Unauthorised Arrival
In an excised area, an unauthorised arrival has no right to apply for a visa. Asylum seekers who land in an excised area of Australian territory, may apply for refugee status with the UNHCR. However, Australia has no obligation to grant them a visa to settle permanently in Australia (as opposed to temporary protection) and they have no recourse to Australian courts.
The acts also included the powers to move unauthorised arrivals to another country where their claim for protection could be considered. These changes allowed for thousands of asylum seekers to be moved to immigration detention facilities on Christmas Island, Nauru, and Manus Island.
In subsequent years the government excised many islands, sometimes attempting to do so retroactively after boat people had already landed.
The excising of islands from the Australian migration zone remains a very controversial aspect of Australian immigration policy. Refugee advocates argue that Australia is not meeting its obligations under international law to protect refugees. This was not accepted by the Howard Government, which contended that international law obliged Australia to provide temporary protection only and not necessarily a permanent settlement.
However, the Rudd Government abolished the temporary protection visa scheme in 2008. The practice of diverting boat-borne arrivals to Christmas Island remained, effectively disallowing judicial review. In 2010, a landmark High Court ruling found that the processing procedures on Christmas Island were unlawful and unconstitutional.
Read more about this topic: Australian Migration Zone
Famous quotes containing the word arrival:
“National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten the arrival of that age.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)