Labor continues its cruel campaign to punish refugees and people seeking asylum, this time pushing forward with a callous new Bill designed to expand its powers to warehouse more people offshore, deport people to harm and overturn protection findings.

The Migration Amendment Bill 2024, which was introduced into Parliament this week, has now passed the House of Representatives and has been referred to a Senate Committee for a hasty hearing tomorrow evening.

Human rights lawyers and advocates are clear Labor’s Bill is a blatant betrayal of its international obligations and a dangerous misuse of political power that will put refugees and people seeking asylum at risk of significant harm. The Bill also reintroduces some of the most harmful elements of the Deportation and Entry Ban Bill, which stalled in the Senate earlier this year due to overwhelming public and community pressure.

If the new Bill passes the Senate, it will:

• Allow the Government to deport people to third countries where they may be detained or deported back to countries where they are at risk of persecution and even death
• Expand the Minister’s powers to overturn protection findings of people who have lived in our community for years, including people who have Australian citizen family members
• Give the Government powers to breach people’s privacy by sharing personal information with bodies including foreign countries for potential misuse
• Protect the Government from being sued if they unlawfully detain and/or deport people to third countries (such as Nauru) where they are harmed
• Result in families being permanently separated from Australian family members, including children
• Allow the Government to keep using harsh monitoring measures such as ankle bracelets and curfews that the High Court recently ruled were unlawful.

Legal experts are deeply concerned about the Bill’s potential for far-reaching and harmful consequences, that go beyond attempting to mitigate political fallout from the High Court’s recent decision in YBFZ v Minister for Immigration. Those impacted by the Bill could include people medically evacuated  from Nauru or PNG to Australia, people seeking ministerial intervention and people who’ve already been granted permanent protection by the Australian Government.

Read HRLC’s legal explainer about the Bill.

Quotes attributable to:

Jana Favero, ASRC’s Deputy CEO 
“Make no mistake, this Bill is far-reaching and changes the way we treat refugees and people seeking asylum in this country and has real life consequences for people who call Australia home.

“It gives unnecessary and unjust new powers to the Minister and could punish tens of thousands of people who are already part of our community. People who have already been punished – by being detained, banished to offshore detention or failed by the flawed fast track system. The rushed timeframe leads to bad laws, putting politics ahead of responsible law making. This is desperate, fear-mongering politics in an attempt to sway voters ahead of an election.”

Rachel Saravanamuthu, ASRC’s Legal Policy Lead
“We should all be equal before the law, regardless of where we were born. However, the Government wants to use fear and division to continue to discriminate against migrants and refugees.

“This Bill will further punish people who have already endured the trauma of years of immigration detention, and could impact people who have lived in our communities for years – including people transferred from Nauru or PNG to Australia for medical treatment,  and people awaiting ministerial intervention. This Bill must be stopped to ensure that everyone in the Australian community can live in safety with their families.”

Josephine Langbien, Associate Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre
“Every person has the same right to freedom, dignity and safety, regardless of visa status. But the Albanese Government wants to pay other countries to warehouse refugees and migrants for the rest of their lives. This will expand Australia’s disastrous offshore detention regime, under which people have died and suffered conditions amounting to torture.

“Despite multiple High Court rulings, the Government is intent on further punishing this small group of people – and potentially impacting thousands of others in the process. These proposed laws would rip people from their families and homes and prevent them from ever returning to their lives in the Australian community. Parliament must not allow this Bill to become law.”

Louisa Gibbs, Federation of Community Legal Centres’s CEO
“Community Legal Centres work to protect the equal access to human rights of all individuals, no matter where they were born.

“The Migration Amendment Bill 2024 strips human rights from certain visa holders.  This is both discriminatory and inhumane and will have disastrous consequences on affected individuals and their families and communities.  There is still time for our parliamentarians to stop this bill from being passed.

“Community Legal Centres will continue to advocate for unity over division, and fairness over injustice, for everyone in our community.”

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