This report by Save the Children Australia and UNICEF Australia explores the human, economic and strategic cost of Australia’s current policies which seek to deter asylum seekers from migrating to Australia by sea. It examines the impact of these policies in a domestic, regional and global setting, taking into account the unprecedented scale of global forced migration at present and the limited range of options currently available to those in the region with protection needs. It provides a set of alternatives which, according to organisations, would bring an end to the harm that is being done and ensure the protection of a much greater number of refugees in the region.
The report contains a suite of enhanced protective measures in order to achieve the objectives of resolving the predicament of those transferred to Nauru and PNG and ensuring safe, orderly and sustainable protection pathways for a much greater number of refugees in the region than the number currently allowed to enter Australia. According to Save the Children Australia and UNICEF Australia, this proposed approach would make more efficient use of Australia’s resources in this area and is likely to enhance, rather than damage, Australia’s strategic interests internationally.
