to education.

1 2 …on the run and not able You may try to make it to find a refugee camp?¹ to a safe country such as Australia by plane or boat.²

1 Photo by Linda Hess Miller 2 Photo by Mstyslav Chernov 3 Photo by Mark Knobil ASYLUM SEEKER Once you are in Australia, you can submit FLOW-CHART a written application for refugee status with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. This application will be assessed by an officer of the department. 5 If your application is accepted, you will be 6 granted a permanent protection visa. If your If all your appeals are rejected, you will be application is rejected, you can apply to deported back to your home country. You have the decision reviewed by the Refugee may be placed in immigration detention Review Tribunal. while you wait to be deported.

4 …plane? Note: This would usually only be possible if you were able to obtain a visa 5 5 – for example, a tourist … before July 2013? … after July 2013? visa or a working visa. This means that you arrived BEFORE Kevin This means that you arrived AFTER ’s Labor government announced that Rudd’s Labor government announced that asylum seekers who arrive by boat without asylum seekers who arrive by boat without valid visas would no longer ever be settled valid visas would no longer ever be settled Are you in Australia. in Australia. going to travel by… Your claim for refugee status is part of You will: what is known as the ‘legacy caseload’. • Have your boat turned around, You are still waiting today for a decision if it is safe to do so; on your refugee status. • Be deemed by the Australian government to be an ‘Illegal Maritime Arrival’ (IMA); While you wait, you are subject to • Be transferred to an offshore detention some form of immigration detention. facility in or ; This could be: • Have your application for refugee status 1. Onshore closed immigration detention assessed under the domestic law of PNG Did you arrive (where you are not allowed to leave the or Nauru; 4 in Australia facility); or • Not be settled in Australia – instead, …boat? by boat… 2. Community detention (if you are eligible). if you are found to meet the definition of Note: You would This involves living in community-based a refugee, you will be temporarily settled probably only travel by accommodation while you wait for an in PNG or Nauru; and boat if you did not have outcome on your visa application. While • Also have the option of returning to access to a visa. You you wait, you can work and study, within your home country or being resettled would probably have to certain limitations. in . pay a ‘people smuggler’, which is a person who transports people to a country illegally.