Media Release: Australian asylum and human rights organisation sounds the alarm on the harms caused by temporary protection

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) is alarmed by reports that the Trump administration is inviting government delegations to a high-level meeting at the United Nations General Assembly, seeking to roll back protections offered under the global refugee protection system, including restricting global asylum rights. According to media reports, the US concept note outlines an intention to make asylum a temporary, rather than permanent status. 

As the largest human rights organisation working with people seeking asylum and refugees in Australia, where temporary protection visas were implemented by the former Coalition governments, the ASRC has seen first hand the harms caused by these policies, and warns that global implementation would be catastrophic. 

Studies undertaken in Australia have shown that Temporary Protection Visas are a strong predictor of anxiety, depression and Post Traumatic Stress disorder, and that they consistently cause harm to mental health and wellbeing. Similar studies have shown that when the temporary visa status ended, it resulted in significant improvements in psychological and social functioning. Australia is a unique case study, having implemented temporary protection twice before reversing course in favour of permanent visas, demonstrating both the harm of temporary status and the benefits of stability.

“Unfortunately, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has supported people on temporary protection visas over the past two decades,” said Jana Favero, Deputy CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. “We have seen families kept separated for more than ten years, and watched the people we work with slowly break down under the weight of ongoing fear and desperation to be together with their families. At a time of record high humanitarian crises around the world, we should be strengthening the rights of people seeking asylum and human rights protections, not seeking to rip them up.”

Ogy Simic, who arrived in Australia as a child from the former Yugoslavia and has had experience of both temporary and permanent protection, said “Because of the global refugee system, my family and I have been able to build our lives in Australia with the security and safety of knowing that we can truly commit to being Australian. When we first sought protection in Germany, we were given temporary status. I remember my mum being under so much stress that she got sick, but then when we arrived in Australia with permanent status, she recovered and we flourished as a family. I can’t imagine what it would be like to still be worrying about being ripped away from our lives here, simply because the situation has improved in the country where I was born.”

The ASRC has joined US and international human rights groups in an open letter to UN Member States, urging them to uphold, preserve and strengthen international refugee, human rights, and humanitarian treaties – and to reject any attempt to dismantle the protections that millions of lives depend on.

ENDS 

For further information or to request an interview contact Natasha Blucher (ASRC) on +61 412 034 821 or media@asrc.org.au