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Children’s Rights and Crimmigration Controls: Examining Australia’s Treatment of Unaccompanied Minors

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Crimmigration in Australia

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Abstract

Australia’s approach to combating migrant smuggling and deterring irregular migration involves the use of extensive coercive, carceral, and punitive powers. It also severely limits the human rights of migrants who arrive in Australia by sea and without authorisation. The measures that underpin this approach, including maritime interdiction, immigration detention, regional processing, and the use of temporary protection visas, amount to a framework of crimmigration control. This chapter charts the application and impact of these measures on unaccompanied minors, a particularly vulnerable category of migrants. It analyses ways in which Australia’s treatment of such minors departs from its obligations under international law and breaches their human rights. In doing so, this chapter reflects on the dynamics that allow Australia’s crimmigration framework to marginalise child protection concerns and operate largely unrestricted by rights-based constraints.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Migrant smuggling is sometimes referred to as ‘people smuggling’ in the Australian context.

  2. 2.

    Minister for Immigration and Border Protection 2013.

  3. 3.

    See generally Billings 2018.

  4. 4.

    Maritime Powers Act 2013 (Cth) ss 57, 61, 67, and 69; Migration Act 1958 (Cth) s 189 and Division 8.

  5. 5.

    See Van Berlo 2015.

  6. 6.

    Bowling and Westenra 2018; see also Bosworth et al. 2018, p. 41.

  7. 7.

    Van Berlo 2015, p. 78.

  8. 8.

    Van Berlo 2015; Stumpf 2014.

  9. 9.

    Bowling 2013, p. 303.

  10. 10.

    Stumpf 2014, p. 244.

  11. 11.

    Chacón 2015, p. 763.

  12. 12.

    Inter-Agency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children 2017.

  13. 13.

    See, eg, UN General Assembly 2017, para. 46; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (‘UNCRC’) 2005; Correa-Velez et al. 2017; Sedmak et al. 2017; Chen and Gill 2015.

  14. 14.

    It should be noted that significant numbers of unaccompanied minors have arrived irregularly in Australia. Between the 2008–2009 and 2013–2014 financial years, there were 3625 maritime arrivals of unaccompanied minors, constituting 8.2% of all irregular maritime arrivals in the period. Arrivals since 2014 have been curtailed as a result of Operation Sovereign Borders.

  15. 15.

    This manifests Australia’s universal visa requirement – every non-citizen present on Australian soil must hold a valid visa. In some cases unlawful non-citizens may be permitted to reside in Australia, pending the outcome of a visa determination. See Migration Act ss 197AB, 197AC.

  16. 16.

    Emerton and O’Sullivan 2016, p. 703.

  17. 17.

    MPA, part 3.

  18. 18.

    Or until, potentially, their detention is deemed unlawful by the courts. See Migration Act, ss 189, 196, and 198AB.

  19. 19.

    Migration Act, Part 2, Division 7.

  20. 20.

    Ibid. s 198AD.

  21. 21.

    Ibid. ss 5, 35A, and 46A; see also Crock and Bones 2015.

  22. 22.

    Tow-backs/turn-backs involve interception at sea and return to a neighbouring transit country, while take-backs involve interception at sea and direct repatriation to either a country of origin or return to a safe third country: Billings 2016, p. 78.

  23. 23.

    Dutton 2018.

  24. 24.

    MPA, s 69.

  25. 25.

    Ibid. s 72.

  26. 26.

    Ibid. ss 72 and 103.

  27. 27.

    Ibid. s 69A. This section and others were inserted in response to the CPCF litigation. See further Ghezelbash 2018, pp. 89–94.

  28. 28.

    Billings 2016; MPA, s 75C.

  29. 29.

    Amnesty International 2015; UNICEF and Save the Children Australia 2016; Schloenhardt and Craig 2015. See Sect. 12.2.3 below.

  30. 30.

    Schloenhardt and Craig 2015.

  31. 31.

    Pickering 2014.

  32. 32.

    Minister for Immigration and Border Protection 2013.

  33. 33.

    MPA, ss 69, 72, and 103.

  34. 34.

    Amnesty International 2015.

  35. 35.

    O’Sullivan 2017, p. 103; Whyte 2014.

  36. 36.

    As Ghezelbash 2018, p. 130 notes, ‘this is presumably based on the assumption by the Australian government that these persons do not fear persecution in Indonesia, but are secondary movers who are using Indonesia as a transit point to reach Australia’.

  37. 37.

    O’Sullivan 2017, p. 109; Ghezelbash 2018, p. 147; UNHCR 2014a.

  38. 38.

    See Sect. 12.3.4 below.

  39. 39.

    Migration Act, s 189; Ghezelbash 2018, p. 44.

  40. 40.

    Plaintiff S4/2014 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, paras. 28–29; Billings 2015.

  41. 41.

    Al-Kateb v Goodwin, pp. 584 and 595.

  42. 42.

    Ibid. p. 595.

  43. 43.

    Migration Act, ss 197AE and 197AF.

  44. 44.

    Migration Act, s 196(1).

  45. 45.

    Katz et al. 2013, p. 5.

  46. 46.

    Department of Home Affairs 2018, pp. 9–10; see also Triggs 2018, p. 418.

  47. 47.

    And air arrivals.

  48. 48.

    An Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. As of October 2018, the detention centre on the Island has been closed.

  49. 49.

    See Australian Human Rights Commission 2012; Australian Human Rights Commission 2014.

  50. 50.

    Note that, to some extent, the Australian Government has reclassified areas of closed detention centres as community detention to ‘release’ children without actually moving them (Doherty 2016).

  51. 51.

    Triggs 2018, p. 418.

  52. 52.

    Bourbeau 2018, p. 6; see, eg, Leerkes and Broeders 2010.

  53. 53.

    Van Berlo 2017, p. 70.

  54. 54.

    Australian Human Rights Commission 2014.

  55. 55.

    And, prior to that, between 2001 and 2008.

  56. 56.

    See especially Migration Act, Part 2, Division 8, Subdivision B; Republic of Nauru and Commonwealth of Australia 2013; Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea and the Government of Australia 2013.

  57. 57.

    Migration Act, s 198AD.

  58. 58.

    Gleeson 2017.

  59. 59.

    Migration Act, s 198AB.

  60. 60.

    The detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, was closed in late 2017, however Australia retains control over a number of transferees on the Island.

  61. 61.

    Senate Select Committee 2015.

  62. 62.

    See, eg, Dastyari 2015, pp. 686–687; UNHCR 2013, p. 23. Note also the dissent of Gordon J in Plaintiff M68/2015 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

  63. 63.

    Government of Nauru 2015.

  64. 64.

    See generally the findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants 2016.

  65. 65.

    Amnesty International 2016, p. 5.

  66. 66.

    AAP 2014.

  67. 67.

    See, eg, Boochani 2018.

  68. 68.

    At time of writing, on 1 November 2018, 40 children remain on Nauru. Wahlquist and Davidson 2018. Pickering and Weber 2014, p. 1013.

  69. 69.

    Australian Human Rights Commission 2014, pp. 192–193.

  70. 70.

    See, eg, UNCRC 2016.

  71. 71.

    Triggs 2018, p. 417.

  72. 72.

    Australian Human Rights Commission 2014, pp. 181–184.

  73. 73.

    UNCRC 2016, p. 7.

  74. 74.

    Moss 2015. See generally the Nauru Files published by The Guardian 2016.

  75. 75.

    Amnesty International 2016, pp. 29–32.

  76. 76.

    A SHEV visa technically provides a pathway to other migration visas and ultimately permanent residence; however, the conditions are onerous and characterised by a former Minister for Immigration as a ‘very high bar to clear’, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection 2014.

  77. 77.

    Migration Act, s 198.

  78. 78.

    Doherty 2017.

  79. 79.

    Explanatory Statement, Migration Amendment Regulation 2012 (No 5) (Cth).

  80. 80.

    Crock and Bones 2015, p. 25.

  81. 81.

    Refugee Council of Australia 2014, p. 2.

  82. 82.

    Hafeez-Baig 2016, p. 146.

  83. 83.

    CRC, Art. 2. This includes children under a state’s effective control (see UN Human Rights Committee 2017, para 35).

  84. 84.

    See, eg, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 2 (‘ICCPR’).

  85. 85.

    Crock and Martin 2018, p. 83.

  86. 86.

    Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

  87. 87.

    Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.

  88. 88.

    See Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air, Art. 16.

  89. 89.

    For a fuller examination of rights applicable to unaccompanied minors, see Lelliott 2017.

  90. 90.

    Lelliott 2017, p. 254.

  91. 91.

    Tobin 2006, p. 287.

  92. 92.

    Zermatten 2010, p. 487.

  93. 93.

    UN Economic and Social Council 1981, para. 24.

  94. 94.

    UNCRC 2005, para 85.

  95. 95.

    UNHCR 2008, p. 76.

  96. 96.

    A v Australia, paras. 9.2–9.4.

  97. 97.

    Human Rights Committee 2014, para. 18; UNHCR 2012, p. 7.

  98. 98.

    Mendez 2015, para. 80.

  99. 99.

    UNCRC 2005, paras. 33–38.

  100. 100.

    CRC, Art. 37(d); UNCRC 2005, para. 61.

  101. 101.

    CRC, Art. 12.

  102. 102.

    UNCRC 2005, p. 24.

  103. 103.

    Pobjoy 2017, p. 226.

  104. 104.

    Bhabha and Dottridge 2017, p. 13; CRC, Art. 20(2).

  105. 105.

    UNCRC 2005, para 40.

  106. 106.

    See generally UNCRC 2013.

  107. 107.

    UNCRC 2005, paras. 81–85.

  108. 108.

    Costello and Foster 2016.

  109. 109.

    Goodwin-Gill and McAdam 2007, p. 201.

  110. 110.

    Arts. 1A and 33(1).

  111. 111.

    Goodwin-Gill and McAdam 2007, p. 285.

  112. 112.

    UNCRC 2005, paras. 77–78. Note that complementary protection is separate from discretionary decisions by states to allow people to remain on humanitarian or compassionate grounds.

  113. 113.

    UNCRC 2005, p. 22; see further Pobjoy 2015.

  114. 114.

    UNHCR 1997, pp. 13–14.

  115. 115.

    UNHCR 2009, para 66.

  116. 116.

    See, eg, King 2013, p. 345.

  117. 117.

    Crépeau 2017.

  118. 118.

    UN Human Rights Council 2017; Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and UNCRC 2018.

  119. 119.

    Bosworth et al. 2018, p. 42.

  120. 120.

    Ibid. pp. 42–44.

  121. 121.

    See Klein 2014.

  122. 122.

    Sebban 2017.

  123. 123.

    Klein 2014, p. 19.

  124. 124.

    UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants 2016, pp. 4–5.

  125. 125.

    UNHCR 2013.

  126. 126.

    UNCRC 2005, p. 24.

  127. 127.

    UNHCR 2014b, para. 16.

  128. 128.

    Ghezelbash 2018, p. 165.

  129. 129.

    Migration Act, s 189.

  130. 130.

    Taylor 2018, p. 378.

  131. 131.

    UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants 2016, p. 2; Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the UNCRC 2017, para 22. Those seeking refugee protection at an airport on arrival, who are not cleared to enter Australia, are also only eligibile for a form of temporary protection visa if their protection claim is accepted.

  132. 132.

    Carling, Gallagher and Horwood 2015, p. 12.

  133. 133.

    Betts 2010.

  134. 134.

    Thomas 2018, p. 505.

  135. 135.

    Crock and Benson 2018, p. 21.

  136. 136.

    Gallagher and David 2014, p. 738.

  137. 137.

    Karp 2018.

  138. 138.

    Bhabha 2001, p. 293.

  139. 139.

    Zedner 2010, p. 394.

  140. 140.

    Triggs 2018, pp. 418–419.

  141. 141.

    Bhabha 2014, pp. 19–20.

  142. 142.

    Crock 2013.

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  1. TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

    Joseph Lelliott

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    Peter Billings

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Lelliott, J. (2019). Children’s Rights and Crimmigration Controls: Examining Australia’s Treatment of Unaccompanied Minors. In: Billings, P. (eds) Crimmigration in Australia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9093-7_12

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