''Stop the boats'' refugee policies put in place by the Gillard, Rudd and Abbott governments place human lives at risk, demean Australian values and threaten the survival of global accords on the rights of asylum seekers, a forum of academics, lawyers and aid workers has found.
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Professor Penelope Mathew, the co-convener of the ANU's Colloquium on Refugees, Regionalism and Responsibility, said a reduction in arrivals since the Papuan refugee agreement earlier this year was not proof of a successful asylum seeker policy.
''You can't just say, 'It's working','' she said. ''What is working? What is long-term success? Surely [a successful asylum seeker policy] is an approach that offers hope and protection to people seeking sanctuary.''
The colloquium on August 22-23 brought together about 25 legal and refugee protection experts and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Indonesia and the Association of South-East Asian Nations' intergovernmental commission on human rights. Its report was released on Monday.
Australia's policies have been condemned as inhumane and damaging by the UNHCR representative for Australasia and the Pacific, Richard Towle. He says the arrangements with Nauru and Papua New Guinea are ''burden-shifting arrangements'' that put the welfare of asylum seekers at risk around the world.
The colloquium has called for equity, respect for sovereignty, reciprocity and solidarity between all nations in the region on this issue.
Professor Mathew said the current approach, which places Australia's perceived interest ahead of the nation's humanitarian obligation to people unable to live in the country of their birth, is just wrong. ''By dehumanising refugees we dehumanise ourselves; we certainly don't live up to the values most Australians would say they believe in.''
