DIMIA Culture
Letter to the Editor - The Age
7 June 2005
Dear Sir/Madam
Here we go again – Andra Jackson recycles a number of tired claims by advocates and cobbles them together to attack the Immigration Department (The cold-hearted culture of the Department of Immigration, 6/6/05).
It is a theme familiar in Ms Jackson’s reports on immigration issues. The facts of the matters are ignored.
The department rejects Ms Jackson’s claim of discrimination. There is no bias toward or against people of certain countries. Australia has long had a non-discriminatory immigration policy.
Unrelated cases and issues are stitched together with hearsay in a feeble attempt to construct an argument.
For example, she raises the case of a Canadian woman who was taken shopping before she was removed from Australia
She fails to mention that this woman needed clothes because she was destitute. Would Ms Jackson prefer that this person go to mid-winter Canada without adequate clothing?
Ms Jackson accuses the department of having a selective perception of the need for protection. Yet there is nothing selective about the United Nations definition of a refugee – the criteria Australia uses for deciding if a person requires protection.
This UN definition is simply that a person has a well-founded fear of persecution. The department considers application for protection individually on its merits. Its decisions are subject to review by an independent tribunal and the judicial system.
Ms Jackson relies on hearsay to support another of her arguments. She reports a claim by an East Timorese man of a statement by a department officer more than 15 years ago, but offers nothing to verify this account of events.
If Ms Jackson had indeed contacted us for comment she would have found that the Department regularly reprocesses claims, this is the proper working of the system. Often the circumstances in the country of origin change or new information is provided which means the department can and does accept an asylum claim where once it was refused. This is part of the department’s normal operations.
It seems that as usual with Ms Jackson’s articles we are damned if we
do and damned if we don’t.
Kym Charlton
Acting Director
Public Affairs
DIMIA