Analysis of Australia's #NotForgotten Refugee Resettlement Campaign

Assessment Task 2: Essay

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Introduction

Resettlement campaigns are about the transferring of the refugees from the asylum country to a different state, which has agreed to accept them and give them permanent residence. According to Australian experiences, the resettlement of refugees is strengthened by inclusive politics (Garnier, 2021). The chosen campaign in this essay for refugees and asylum seekers of Australia is #notforgotten. In the following essay, the issues and policies that require changes will be discussed in an alignment with the AASW Code of Conduct, ethics and the positioning papers. The legislation and policies involved in this process will also be discussed. The advantages of this campaign and the ways to increase the leverages along with the key challenges will also be analysed in this essay.

Discussion

#NotForgotten is an operation that was developed in 2019 to provide asylum to the refugees of Canada who were caught in Australia's offshore processing regime those who were stuck in Nauru, Papua New Guinea or in detention in Australia and were left with no options for resettlement. MOSAIC, a settlement for migrant and refugee based in Vancouver are the coordinator of the operation #NotForgotten (Refugee Council of Australia, 2022). The Refugee Council of Australia is responsible for the promotion and coordination of tax-deductible donations from the citizens of Australia. The AASW Code of Ethics expresses the integral responsibilities and values and characterises the profession of social work. This code of ethics intends to assist all the social workers individually and collectively to act ethically and accountable ways to meet the aims (AASW, 2022).

A position paper was prepared on refugees and asylum seekers that focussed on the immigration detention of children. Asylum seekers and refugees hardly seek out support for mental health in the immediate period of settlement. The probable reasons are their lack of knowledge about the available services and the unknown concepts of mental health services. Other concerning issues are housing, schooling, employment and health problems. In many cases, refugees do not prefer to discuss their mental and social related problems. They may feel comfortable with the service system of the country at the late stages of the development of some sort of mental illness when they face severe symptoms that become complicated by other medical and social issues (Victoria, 2022). The action plans include the expertise and accessibility in the health of refugees, service responsiveness, service coordination, culture responsiveness and communication and literacy in health.

Seeking asylum in Australia or anywhere is a basic human right of people. The state government makes sure to protect human rights, which include the right to seek asylum. In terms of legislation, under the Migration Act 1958, the seekers of asylum who come to Australia either from excised offshore places or from the mainland with an invalid visa should be kept in immigration detention till the time they get a valid visa from Australia (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2022). As per their policies, the programs are divided into two sub-groups, which are the offshore resettlement program and the onshore protection program. The onshore program is for people who have a valid visa and are seeking asylum in Australia. This category of people can apply for visas and become permanent residents of Australia. This protection program excludes people who arrived in the country without carrying a valid visa and this is in operation since 2013 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2022).

On the other hand, in the case of offshore programs, there are three categories, which include refugees, community support programs and special humanitarian. The refugee category is for the people residing outside the country, UNHCR is the UN refugee agency that identified them as refugees, and they referred them to Australia for resettlement (UNHCR, 2022). The Special Humanitarian category is applied to people that are facing discrimination in their own country and the country takes the responsibility to make their visa. The groups of people who arrive in the country without a visa are categorised as asylum seekers and they do not have the authority to apply for a visa. Australia introduced a policy of immigration detention in 1992 that was the result of the arrival of 438 Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese to the shores of Australia between 1989 and 1992 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2022).

Some of the key obstacles faced by the asylum refugees in the process of rehabilitation are finding out affordable housing, racial discrimination, finding unemployment, language problems and other communication barriers, attitudes of the community and many more (Roads to refuge, 2022). People often deny offering housing to asylum refugees due to several social issues and that makes them devoid of proper housing. Communication problems are one of the most important barriers that hinder the rehabilitation of refugees in Australia, in many developed countries like Australia, several kinds of discrimination persist that work as a key obstacle in helping the refugees and asylum seekers. Ongoing issues of mental health due to survival guilt or other trauma influence the lives of these refugees. Young people and adults suffer one kind of trauma while on the other hand, the types of fear and trauma are different for the children.

Most children are resilient but in some cases, children experience psychological and physical trauma that creates adverse mental health issues among the children. Changing the roles and responsibilities along with the status of the family is another key obstacle that is hindering to bring changes (Roads to refuge, 2022). Limited accessibility to quality education works as an important barrier in the case of children. Forced migration is often traumatising for the children as the children remain in a developing mental and emotional state. Separation from family members causes greater vulnerability among children. The refugees often face financial problems that make their situations more prone to vulnerabilities.

#Not Forgotten is the initiative, which is run by MOSAIC with the goal of helping the refugees that are often forgotten and are not represented in the media coverage around the world. Australia along with Canada is working together in order to provide refugees with the lifeline of those who are suffering since 2013 because of the offshore detention policy of Australia. #NotForgotten has advantage to rescue the people who are suffering because of the detention policy of Australia. This operation of #NotForgotten has lodged sponsorship applications for 150 refugees in the processing of offshore and 96 separate family members summing up to 246 people overall. As soon as there is a rise in funds, the number of applications will increase (Refugee Council of Australia, 2022).

The leverage can be increased by improving their ways of protection for the people in the particular region. This includes providing the refugees with access to some other solutions, developing legislation on nation asylum for them, promoting the ratification of the refugee convention and building greater regional consistency in the process of asylum and other strategies of protection. The second way can be by developing an integrated response to protecting the refugees (Refugee Council of Australia, 2019). Even with their low credibility, they can set programs for resetting the refugees from the other countries in the Asian continent like Malaysia, Thailand, and Pakistan. That will help the Asian countries largely and help in the building of good relationships. Protection can also be increased by increasing the existing programs and by finding alternative pathways to protection. Australia can also expand their existing program significantly for the organisations and the families to cater for the needs of the people privately.

The key stakeholders in this campaign are the government of Australia, the members of the #NotForgotten campaign and the members of the other voluntary organisational groups. Incremental changes are about bringing about small changes step by step by step and it is expected to bring about incremental changes in the policy (Roads to refuge, 2022). When people from the background refugees in Australia settle in the local communities, all the state, local and federal governments are in consideration regarding the housing, health, and education. Searching for employment, and mental health services are some of the fields where changes can be brought.

The changes in providing support to asylum seekers can be brought by increasing the number of asylum. These centres provide services and support along with extra health care. Incremental changes can be brought by making these services more accessible to refugees and asylum seekers (Asylum Seekers Centre, 2022). The various NON-Governmental Organisations provide support to the refugees in Australia and they are working on providing more support on protection in order to bring about changes. More protection will allow more refugees to get asylum and that will help them to adapt to the changes faster. All these changes will have a positive impact on the physical and mental health of the refugees.

Conclusion

From the above essay, it is concluded that #NotForgotten is a campaign led by the Australians to provide detention to the refugees that gather in Australia from different regions without a proper and valid visa. The Australians are working with Canadians to offer help to the refugees who are suffering since 2013 because of the offshore detention policy of Australia. There are various challenges that the refugees face like physical and mental health issues and economic problems. They face issues regarding the affordability of housing, certain types of discrimination, communication issues due to language barriers and many more.

References

AASW, (2022) Code of ethics. Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://www.aasw.asn.au/practitioner-resources/code-of-ethics#:~:text=The%20Code%20of%20Ethics%20of,pursuit%20of%20the%20profession's%20aims.

Asylum Seekers Centre, (2022) About us Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/

Australian Human Rights Commission, (2022) 6. Australia's Immigration Detention Policy and Practice Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/6-australias-immigration-detention-policy-and-practice

Australian Rights Commission, (2022) Asylum seekers and refugees Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/publications/asylum-seekers-and-refugees#:~:text=Seeking%20asylum%20in%20Australia%2C%20or,or%20in%20any%20other%20country.

Garnier, A. (2021) 2. The Pact and Refugee Resettlement: Lessons From Australia and Canada. The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum in light of the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees, 25. Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/422534559/QM0221358ENN.en.pdf#page=36

Refugee Council of Australia, (2019) Thinking beyond offshore processing: Key recommendations from the Refugee Council of Australia Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/thinking-beyond-offshore-processing/

Refugee Council of Australia, (2022) Operation #NotForgotten Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/operation-not-forgotten/#:~:text=Australians%20and%20Canadians%20are%20working,of%20Australia's%20offshore%20detention%20policy.

Roads to refuge, (2022) Refugees in Australia Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://www.roads-to-refuge.com.au/refugees-australia/supporting-arrival.html

Refugee Council of Australia, (2022) Campaigns Retrieved 9 April 2022, from Available at: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/canada/

Roads to refuge, (2022) Refugee settlement Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://www.roads-to-refuge.com.au/settlement/settlement-challenges.html#challenges

UNHCR, (2022) Welcome Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://help.unhcr.org/australia/

Victoria, (2022) Refugees and asylum seekers Retrieved 9 April 2022, from https://www.health.vic.gov.au/rights-and-advocacy/refugees-and-asylum-seekers