ON CAMPUS campusreview. com. au
United against detention
Academics find oft-elusive common ground in group founded to oppose treatment of children in nation’ s immigration centres.
By James Wells
Australia’ s immigration detention centres are many things, divisive being one. This August, guerrilla protestors crashed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’ s first major economic speech since the federal election. One stormed the stage, holding a sign directed at news cameras.“ FFS Close the Bloody Camps,” it read.
Responding to The Guardian’ s publication of the Nauru Files – a cache of 2116 leaked incident reports detailing assaults, sexual assaults and self-harm, alleged to have occurred at Australia’ s offshore detention camp in Nauru – the federal immigration minister, Peter Dutton, publicly accused journalists and non-government organisation Save the Children, of trying to defame him. Meanwhile, the Papua New Guinea Government has announced that the Manus Island camp will close. There is no confirmation yet of the fate of the 800-plus men who are in detention there.
Macquarie University Academics. Photo: Supplied
UTS Academics. Photo: Zebedee Parkes
Wading into this schismatic discourse is former diplomat, and now University of Melbourne professor, Philomena Murray. She co-ordinates the Academics for Refugees advocacy group with Sara Dehm, a senior fellow at Melbourne Law School.
The group continues to call for Australia’ s immigration detention centres to be closed immediately. Its ranks have swollen from roughly 900 to more than 2200 since last Christmas, no mean feat considering academics are notorious for competing and conflicting with one another.
“ I think they see common cause,” was how Murray explained this unity.“ This is one issue that unites people across universities and disciplines.”
A quick look at the list of people who’ ve given their signatures in support of Academics for Refugees’ first policy paper shows Murray isn’ t exaggerating. And although supporters are adamant in their calls for policy change, she does not
see the group as adversarial. Signatories include professor Harry Minas, a former Gillard government asylum seeker policy adviser who quit after plans were drawn to deny seekers work rights. Minas previously told Campus Review that many academics consider the detention of children to be“ abhorrent”.
“ It’ s fair to say that the academic community, in general, is very clear about what the consequences of detaining children are,” he said.“ Many people from academic organisations find the detention of children as part of our immigration policy an abhorrent practice.”
Australian Immigration department figures show that 49 children are held in detention on Nauru.
The group has put together a set of reasons – which Murray said are based on sound research – outlining why the current approach is unacceptable, and has provided a set of measures it argues are necessary at the national, regional and international level.
Hence, Academics for Refugees has called for a national policy summit in 2017, to construct an equitable, humane and sustainable refugee policy.
Murray said the summit would form part of a change in the national conversation and break away from the current deterrence model through a new approach. Politicians from all parties would be engaged, alongside community leaders, experts, refugees, former refugees and asylum seekers.
When asked how this summit could not become adversarial, Murray responded,“ What’ s wrong with getting together and talking for a few days in a summit? Is that really that scary to advance a more just, humane model? What is it about [ a summit ] that would make people reject it? Could we not come together and have that conversation about future policy approaches for change?
“ That’ s why we’ re not saying it should result in one particular approach, though [ what does emerge ] must be just and humane. We’ re not saying what precise political results it should have, but we know that results can come about,” she clarified.
Academics for Refugees has previously addressed two open letters to Turnbull this year. Both have garnered political responses – of both support and criticism.
Murray said the academic signatories to the open letter were convinced that a national conversation is urgently required to effect policy change. ■
22