Detained for questioning: law experts to review Australia's refugee policies

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Detained for questioning: law experts to review Australia's refugee policies


The international repercussions of Australia's refugee policies, particularly the notorious "Pacific Solution", will be debated at a conference on Saturday 25 November at the University of Technology, Sydney. International law and refugee law experts from Australia and overseas will gather for The Admission and Exclusion of Asylum Seekers: The Search for Legitimate Parameters. Conference co-convenor and immigration law researcher in the UTS Faculty of Law, Jennifer Burn, said Australian policies enacted since the Tampa incident in 2001 had succeeded in dramatically reducing the inflow of asylum seekers by sea. These policies had included offshore processing - the so-called Pacific Solution - mandatory detention, limits on judicial review, excision of territories from the migration zone and the interception of vessels at sea. "While each of these strategies has been found to be constitutional, they have attracted considerable criticism nationally and internationally," Ms Burn said. "The conference will consider Australia's rights and responsibilities in dealing with asylum seekers in the light of these strategies, and in the context of Australia's international legal and human rights obligations." To launch the conference, eminent UK refugee law expert, Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill from Oxford University, will deliver a free public lecture on the topic of offshore processing of asylum seekers on the evening of Friday 24 November. Professor Goodwin-Gill, a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford's All Souls College, was previously Professor of International Refugee Law at Oxford and Professor of Asylum Law at the University of Amsterdam. He worked for over a decade for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Other speakers at the conference will include Professor Ryszard Piotrowicz, Professor Kim Rubinstein, Associate Professor Mary Crock, Dr Jane MacAdam, Mr Peter Hughes, Justice John von Doussa, Senator Andrew Bartlett, Ms Elizabeth Biok, Mr Julian Burnside QC, Justice Elizabeth Evatt, Mr Henry Domzalski, Duncan Kerr SC, Claire O'Connor and John Gibson. The conference has been convened as part of an Australian Research Council funded project to examine Australia's refugee policies and develop a framework for asylum law that is consistent with international standards. Wednesday 15 November 2006