Important sections of the Migration Act (woohoo!!)

Thought it might be handy to put up a little summary of some of the important sections of the Migration Act. I'll put up sections which are important to refugees, sections which point out Australia's acceptance of the fact that it should take refugees, as well as the rather controversial provisions that make detention mandatory etc...

s36 - Protection Visas (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s36.html)
This is fairly self-explanatory, and adopts part of the refugee convention into Australian law. You will notice that NOWHERE in this provision does it make it even REMOTELY illegal to come to Australia on a boat or without a passport to seek refugee status!

s189 - Detention of Unlawful Non-Citizens (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s189.html)
Gee this provision is nasty, because it uses the term 'unlawful'. This basically just means people who are not Australian citizens, who are in the country in a way that doesn't recognise them as having any legal 'status'. They're not on a legal visa at the time, so they're unlawful. But they're not illegal. See how it splits hairs?? This is the provision that constitutes Australia's mandatory detention policy, because it says that an officer of the Commonwealth MUST detain an unlawful non-citizen - there's no room to move here, no wiggle-space, even if that person is half dead, an unaccompanied child, in a coma and / or 8.5 months pregnant. Very, very bad.

s198 - Removal from Australia of unlawful non-citizens (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s198.html)
This is the provision that governs the deportation of people once their visa applications have been rejected. Fair enough I suppose. But this provision strikes terror into the hearts of lots of people, and according to Dave Corlett in his book 'Following them Home: The Fate of Returned Asylum Seekers', many people who shouldn't have been deported have been, sometimes with dire consequences.

s417 - Minister may substitute more favourable decision (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s417.html)
This provision is unfortunately rather underused. It says that any time during the refugee determination process, the Minister for Immigration can say "OK, let the poor blighter out". It's amazing that one person should hold all that power over all those lives, and yet exercise it so seldom!

Anyway that'll do for today I think!

J x