It's hard to imagine, in our safe and prosperous nation, that people could be so desperate that they would risk their lives to try to escape from their homelands to a safer place. Yet this is the situation faced every day by countless thousands of people around the world who have been forced to flee due to the threat of persecution, torture or death.
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If your house was on fire and there were people shooting bullets through your windows, you would not queue up in the hallway and quietly wait for emergency services to turn up before calmly walking out the front door. You would run, as fast as you could, in any direction, to get away from the violence and risk of death.
This is what many refugees have to do and, tragically, many of them have no choice but to take enormous risks. Sometimes this ends in their death in horrific circumstances.
One such tragedy occurred close to Australia 21 years ago on October 19, 2001, when a boat packed with around 400 people seeking asylum sank between Australia and Indonesia with the loss of 353 lives. Only 41 adults and three children survived, finally rescued by Indonesian fishing boats after spending over 20 hours clinging to the wreckage.
Most were escaping from persecution in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The majority were women and children hoping to be reunited with husbands and fathers who were already in Australia.
There were no outpourings of grief or messages of condolence in our Parliament or in the wider community. Indeed, such was the official secrecy surrounding the tragedy, many Australians were not even aware of it. But the SIEV X disaster, together with the Tampa incident in August, the 9/11 attacks in September and the children overboard affair in October, were to become key contributors to the outcome of the subsequent federal election. Collectively, the events of that spring constituted a watershed in Australian refugee policy.
Before 2001, Australia's refugee response had been largely guided by the international refugee conventions to protect people and give refugees safety. Australia had been instrumental in establishing these conventions after WWII. However, since 2001, our responses have been characterised by an inexorable withdrawal from those humanitarian principles. Our former welcome has been replaced by a policy of harsh deterrence and crippling indefinite detention.
A group of Australians, led by author Steve Biddulph, Uniting Church minister Rod Horsfield and Beth Gibbings, felt strongly that there should be a memorial to the SIEV X to ensure that the people who lost their lives were not forgotten. It took some time to get the necessary approvals but eventually a memorial was erected in Canberra. The memorial consists of wooden poles representing the 353 people who died. The poles were donated and decorated by schools, churches, community groups and individuals from across Australia.
Unlike most other memorials in Australia, the SIEV X memorial is not a government memorial; rather, it is a community memorial designed, funded and maintained by schools, churches, community groups and individuals.
While construction of the memorial was politically sensitive at the time, it is deliberately non-partisan. A sign at the memorial simply states: "Our message in making this memorial is that Australia is not a country defined by fear and greed. Love is stronger than fear. Kindness is stronger than greed".
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Fast forward to today, in the aftermath of another federal election. UNHCR statistics show that the number of refugees in the world has more than doubled over the past 21 years, to 27 million. On Australia's watch, we still have more than 200 people on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea, having been detained for up to 10 years without being charged with any crime. Some 30,000 more live in Australia on insecure temporary visas, unable to reach their full potential, either for their own benefit or that of our country. As many as 14,000 languish in Indonesia, marooned by our border policies. Billions of our dollars continue to be spent on policies of refugee deterrence with no apparent will to consider alternatives.
In the absence of any prospect that the number of people being displaced by conflict, persecution or climate change will fall, surely it is time to move on to a more humane and compassionate policy.
In this spirit, the SIEV X Memorial Association and the Refugee Action Campaign, Canberra, are organising a 21st anniversary commemoration at the memorial this Sunday, to hear the stories of those who perished, to remember the loved ones left behind, and to listen to the voices of refugees still struggling in Australia.
Fifteen years after the memorial was first permitted to be installed its message has never been more relevant. Our policies should treat refugees as people, just like us, who can legitimately claim our help in a spirit of humanity.
- Paul Meyer has been involved since 2015 in organising ceremonies at the memorial for the faith-based working group of the Refugee Action Campaign, Canberra. Previously, Paul was a lecturer in demography at the ANU and researcher at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
