Together in safety A report on the Australian Government’s separation of families seeking safety. Contact Acknowledgements David Burke and Josephine Langbien The Human Rights Law Centre Human Rights Law Centre acknowledges and pays our deep Level 17, 461 Bourke Street respects to the people of the Kulin and Melbourne VIC 3000 Eora Nations, the traditional owners of the lands on which our offices sit, and T: + 61 3 8636 4450 we acknowledge that those lands were E: [email protected] never ceded. We recognise the ongoing, [email protected] unrelenting work of Aboriginal and Torres W: www.hrlc.org.au Strait Islander peoples, communities and organisations to demand equality, Human Rights Law Centre justice and self-determination and we commit to standing with them in The Human Rights Law Centre uses this work. The policies of intentional strategic legal action, policy solutions family separation outlined in this report and advocacy to support people and should be understood in the context communities to eliminate inequality of the historical and ongoing removal and injustice and build a fairer, more of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander compassionate Australia. children from their families. We are an independent and We thank the Global Centre for Pluralism not-for-profit organisation and for generously supporting this project. donations are tax-deductible. Thank you to each of the individuals Follow us: @rightsagenda and families who agreed to share their personal stories with us for this report. Join us: www.facebook.com/ HumanRightsLawCentreHRLC Thank you also to the people and organisations who provided invaluable About this Report advice and input to the report, This report was produced with the including the American Civil Liberties support of the Global Centre for Union (ACLU), Behrouz Boochani, Pluralism, and in collaboration with the Dr Beth O’Connor and Médecins Sans Refugee Advice and Casework Service. Frontières, Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, the International Refugee Assistance Authors and researchers of this report Project (IRAP), Jennifer Robinson, include Freya Dinshaw, Arif Hussein, Le Groupe d’Information et de Soutien Katie Robertson, Daniel Webb, Hollie des Immigrés (Le GISTI), Professor Kerwin, David Burke, Josephine Langbien Louise Newman AM, Maureen Silcoff, and Scott Cosgriff, with assistance from Sarah Dale and the Refugee Advice and Michelle Bennett and Roselina Press. Casework Service, Dr Sarah Mares, and Wotton + Kearney. Published April 2021. Cover photo: Dima and Mohammad. Credit: Ben Searcy – Sydney Morning Herald. Contents 02 Foreword 04 Executive summary Chapter 1: Family separation is used as a 06 deliberate tactic 16 Chapter 2: Family separation is harmful 26 Chapter 3: Family separation is unlawful 34 Chapter 4: Family separation is unparalleled 38 Recommendations 42 Endnotes Together in safety 1 Foreword This report shines a light on the Australian “Government’s deliberate choice to use family separation to cause suffering, and calls for urgent action to end this cruelty so that families can be reunited. Although the impact of separation may be long lasting, there is still time to give a future to the families who have waited so many years to be together in safety.” In my documentary film Chauka, In a later scene of the film, Amin, These are just a handful of the Please Tell Us the Time, which an Ahvazi refugee from Iran, says hundreds of tragic stories that have narrates the lives of Manus Island into the camera, “I hate myself unfolded in the Manus and Nauru refugees, the main character, Kaveh, because my son doesn’t recognise camps, in detention centres across goes back and forth between the me anymore...I have nothing else Australia and in the Australian telephone booth and the camp. to lose. I hate myself for still being community. These stories – stories During one of the many calls, he alive.” In another incident, Faysal about love, family and endless tells his young wife that even he Ishak Ahmed, a Sudanese refugee, separation – are reproduced daily. does not know where he has been dies from head injuries he suffered In fact, they have become part of stuck. When his wife does not seem during a seizure, despite asking for the identity of Australia’s detention to grasp the depth of his suffering medical help for his chest pains and refugee deterrence system, a and adversity, Kaveh raises his and frequent seizures more than system that has been engineered voice in utter desperation: “You 20 times in the previous six months. to utilise any possible means for don’t know, you do not know; none He leaves behind a letter addressed forcing refugees back to their of you will ever know what I’m to a friend who is in the same countries. At times, it deprives ill going through, you just won’t.” prison camp. In that letter, Faysal refugees of access to basic medical He, like many other refugees, hides asks his friend to do everything in care in order to pressure them into the realities of daily life from his his power to help rescue Faysal’s returning to where they fled from, family. Even when he attempts to children from the refugee camps at and it exerts immense pressure on describe the intractable state of Sudan’s border if his heart condition families for the same reason. limbo at Manus, words fail him. gets the better of him. It is in this context that single Another story from Manus is inmates sometimes forget their about a Syrian refugee who own suffering and sympathise with surrendered to the pressure of fellow prisoners who have been Australia’s immigration system left separated from their families. during the peak of Syria’s civil war. For the Australian Government, He voluntarily asked Australian however, this is an opportunity authorities to deport him back to to force the prisoners to give up. his country because he saw no Many of these families have gone chance of rescuing his family from through separation while inside the war. The Australian Government camps. In numerous cases, young did send him back to Syria, but I couples were separated because later learned that he had suffered the wife was held in Nauru and the injuries in a mortar explosion and husband in Manus, or one parent his father had died in a separate was in Australia with a child while bomb blast. the other parent was detained in Nauru. Most of the refugees who appear to move around “freely” 2 Together in safety in Australian communities hold This report shines a light on the temporary visas and even after Australian Government’s deliberate Credit: Helen Davidson – eight or nine years, they cannot see choice to use family separation to The Guardian a bright prospect for reuniting with cause suffering, and calls for urgent their families. Detention periods are action to end this cruelty so that so long that few families survive families can be reunited. Although without breaking apart. Throughout the impact of separation may be the years, tens if not hundreds of long lasting, there is still time to married lives have been destroyed give a future to the families who due to the detention of one or both have waited so many years to be spouses. Family members have together in safety. experienced the falling apart of the family unit over the phone without Behrouz Boochani, Ursula Bethell being able to do anything about it. Writer in Residence at Canterbury University of New Zealand Every refugee detained by this system has a story and each story is Translated by Mohsen Kafi, Victoria a tragedy in its own right. However, University of Wellington for those who have been separated from their families, the tragedy is so deep that it lives within the family and the relationships amongst family members even after freedom. That is if the family unit stays intact in such turbulent circumstances. Not only have these men and women been taken hostage by the Australian detention system, but their families have also experienced the violence of this systematic torture. As a matter of fact, these sufferings have countless twins on the other side of the world in the hometowns of the refugees who were forced to leave family behind, and the trauma is constantly reproduced in varying forms and degrees. Together in safety 3 Executive Summary The Australian Government uses the ties that bind families together – the love a mother has for her child, a person has for their partner, a brother has for his sister – to try to prevent people from exercising their right to seek safety. In 2020, families around the world For too long the Australian Because of this, fathers have missed felt the pain of sudden separation Government has escaped scrutiny their baby daughters’ first steps as cities locked down, borders for pursuing calculated policies of and first words. Mothers have closed and international travel family separation targeting people been prevented from visiting their ground to a halt in response to the who have sought safety in Australia. children for years on end. Partners COVID-19 pandemic. Important in loving relationships have spent family events were missed and This report exposes how the years not knowing if they will moments that should have been Australian Government deliberately ever see each other again. The shared were experienced alone. and systematically separates family Australian Government has made This separation was endured by members and prevents them from deliberate policy choices to cause countless families for the benefit of reuniting where one family member this suffering. our wider community’s health and has sought asylum at Australia’s safety. But for some families, the borders. Refugees are forced to pandemic was yet another setback make an unthinkable choice in an already long and agonising between their safety, their health struggle to be reunited in safety.