Page 51 - Geopolítica del Mundo Actual. Una Visión Multidisciplinar

GEOPOLÍTICA DEL MUNDO ACTUAL. UNA VISIÓN MULTIDISCIPLINAR:
Cultura de Paz, Conflictos, Educación y Derechos Humanos
THE IMPACTS OF OPERATION SOVEREIGN BORDERS POLICY BY AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TOWARDS ITS BILATERAL RELATION WITH INDONESIA
Riska Sri Handayani
Programa de Doctorado Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas. Cátedra UNESCO de Resolución de Conflictos. Universidad de Córdoba
Australia is one of the destination countries for the Irregular Maritime Arrivals (IMA’s) or commonly called as “boat people”. Mostly the boat people came to Australia claim as asylum seekers. Actually, this country had ratified the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 and signed the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 1967. On the journey to Australia, the IMA’s pass several countries that are located close to the destination country such as Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. These countries also become transit points to Australia. Furthermore, the increase number of IMA’s to Australia has encouraged the Australian government to implement more stringent policies.
Following the wave of IMA’s increased sharply in 2012, the Australian government started implementing “Operation Sovereign Borders” (OSB) on September 2013. The aim of this policy is to
prevent the ships carrying passengers without legal documents from entering Australian waters. Through this policy Australian government sets zero tolerance towards illegal boat arrivals in Australia. Previously, on July 19, 2013, Australian government declared that asylum seekers who came by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia even if they were genuine refugees.
Pacific Solution in its implementation involves
third countries in the South Pacific region. This is done by transfer of “unauthorised boat arrivals” to processing centres or commonly called as detention center for immigrant in the Pacific Third World countries.
The policy of OSB, commonly known as “Turn Back Boat Policy”, due to in its implementation allows the Australian navy to push foreign ships that bring ilegal immigrant out of Australian waters. Meanwhile, for those who want to apply for asylum, the Australian government ,through agreements with Nauru and PNG, sends the the asylum seekers to detention center in those countries during the process until their status determined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Not only affects the asylum seekers, in its implementation this policy also affects bilateral relations between Indonesia-Australia. As a neighboring country, Indonesia is a transit country for IMA’s and its waters become a route to Australia. During the operation, Australian navy vessels had entered Indonesian territorial waters in order to push the
boats. Recorded
between
December
2013-January
2014 water
territories for
six times. Thus,
this action can
be categorized
as violation
of a country’s
sovereignty.
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