In Australia, asylum seekers’ detention record has peaked

Published: 02/16/2022 – 17:10

With our correspondent in Sydney, Gregory Please

Whether they are detained in Nauru, detention centers or recently locked up in simple hotel rooms like Novak Djokovic, there is no hope that the unfortunate asylum seekers seeking to reach Australia by boat will one day be formalized.

This is the result of a policy known as ‘sovereign boundaries’ adopted in 2013, under which eight people have been detained in Australia for more than a decade without trial. One hundred and seventeen people have lost their independence for more than five years Human Rights Watch This means that immigrants in an irregular situation are detained by Australian authorities for an average of 689 days, 12 times longer than in the United States.

This policy has been condemned for years by many international organizations and praised by various far-right figures in Europe, although it is almost never discussed in Australia, where only the Green Party seeks to withdraw it.

However, this does not apply to the ruling coalition, which considers it even the cornerstone of its migration policy, nor does it belong to the Labor Party. For good reason, they opened the first marine detention centers in 2013.

⁇ read more: Evidence: Stolen lives, Melbourne Park Hotel refugee plight