Externalisation and the State of Exception: A Biopolitical Analysis of the
Human Rights Abuses within the Offshore Processing Plant of Nauru.
Aaron Bettany | LLM International Law with Human Rights
During the latter portion of the 20 th century continuing into the 21 st century there
has been a substantial increase in the movement of populations worldwide. Be
it the technological enhancements brought about by globalisation encouraging
the movement of economic migrants or the multiple international and non-
international armed conflicts forcibly displacing vulnerable refugee, the number
of displaced migrants has drastically increased. This dramatic increase
migration has been coupled with a substantial shift in attitudes towards
refugees and asylum seekers; influenced by events such as the 9/11 terror
attacks and the continuing ‘War on Terror’ and conflicts in the Middle East.
These attitudes have prompted the enactment of numerous strict immigration
legislation particularly in large Western states such as the Australia and the
United States which attempts to subvert their international human right and
refugee commitments. This article will explore the interdisciplinary theoretical
and legal frameworks surrounding the international mistreatment of asylum
seekers and refugees in external detention centres such as Nauru in the Pacific
Islands. In order to do this, we will seek to rely on the work of Giorgio Agamben
and his theories on the sovereign exception, the ‘State of Exception’ and bare
life. With particular emphasis upon biopolitics, the contemporary relevance of
human life will be explored. Drawing upon the unique relationship between
international law and politics, this article strives to highlight the global
responsibility towards refugees and will ultimately conclude that the burden
must be placed upon the obligations of international corporations that largely
goes unnoticed and whose responsibilities are virtually non-existent under
international law.
Keywords | Human rights, abuse, Naura, biopolitics.
Introduction
As the movement of refugees and asylum seekers has increased dramatically there has been
a drastic change in the way in which they are perceived; no longer are refugees the victim in
need of aid, but an invasive and threatening figure that must be kept outside of the nation for
the protection of the population. This shift has, in turn, given rise to stricter immigration
policies, particularly extraterritorial detention centres, and isolates refugees within what
Giorgio Agamben refers to as a state of exception. Within this state of exception refugees are
reduced to a state of bare life ‘bare life’, and rendered without rights within a legal void where
they are ultimately at the mercy of the sovereign states power. The prime example of this
extraterritorial detention is found on the offshore processing plant of Nauru; a camp created
by Australian legislation as a direct response to the arrival of maritime refugees or ‘boat
people’.