Tuesday, 14th October 2014
Stefanie Balogh - Canberra
Where the worst trouble zones are. Source: TheAustralian
THE number of asylum-seekers who have died seeking refuge in Australia has dramatically decreased, as the world confronts a spike in migration-related deaths and the Mediterranean emerges as the deadliest zone for refugees.
A report from the International Organisation for Migration illustrates the sharp decline in deaths in Australia since last year’s hardening of border-protection policies and the change of government.
The 212-page report — Fatal Journeys, Tracking Lives Lost during Migration — counts one asylum-seeker death in 2014: that of 23-year-old Iranian Reza Berati who was murdered in the Manus Island riots in February.
The one recorded death compares with 212 fatalities in 2013 and 356 in 2012 during the flood of asylum-seeker boats under Labor, before Kevin Rudd resurrected offshore processing when he returned to the leadership last year.
The IOM uses the Australian Border Deaths Database, run by Melbourne’s Monash University, and includes asylum-seekers who are believed to be missing, those who died en route to Australia and people who lost their lives in onshore and offshore detention facilities.
Despite the stark fall in deaths in Australia, the researchers refuse to acknowledge the change in so-called “pull factors’’ such as a toughening of government policies including the introduction of boat turnbacks, offshore processing and offshore resettlement arrangements.
“The degree to which this variability is explained by global trends in refugee-producing situations or by changes in Australian border protection policies is a matter of ongoing dispute,’’ the report says.
The IOM also warns that “death counts can be used like a sporting tally’’ that is exploited by the media to sensationalise events and by federal politicians to “argue for even harsher border control to prevent dangerous journeys without calling into question broader policies that create grave risks for asylum-seekers by blocking access to safe, legally regulated travel’’.
A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said: “The government’s border-protection policies have always been about saving lives. The fatal consequences of weak policies were all too apparent under the previous government.
“We are getting the results we said we would get on saving lives at sea.
“Those who continue to oppose our policies are in an appalling state of denial and if given the chance would, in a heart beat, restore the policies that saw over 1000 people die at sea.”
The IOM reports that this year up to 3072 migrants are believed to have died in the Mediterranean — accounting for about 75 per cent of all migration-related deaths — and “making it the deadliest sea in the world for migrants’’. This compared with an estimated 700 deaths in 2013.
“Over the last year, the increase in deaths has largely been driven by a surge in the number of fatalities in the Mediterranean region, ’’ the IOM says. “Why this is occurring is not entirely clear, but likely reflects a dramatic increase in the number of migrants trying to reach Europe.’’
The report says more than 112,000 irregular migrants were detected by Italian authorities in the first eight months of this year, almost three times as many as in all of fiscal year 2013.
“Many are fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty, with Eritreans and Syrians constituting the largest share of arrivals in Italy this year,’’ says the report, which was released last month.
The IOM estimates that in 2014 there have been 4077 migrant border-related deaths around the world. In addition to the Mediterranean deaths, there were 251 in East Africa, 230 on the US/Mexico border, 205 in Bay of Bengal, 123 in the Horn of Africa, 70 in Southeast Asia, 56 in the Sahara, 45 in the Caribbean, 17 in South Africa, and eight others.
The dedicated chapter on Australia, Counting and Accounting for Deaths of Asylum-Seekers en Route to Australia, is written by Leanne Weber and Sharon Pickering from Monash University. They direct the Border Crossing Observatory, which established and maintains the Australian Border Deaths Database.
The database has recorded 1494 border-related deaths in Australia between January 2000 and July 2014, with 94 per cent of those occurring at sea “often before asylum-seeker vessels have entered Australian waters’’.
It breaks down the deaths into 1266 en route to Australia; 171 in Australian waters; 31 in onshore detention; 16 who returned to their home country; five as in-country suicide, three in offshore detention, and two during arrest or deportation.
