lives in limbo: Our common inhumanity

Dr Eleanor Gordon

February 2023

In December 2022, Labor announced that 19,000 refugees in Australia will soon be able to qualify for permanent residency. This was followed by an announcement on 13 February 2023 that the policy of temporary protection will end. This will end almost a decade of living in limbo for holders of Temporary Protection and Safe Haven Enterprise visas who arrived by boat before 2014. Many have lived these years in community detention and been unable to access secure employment, university study or support for essentials when they are unable to work. This change will mean they have rights to social security and family reunion. Crucially, it means they will have certainty about their future and be able to restore hope, rebuild lives and address the sustained trauma that forced migration and the precarity of recent years has caused.

This article discusses the long periods of insecurity and uncertainty often suffered by refugees. It suggests that these conditions of insecurity and uncertainty are deliberately maintained to deter would-be migrants, pushing refugees to choose between possible death in places of conflict and crisis, and a slow form of death in camps, detention centres and places of displacement. The article challenges the logic of this method of deterrence and argues that it is contrary to the obligations and principles of international refugee law.

While news that the policy of temporary protection would end was welcome, if overdue, a further 12,000 people on bridging visas will remain in the ‘legacy caseload’, ‘living as ghosts’ in Australia. There’s also a huge backlog of more recent asylum applications, with people waiting up to 8 years for asylum cases to be processed and reviewed. Government statistics show that 70% of the 96,371 asylum seekers in Australia are awaiting a decision. The Refugee Council of Australia has said that these delays cause ‘significant stress and anxiety’ for asylum seekers and, with many having been denied work rights and unable to access income support, leaves ‘thousands living in destitution and relying on the goodwill of under-resourced charities’. In December 2022, the Government announced plans to address systemic failures and invest resources to deal with the backlog and delays.

Meanwhile, there remain reports of continued boat turn-backs, off-shore detention, with over 160 refugees still detained on Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and hotel detention of refugees medevaced from Nauru to Australia for medical treatment. Many asylum seekers in Australia are also increasingly vulnerable to homelessness as the rental and cost-of-living crises intensify. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) has reported that 70% of asylum seekers they see are seeking support for accommodation, unable to meet rising rent costs. 

The Global Picture

Globally, the picture is similar with refugees suffering the trauma of lengthy periods of detention, insecurity and uncertainty, compounding the trauma of being forced from their homes.

Refugees and other migrants also suffer violence at borders, forced to take increasingly precarious routes to claim asylum, or are left to drown at sea. Pushbacks are widespread, despite the practice being prohibited under international law. Pushbacks at sea cost many thousands of refugees and other migrants their lives, compounded by the criminalisation of search and rescue activities to assist those in distress. Globally, since 2014, the Missing Migrants Project reports that over 21,000 refugees and other migrants have drowned during migration, not just due to pushbacks but also being forced to take riskier routes with harsh crackdowns at borders and exploitation by traffickers, and a total of 52,000 have died during migration.

Those who survive these tortuous routes to safety often live for many more years in insecurity, uncertainty, destitution and fear. The World Health Authority (WHO) refers to refugees and other migrants as being ‘among the most vulnerable members of society faced often with xenophobia; discrimination; poor living, housing, and working conditions; and inadequate access to health services, despite frequently occurring physical and mental health problems’.

Many live for years in detention facilities or camps, where they are vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse and unable to access their basic human rights. In Australia, at the end of 2022 (31 October), 1,315 people were in closed detention and 542 in community detention, including 162 children. The average number of days people spend in detention here is now 774 days, which is the second highest on record; over 150 people have spent more than 5 years in detention facilities. The length of time people are detained contributes to high levels of tension, violence and overcrowding in Australia’s detention facilities. This is compounded by high levels of use of force incidents (over 7,000 incidents in the last year alone), with over 500 complaints of assault by those in detention in the last 6 years.

Globally, detention centres and camps for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons are sites of severe insecurity. They often operate with little or no independent oversight, falling below international human rights standards, causing life-long physical and mental health impacts. People often live there for many years, sometimes decades, with many children being born there and knowing no other life. Refugee camps are often described as ‘prison-like’ and places of violence, depravation and despair, where people, including children, have self-harmed and committed suicide. Those who reside in camps are also often unable to exercise their basic rights, with frequent limited access to potable water, food, sanitation facilities, healthcare and education. When displaced, whether on the move or residing in such camps and detention centres, for instance, they are also often more vulnerable to the threat of exploitation, violence, forced prostitution and other crimes.

Slow Death

Some have referred to the sustained and violent uncertainty that refugees and asylum seekers face as a slow-death, death-world or torture. In Australia, the asylum system that sustains this uncertainty has been referred to as ‘killing… slowly torturing people until they give up’. Others have articulated the trauma that uncertainty and destitution causes by wishing they had been killed in the war zone they fled or the seas they crossed to find safety: ‘I wish to die in the ocean, is better [than] to come to Australia because out in the ocean I will die just one time, but here, day by day second by second, minute by minute [I am dying]’. Elsewhere, people have referred to living on camps as being caught between death and insecurity if they remain or leave: If I go back to Iraq, I’ll die… [but] if I stay here I’ll die… Right now, I won’t die. But little by little, I’ll die’. Some have referred to the time they spend in detention facilities or camps as ‘prison time’; they are trapped, unable to move freely and losing their lives - wasting time that cannot be regained.

The management of migration through insecurity, uncertainty and violence is an attempt to deter would-be migrants. However, it must be recognised that people are forced to flee due to war, violence, persecution and, increasingly, the climate crisis and severe economic insecurity. Closing borders, pushing back refugees, detaining them for prolonged periods of time in dire conditions, and inflicting other forms of violence does not deter people forced to move to find security. It simply forces people to take more dangerous routes or suffer for longer periods of time to find safety. This manufacture of insecurity does, however, serve political agendas aimed at presenting the refugee as posing rather than facing security threats, shifting blame and attention away from domestic problems, and absolving responsibilities under international refugee law.

Sustaining insecurity and uncertainty for those forced to leave their homes is contrary to the obligations and principles of international refugee law, which enshrines the need to respect the human dignity of asylum seekers. Respecting human dignity means we must recognise the intrinsic and equal value of each person and allow for a dignified life, living under decent conditions and able to exercise basic human rights. Especially as the number of refugees and displaced persons continues to increase, surpassing 100 million in 2022, we need more investment to expedite asylum claims, improve the conditions that asylum seekers and refugees live in, and address the causes of forced migration. Underpinning this investment is a need to change the discourse on migration towards one that recognises our common humanity and demonstrates care, responsibility and respect.

Dr Eleanor Gordon has a PhD in Criminology and has spent 25 years working in the field of post-conflict security, justice and human rights, including addressing refugee, gender and war crimes issues. This includes 10 years working in UN peace operations in management and advisory roles with the UN Refugee Agency, the UN Department of Peace Operations and other international organisations. She has since worked as a scholar and consultant and is currently a Senior Lecturer at Monash University, where her research, teaching and practice focus on inclusive approaches to building security and justice after conflict.