There is another way

We are continuously bombarded with endless political plans on how to get tough on asylum seekers and how stop people seeking asylum. Whether it’s the ill-thought out and illegal turning back of the boats or the offshore processing of asylum seekers, each major political party seems hell bent on finding new ways of detaining or denying asylum seekers their most basic human rights.

This entire debate is happening in a historical vacuum, one that cannot remember or imagine a time without detention centres or a policy of mandatory detention.

The reality is before 1992 we had neither detention centres nor the policy of Mandatory Detention. It was 1992 when an ALP Government, under Minister Hand, introduced this policy.  Before 1992 people seeking asylum by boat were humanely processed and supported in the Australia community.

People arriving by boat had their health and security checks undertaken in the community while they lived in community hostel arrangements. We could easily return to such an era, all that changed was the political will to do so.

All asylum seekers arriving by boat could live peacefully in the community while their refugee applications are being processed.  This could be done at one seventh of the cost of detaining a person.  It can be done without the trauma, limbo and suffering that detention results in.  Asylum seekers housed in publicly owned and managed reception centres would undergo health and character checks and be required to reside there until they are completed. The reality is 70% of all asylum seekers arrive by plane not by boat and live in the community already while their claims are being processed. All that separates them is the political will.