Seeking Asylum Alone

Unaccompanied and separated children continue to be caught up in programs to deflect unauthorised Australian boat arrivals to offshore processing centres. If such children do make it to Australia, the processes for identifying children travelling alone are inadequate, with too much reliance placed on the self-identification of such children. No child victim of trafficking has been identified in Australia since 1994. Australia’s refugee status determination system was established with adult asylum seekers as the norm. Children face obvious disadvantage in both articulating their story and in being heard. At the crucial first point of contact with authorities children are required to articulate their need for protection without either an advisor or an effective guardian. Case studies of children within the asylum process also suggest that immigration officials and officials at appellate level have been poorly trained and have lacked the skills to deal with child asylum seekers with appropriate sensitivity. Another barrier faced by these children is legal: questions remain as to how well the international definition of refugee has been read to accommodate the particular experiences of children. It is hoped that this report will encourage Australian officials to think seriously about children as refugees in their own right – most particularly when the children are travelling alone. This Report was funded by the MacArthur Foundation (Chicago), the Australian Research Council and the Myer Foundation. Also available Seeking Asylum Alone - A Comparative Study- Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection in Australia, the UK and the US, by Jacqueline Bhabha and Mary Crock.

Table of Contents:
Part One - The Phenomenon of Children Seeking Asylum Alone Anatomy of the projectChildren in need of protection: The scale and nature of movementJourneys of a lifetime: How and why child asylum seekers travel alone Part Two - Frameworks for Protection An overview of international standardsAustralian Laws and Policies I: Access to territory - non-entree, interdiction and offshore processingAustralian Laws and Policies II: The domestic asylum system and protection outcomes Part Three - Australian Law and Policy in Practice Identification and receptionEntering the refugee status determination systemThe primary decison-making process: The DIMA InterviewChallenging adverse decisionsDeciding refugee statusUnaccompanied and separated children and the international definition of 'refugee'Interdiction and offshore processing: The deflection of child asylum seekers Part Four - Protection Outcomes In search of permanent refuge: Life on and after the temporary protection visasTowards the future: conclusions and recommendations AppendixesInterview conductedGlossary of TermsLegislation and Cases CitedBibliography

Review :
Dr Mary Crock is arguably Australia's pre-eminent authority on refugee law and policy. However, Seeking Asylum Alone is not an academic treatise. Rather, it is a highly readable review of Australian law, policy and practice ... [on] children seeking asylum in Australia without parents or guardians. ... In my view this is a book that needed to be written. But a book is only useful if it is read. Also, genuine reform is rarely achieved without public support... I challenge [you] to be informed. To that end, I strongly recommend this book as an insight into the realities of refugee law and policy. - Brief (Law Society of WA), July 2007