Myth-Busting Fact Sheet
Myth: Asylum seekers are illegal.
Facts: All Asylum Seekers have legal status under International and Australian law. Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”. Asylum seekers are protected under the UN Refugee Convention (1951). They have the right to be assessed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), or by countries that have adopted and ratified the Convention. Australia is a Convention country.
Myth: Australia does more than our share.
Facts: On any way of counting, we are not doing our fair share:
A. The number of claims for asylum made in Australia is miniscule compared to other countries (2008 figures).
- Australia 4,750
- USA 50,000
 UK 30,000- France 35,000
- Canada 35,000
- South Africa 207,000
B. Australia’s current (2009) annual program is to take only 13,750 refugees.
- This is less than one tenth of 1% of the total number of refugees.
- Our population is approx one third of 1% of the world’s
- Our GDP is 1.6% of the world’s.
- Our land mass is 5% of the world’s.
Myth: Boat people are queue jumpers.
Facts: There is no queue. In war zones there is no real access to UNHCR, embassies, or consular offices. In many cases, it is too dangerous to travel to these offices and refugees can face persecution for wanting to leave. This is the case for Tamils attempting to reach Colombo from the North of the island who face imprisonment and torture.
Myth: The boats are coming because Australia has gone “soft” on boat arrivals.
Facts:
- Asylum seekers know nothing of the political debates in Australia.
- People seek asylum because of the continuing and worsening situation in the world’s trouble spots such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sri-Lanka.
- The proportion of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat is small: 1831 so far this year.
Myth: Boat arrivals are not genuine refugees.
Facts:
- Those who arrive by boat are overwhelmingly genuine refugees. In recent years the acceptance rate of boat arrivals has fluctuated between 85 and 98%.
- 45% of asylum seekers who arrive by air have been accepted as genuine refugees in recent years.
- Paying a people smuggler does not mean you are not a genuine refugee. The $ 5,000 - $10,000 paid often represents the entire wealth of an extended family who give this gift to one of its members so that he or she can escape persecution. In any case, the wealthy like anyone else can suffer persecution, violence, discrimination, and torture. History is full of such examples.
Myth: Asylum seekers are economic migrants.
Facts: To be accepted as a refugee, an asylum seeker has to prove persecution in accordance with the Refugee Convention. That is their source of legal status. “Economic migrant” is a category unknown to the law. It is a label used by politicians who want to discredit asylum seekers.
Myth: Asylum seekers without papers cannot be genuine refugees.
Facts: War zones and places of persecution are not conducive to orderly bureaucratic processes. Many refugees flee at short notice. Governments that persecute their victims often refuse to issue papers and passports and sometimes punish those who want to leave. Information in travel documents can be used against refugees or the families they leave behind. In their desperate flight, refugees can easily lose everything, including their papers. No papers can be a mark of the genuine refugee.
Myth: Refugees are a burden; they are not good migrants.
Facts: This is patently untrue. Refugees are people who show initiative, drive and an attitude to give it a go. Often they are leaders of their communities. Like all migrants, they bring their skills, energies and talents to our society and contribute positively to our economy.
Myth: There is no alternative to mandatory detention.
Facts:
- We already have one! Asylum seekers who arrive by airplane are not detained. Why detain boat arrivals?
- It costs a fortune to discriminate against boat arrivals:
- In 2008 AUD 142 million was spent on detention in Indonesia and Christmas Island.
- To jail an asylum seeker on Christmas Island costs AUD 1830 a day. On the mainland, at Villawood for example, it costs AUD 238.
- Asylum seekers who are not detained can support themselves with the help of the community and social services.
Myth: Agreements and co-operation between Australia and their countries of origin to prevent asylum seekers from leaving would stop the flow.
Facts:
- It is against the law! The Refugee Convention (1951) obliges signatories not to prevent people from seeking asylum and not to return them to danger.
- It violates human rights. The right to seek asylum is protected by Article14 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Australia did not co-operate with Saddam Hussein, or Stalin and his successors to prevent asylum seekers from leaving Iraq or the Soviet Union. There are no grounds for changing this practice.
Myth: Sending boat people to other countries will solve Australia’s asylum seeker problem.
Facts:
- Indonesia and Malaysia have not signed the Refugee Convention and have no legal obligation to resettle refugees.
- Refugees in these countries cannot work or send their children to school.
- Only a co-operative global solution under the auspices of the United Nations can solve the problem of displaced persons.
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