Podcast: Hell in the Pacific

You’re listening to Iran’s Weekly Wire; I’m Roland Elliott Brown.

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Many Iranians are desperate to get out of Iran.  According to Wikipedia, around 5 million of them live abroad.  That’s around 6 percent of Iranians, and represents one of the great migrations of our times.

Most migrants want to go to affluent, western countries.  The problem is that those countries often don’t want them.  So in many cases, migrants claim asylum status under the United Nations Convention on Refugees.

This week, I’m going to look at what’s happening to Iranian asylum seekers who have tried to reach Australia.  Australia does take in refugees, but it examines asylum seekers’ claims closely, and often rejects them.

Since 2013, the Australian government has held failed asylum seekers in miserable offshore detention facilities in poor neighbouring countries. Officials claim they are obeying international conventions on human rights.  

Opponents say the policy is degrading, inhuman and has so far caused two deaths.

This debate that goes to the heart of a global problem:  How should the rich world treat those who land on its shores seeking a safer, wealthier, freer life?

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Iranian refugees started arriving in Australia after the 1979 Revolution. Many of them were fleeing religious persecution, and on the whole they were accommodated and made to feel welcome.  

As of Australia’s 2011 census, there were just under 35,000 Iran-born Iranians in Australia.

For Iranians keen to leave Iran, joining that large community must seem an appealing option.

But not everyone hoping to do so can get past Australia’s points-based immigration system, nor can they all afford to make the move.

In recent years, many migrants from Iran have taken huge risks to reach Australia as asylum seekers. Here’s Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the refugee action coalition in Sydney:

[Ian Rintoul] Each refugee has his or her own story and there are many. many different ones. Ahwazi Arabs for example come from an oppressed minority in the southwest of Iran, very rich oil producing country, but Ahwazis are denied their national rights, they're not allowed to speak their own language, they are systematically politically persecuted and executed for raising issues of Ahwazi self-determination or other basic rights that a national minority should have. You've got the Kurds, similarly are a national minority who are oppressed. you have people who are Bahai, people who are Christian, people who are bloggers, who were involved as political dissidents in the Green Movement who subsequently faced political persecution. So there is a very large variety from religious, political, and ethnic rights.

The refugee route from Iran to Australia is well established.  First you take a plane to Malaysia or Indonesia, neither of which have strict visa restrictions. Then you find a place on a boat that will take you across the seas to Australia.

Those who risk their lives are often desperate for a new life, and it is not hard to see why.  Iran is a repressive and corrupt. Outside the big cities, economic prospects are poor.

Even so, Iran is essentially stable, and that make the Australian government doubt Iranian claims for asylum.

[Ian Rintoul] the government has got an attitude that Iran is not a refugee-producing country, there is evidence of systematic bias against Iranian asylum seekers, and the government has certainly singled out Iranians as people who they regard as economic migrants.

12,000 Iranians have arrived in Australia by boat since 2008.  They have become one of the most noticeable groups seeking asylum.  And politicians are playing to the backlash.

[Ian Rintoul] The Australian gov has got a complete fortress Australia policy, and now has got a policy which expels any asylum seeker who arrives by boat. They've just got a very harsh anti-refugee policy which they've put in place because they think it’s electorally advantageous for them.

If Australia refuses an Iranian asylum seeker refugee status, it can’t force him or her to go back to Iran.  Instead the person falls into a black hole. Here’s Ben Doherty. He’s been covering the issue for Guardian Australia.

[Ben Doherty] Australia has a very hardline policy in terms of people who are found not to be refugees, or people who are asylum seekers are being held in detention. Essentially these are people who are caught by Australia saying, you don't meet our criteria for being a refugee, but who refuse to go home are caught in this limbo where they can be held in detention indefinitely. That's what we're seeing a lot of in Australia: people being held, they've been charged with no crime, they're not alleged to have committed any crime, but because of the situation they've fallen into, and their decision not to go home, or to go back to Iran, they are being held indefinitely.

Australia’s decision to offshore the problem of asylum seekers they can’t send back is controversial.

The Australian government has reached an agreement with its much poorer neighbor, Papua New Guinea, to detain failed asylum seekers on an island called Manus.

It has also sent asylum seekers to a remote island in Micronesia, the Republic of Nauru.

These facilities are grim. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has raised serious concerns about conditions on both islands.

Australia leaves asylum seekers the option of staying in detention, going back to Iran, or settling in a poor country in the pacific.

I asked Ben Doherty what he could tell me about the Iranians who are stuck in detention.

[Ben Doherty] A lot of them are very well educated, they speak excellent English, they come from middle class families, they have varying stories around the reasons they left their homeland around allegations of persecution over religion or over political views or opinions or actions. They have not had a very good experience. A lot of them have suffered pretty badly in most places, and there is a lot of reportage around conditions on Manus Island, which only holds men, conditions on Nauru, there are certainly allegations of sexual assault of Iranian women asylum seekers on Nauru. There are allegations that men being held on Manus have been beaten or faced very harsh treatment from guards there.

The Australian line is that Australia should not be responsible for people who aren’t in danger, and simply want a better life.  And it may be that some Iranian asylum seekers are simply looking for a better lifestyle. Here’s Homayoun Kheyri, an Iranian journalist and blogger in Brisbane:

[Homayoun Kheyri] Lots of people amongst these refugees came just for their own interests, without any political background or political problem with government. When you just look at the problem from Aus. perspective, they say, we don't know anything about these people coming. They have no documents to show if they really have problems with the government in Iran, or if they just fleeing from something in Iran. They say we have no documents to show who is right, who is wrong. And this is the problem.

And an Iranian journalist and blogger in London, Potkin Azarmehr, recently wrote that Iranian asylum claims are very often bogus:

[Potkin Azarmehr] Well, most of the ones that I've come across, most of them say that their life is in danger, that they've done something political, and most of these cases are not true, I'm putting a figure above 98 per cent. Most of these cases are just made up and they're not political activists, they simply like a different lifestyle. They may not be able to go to a disco in Iran and if they come to the West they'll be able to go to a disco, and have the sort of lifestyle that they watch on their satellites, that appeals to them more. Or some of them are economic migrants. There is a lot of unemployment and economic hardship in Iran. They think that there is a lot of benefits to coming to the West. They hear a lot about the benefit systems in the West, and the econ opportunities and they want to take advantage of that. In every case, obviously, all applicants must be treated humanely, as much as possible, and their situation should be resolved and dealt with as quickly as possible.

Whatever the right and wrongs of these cases, the Australian Government’s treatment of these refugees is cruel. The detention facilities are rough places where fear rules.  Here’s Ben Doherty.

[Ben Doherty] We've seen that people who have spoken out or been ringleaders of protests have been taken away and put in solitary confinement. People are very vulnerable in that situation, they are incarcerated, and people are very fearful of speaking publicly. A lot of them, even the communications we have that are anonymous, it's still quite a risky thing for people to do, and people have been very brave, I would argue, to be able to speak about these conditions, because essentially, these are secret camps. No one can go there, no one can get access, no one can see what the conditions are like.

And people are dying in these camps.

Last year, Guardian Australia reported that a 24 year old Iranian, Hamid Kehazaei, died after a blister became infected on Manus, and bureaucratic delays prevented him from getting adequate medical care in Australia in time.

Guardian Australia also reported last year that a 24 year old Iranian Kurd, Reza Barati, was murdered during a riot in Manus.

Reza Barati’s murder caused a scandal in Australia. Here’s Ian Rintoul:

[Ian Rintoul] The death of Reza Barati was one of those things which really created a groundswell within the community for many people. The fact the the gov could be so blindly indifferent to the death of an asylum seeker, and worse, they lied about the circumstances in which Reza Berati died until it was impossible to deny the truth any longer, and we saw outpourings of demonstrations, thousands of people at vigils for Reza Berati.

Reza Barati wasn’t even involved in the riot, but detention center staff allegedly attacked him with a wooden pole, before someone smashed his head in with a rock. A guard and a Salvation Army employee were charged with his murder in February.

[Ian Rintoul] I think it shocked a large number of people in the community to on the the one hand the realities, the mistreatment of people  who are in the offshore detention centres, the brutality that they face, and on the other, that the gov would systematically cover up the circumstances of Reza's death, but the overall situation in the offshore processing centers.

Australia’s two main political parties have a similar position on keeping out people they see as bogus asylum seekers.  But public opinion is beginning to shift.

[Ian Rintoul] There has been a campaign in Australia for some considerable time, and regularly mounts demonstrations against the anti-refugee policy, and there is a developing momentum institutionally against the government. Almost all the medical professions are against the government's anti-refugee policy, the unions are against the anti-refugee policy, the church is increasingly opposed to the anti-refugee policy, but the conservative party we have at the moment has got to government on the basis of stopping the boats, so as its policy has declined, and it has declined considerably, it has continued to use the issue of asylum seekers and arrivalist boats as a way of trying to maintain some momentum.

Even so, the idea of preventing an influx of asylum seekers is still politically useful in Australia. On April 18th, Julie Bishop, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, visited Tehran.  She asked the Iranian authorities to take the Iranian asylum seekers back. Iran said no.

I asked Ian Rintoul what he thought Julie Bishop was trying to achieve on her visit.

[Ian Rintoul] She's playing to a domestic audience. There are many things to go and talk to Iran about, but asylum seekers are not high on the agenda one would think, given the situation in the ME at the moment, you might have thought that they'd want to discuss the sanctions that Australia has got bc of the concerns about uranium enrichment and nuclear disarmament and so forth, but Bishop is very much playing to a domestic audience. Their popularity in Australia is declining, and as their popularity declines, they increasingly use the situation of the boats to try and play to what they see as an advantage to them as a far as a domestic political audience is concerned. They would like to be able to forcibly send Iranians back to Iran, there is no doubt about that.

A few days before Julie Bishop travelled to Iran, the Iranian ambassador to Australia, Abdolhossein Vahaji, said it would be against human rights to force Iranians to return.

He said they have the right to choose where they want to live. But while Iran talks about human rights, it has other reasons for not wanting asylum seekers back. Here’s Potkin Azarmehr:

[Potkin Azarmehr] There is a lot of people in Iran who are not happy with the Islamic restrictions that there is. These people can be seen as a potential troublesome crowd, so it's actually very much in the interests of the Islamic Republic if these people go out of Iran.

It serves the interests of the Islamic Republic to have people they see as troublemakers leave the country.  And it serves the interests of Australian politicians to house those people in a stateless limbo.

But situation is unsustainable. At some point both sides are going to have to address the problem. Or at least, the more responsible side will.  The question is when -- and how many Iranians are going die waiting.

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That’s all from Iran’s Weekly Wire. If you want to find out more about this story, join us on Twitter or Facebook, or visit IranWire.com.