Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB) is a border protection operation led by the Australian Border Force, aimed at stopping maritime arrivals of asylum seekers to Australia. [1] The operation is the outcome of a 2013 federal election policy of the Coalition, which commenced on 18 September 2013 after the election of the Abbott government. [2] The operation has implemented a "zero tolerance" posture towards what it has termed "Illegal Maritime Arrivals" − a change in terminology from the previous government's "Irregular Maritime Arrivals" [3] − in Australia, in conjunction with mandatory detention in offshore detention facilities.
The current Commander of Operation Sovereign Borders, Rear Admiral Brett Sonter, was appointed to the command on 10 January 2024. [4]
During the 2013 federal election, the Abbott-led Coalition campaigned on a policy that, if elected to government, they would "stop the boats" and would launch Operation Sovereign Borders, combining the resources of multiple government bodies under direct control of a three star general. Following the election, Angus Campbell was promoted and appointed to oversee the operations. [5]
Following the 2013 election, the portfolio of the Minister for Immigration was renamed as the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. The appointed ministers, initially Scott Morrison and subsequently Peter Dutton, refused to release information on asylum seeker boat arrivals as they occurred, [6] and a weekly media briefing was announced. [7] [8] In January 2014, having not held a media briefing for almost a month, Morrison announced that briefings would be held on what he described as "an as needs basis". [9] On 10 July 2014, Morrison stated that the secrecy policy was put in place by Lieutenant General Campbell, which had been rigorously implemented by ministers, their advisers, and various government departments. [10]
On 23 August 2013, during the election campaign, the Coalition announced a key component of Operation Sovereign Borders called the Regional Deterrence Framework. [11] Budgeted at A$420 million, the RDF aimed to engage with other countries in the region, particularly Indonesia, to prevent asylum seeker vessels leaving for Australia. The framework included a $20 million proposal (titled "The Indonesian community engagement programme") which was to include: [12]
The "buy-the-boats" plan was widely ridiculed, [13] with fact-checking group PolitiFact Australia [14] calling the proposal "ridiculous". [15] Lieutenant General Campbell told a Senate Estimates committee that, two months into the OSB program, no boats had been purchased because Indonesia did not support the idea, although he stated that the measure remained available. [16]
The government runs a "communication campaign to counter people smuggling" with advertisements in multiple languages, [17] targeting "press, radio, social and search media" across Australia. Between January and May 2015, $750,000 had been spent on the campaign. [18]
Operation Sovereign Borders operates as a Joint Agency Taskforce (JATF), with the support of a range of government agencies, organised as three operational task groups: [19]
Rank | Name | Post-nominals | Service | Term began | Term ended |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lieutenant General | Angus Campbell | DSC , AM | Army | 18 September 2013 | 16 May 2015 |
Major General | Andrew Bottrell | CSC & Bar , DSM | Army | 16 May 2015 | 1 February 2017 |
Air Vice Marshal | Stephen Osborne | AM , CSC | RAAF | 1 February 2017 | 14 December 2018 |
Major General | Craig Furini | AM , CSC | Army | 14 December 2018 | 28 August 2020 |
Rear Admiral | Lee Goddard | CSC | RAN | 28 August 2020 | 11 December 2020 |
Rear Admiral | Mark Hill | AM , CSC | RAN | 15 December 2020 | 4 February 2022 |
Rear Admiral | Justin Jones | CSC | RAN | 4 February 2022 | 10 January 2024 |
Rear Admiral | Brett Sonter | RAN | 10 January 2024 | Incumbent |
Abbott's government claimed a ninety per cent reduction in maritime arrivals of asylum seekers. [20] There were 207 in November 2013, as opposed to 2,629 in November 2012. [21] [22] [23]
In response, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Richard Marles claimed there was a 40 per cent reduction in arrivals in the month following the introduction of the Regional Resettlement Arrangement with Papua New Guinea, shortly before the 2013 election.
On 19 June 2014, the Government announced that it had been six months since the last successful boat arrival. [24]
On 7 July 2014, a vessel containing 153 mostly Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka was intercepted by Australian authorities 27 kilometres (15 nmi) from Christmas Island. The government refused to confirm the existence, location, or status of the boat, until the High Court placed an injunction on any attempted refoulement of the vessel's passengers to Sri Lanka, while the full bench of the Court considered a challenge to the handover on the grounds that the government was breaching non-refoulement obligations under international law. [25] Under Article 33 of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Australia is a signatory, this principle forbids a nation state from sending a refugee back to anywhere where they may face persecution. [26]
Pre-empting the decision of the court, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Morrison announced that the people on the boat would be transferred to the Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre in Western Australia, where they would be assessed by Indian consular officials under an arrangement made with that country to repatriate any Indian citizens or residents. [27] On 2 August, Morrison announced that the group had refused to meet with Indian officials and were then transferred to the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. [28]
The government's response was to rush through Parliament the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014, which was passed by both Houses in December 2014, placing border policing ahead of asylum seeker rights as expressed in UN Convention. [29]
Unlawful arrivals by boat per month | |||
---|---|---|---|
Month | Boats | Persons | Notes |
From 18 September 2013 | 5 | 205 | |
October 2013 | 5 | 339 | |
November 2013 | 5 | 207 | |
December 2013 | 7 | 355 | |
January 2014 | 0 | 1 | [30] |
July 2014 | 1 | 157 | [31] |
Source: "Operation Sovereign Borders: log of boat arrivals and other asylum seeker incidents". ABC News . Australia. Retrieved 5 February 2015. Months with no arrivals are not listed. |
The number of arrivals given in OSB operational updates is defined as those "transferred to Australian immigration authorities", [32] and does not include arrivals in Australian territorial waters who have been subject to a turnback operation—that is, sent out of Australian waters on their own vessel, or an Australian vessel employed for this purpose. [33] As of 7 February 2014, The Australian newspaper estimated that at least "six boatloads" of asylum seekers had been subject to turnbacks by OSB authorities. [34]
On 15 January 2014, an orange fibreglass "survival capsule", containing about 60 asylum seekers, came ashore at Cikepuh in West Java. A second containing 34 people arrived at Pangandaran on 5 February. [35] The Daily Telegraph reported that the Australian government was believed to have purchased eleven of the capsules from Singapore at a cost of around $500,000. [36]
In May 2014, Australia was alleged to have placed two persons who had arrived earlier in the year onto a boat with other asylum seekers which was turned back to Indonesia. [37]
In January 2015, Minister Dutton announced that 15 vessels, containing 429 asylum seekers in total, had been subject to turnback operations of some kind towards Indonesia or Sri Lanka since the beginning of OSB. [38]
In May 2015, Australian authorities allegedly paid Indonesian boat crew to return 65 asylum seekers to Indonesia. This and other turnbacks like it could be seen as tantamount to people smuggling against origin and transit countries. [39]
In July 2015, Labor Shadow Minister Richard Marles conceded that "Offshore processing and regional resettlement, together with the Coalition's policy of turn-backs, is what actually stopped the boats." [40]
On 6 August 2015, the new immigration minister Peter Dutton announced it had been 12 months since the last successful people smuggling operation, with the last SIEV arriving in Australia's care in July 2014. The ABC News' Fact Check subsequently listed the Coalition's "We Will Stop the Boats" promise as delivered. [41] In August 2015, Dutton stated that, since December 2013, 633 people on 20 vessels have been subject to turnback operations, including a boat from Vietnam in July. [42] In March 2016, Dutton stated that 698 people on 25 vessels had been turned back since the beginning of the OSB program. [43]
This section needs to be updated.(March 2019) |
In 2014, the status of asylum seekers sent to offshore processing centres in Nauru Regional Processing Centre and Manus Regional Processing Centre was decided: 13 people (9 people from Iran and 4 people from Pakistan) were granted asylum, while 7 people (from Iran, Pakistan, and Cameroon) received negative assessments. The asylum protection in Nauru was valid from 2014 for up to 5 years. [44]
As of 2015 [update] , more than 400 people who had their refugee claims rejected had been returned home from the Australian-run detention centre in Papua New Guinea, some of which did so voluntarily. [45]
The Indonesian government has voiced concern over the operation due to its implications for Indonesia's national sovereignty. [46] [47] A member of the Golkar party, Tantowi Yahya, described the plan as "offensive", and officials from the Indonesian Navy said "forcing the boats back would also unfairly shift the burden of dealing with the asylum-seeker problem back on Indonesia". [48] The policy also came under fire from refugee advocates. [49]
On 26 September 2013, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa took the "unusual step" of releasing details of his talks about the policy with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop, [50] which was later blamed on a clerical error. [51]
Australia has apologised for violating Indonesian waters during their "tow back" operations. [52] These incursions occurred after Chief of the Defence Force David Hurley stripped naval personnel of workplace safety protections that would have required them to exercise "reasonable care" to protect their safety and that of the refugees. [53] On 21 January 2014, Customs (now Australian Border Force) and Defence announced that a joint review would be conducted to investigate the circumstances under which Australian naval vessels entered Indonesian territorial waters. [54] The inquiry, which covered the period between 1 December 2013 and 20 January 2014, found that two Royal Australian Navy frigates had crossed into Indonesian territory four times during the period, while Customs vessels did so on another two occasions. [55] In response, one Australian Navy officer lost his command, while several others were disciplined. [56] Indonesia has responded to the incursions by deploying military assets to intercept people-smuggling boats. [57] [58]
Several journalists and media outlets have expressed concern and frustration over the tightly controlled release of information about Operation Sovereign Borders, usually restricted to the weekly briefings held on Friday afternoons. In the weekly briefings, both Minister Morrison and Lieutenant General Campbell have refused to discuss "operational" or "on-water" matters in response to questions from journalists. The Minister has rationalised the control of information by stating that the government was not "operating a shipping news service for people smugglers". [59]
On 22 January 2014, the ABC broadcast allegations that Royal Australian Navy personnel had mistreated asylum seekers during an OSB operation, including video footage of passengers receiving medical treatment in Indonesia for burns on their hands, which they claimed were sustained when they were forced to touch a hot boat engine. [60] Morrison downplayed refugee claims of being abused by the Navy, and called for the ABC to apologise to the Navy. [61] The ABC's Media Watch program opined that ABC News had "over-reached" when reporting the story, and should have been more thorough in verifying the claims. [62] On 4 February, ABC managing director Mark Scott issued a statement saying "The wording around the ABC's initial reporting needed to be more precise on that point", referring to the video footage verifying the injuries but not how they had occurred. [63] On 7 February, Yousif Ibrahim Fasher repeated the initial allegations, as well as several further claims of mistreatment and possible breaches of maritime law in an interview with a Fairfax correspondent. [64]
Immigration law specialists, academics and others have criticised the political over-use of border control in general to win votes, and in particular of the exaggerated focus on boat arrivals being a danger to security and bringing illegal immigrants, when in fact the vast majority of illegal immigrants arrived by plane, with valid visas initially. [65] [66]
The "Stop the boats" slogan and approach for Operation Sovereign Borders has become increasingly more popular in the United Kingdom over recent years due to the surge in illegal migrant numbers crossing via small boats. [67]
In late August 2001, the Howard government of Australia refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, carrying 433 rescued refugees and 5 crew, to enter Australian waters. This triggered an Australian political controversy in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election, and a diplomatic dispute between Australia and Norway.
The Children Overboard affair was an Australian political controversy involving public allegations by Howard government ministers in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election, that seafaring asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a presumed ploy to secure rescue and passage on 7 October 2001.
The Pacific Solution is the name given to the government of Australia's policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially implemented from 2001 to 2007, it had bipartisan support from the Coalition and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies:
Australian immigration detention facilities comprise a number of different facilities throughout Australia, including the Australian territory of Christmas Island. Such facilities also exist in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, namely the Nauru Regional Processing Centre and the Manus Regional Processing Centre.
The Nauru Regional Processing Centre is an offshore Australian immigration detention facility in use from 2001 to 2008, from 2012 to 2019, and from September 2021. It is located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru and run by the Government of Nauru. The use of immigration detention facilities is part of a policy of mandatory detention in Australia.
Australia and Indonesia have established diplomatic relations since 1949, when Australia recognised Indonesia's independence. Historically, contact between Australians and Indonesians began as early as the 16th century prior to the arrival of the Europeans, through Makassan interactions with indigenous Australians on Australia's western and northern coasts.
Refugees in New Zealand have two main pathways for gaining protection in the country. Asylum seekers may seek protection after arrival in New Zealand. Refugees may also be resettled from offshore through New Zealand's Refugee Quota Programme. In 2017/18 a community sponsorship pathway was trialled, extended from 2021.
Scott John Morrison is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. He was the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales seat of Cook from 2007 until 2024. On 23 January 2024, he announced his departure from politics, and resigned on 28 February 2024.
The Australian government has a policy and practice of detaining in immigration detention facilities non-citizens not holding a valid visa, suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorised arrival, and those subject to deportation and removal in immigration detention until a decision is made by the immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of origin/passport. Persons in immigration detention may at any time opt to voluntarily leave Australia for their country of origin, or they may be deported or given a bridging or temporary visa. In 1992, Australia adopted a mandatory detention policy obliging the government to detain all persons entering or being in the country without a valid visa, while their claim to remain in Australia is processed and security and health checks undertaken. Also, at the same time, the law was changed to permit indefinite detention, from the previous limit of 273 days. The policy was instituted by the Keating government in 1992, and was varied by the subsequent Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison and Albanese Governments. The policy is regarded as controversial and has been criticised by a number of organisations. In 2004, the High Court of Australia confirmed the constitutionality of indefinite mandatory detention of non-citizens. However, this interpretation was overturned in a landmark decision, NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, in 2023, with the High Court concluding the practice was unlawful and unconstitutional.
The first Rudd government was the executive Government of Australia formed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The Rudd government commenced on 3 December 2007, when Rudd was sworn in along with his ministry. This took place just nine days after the defeat of the Howard government, which was a Coalition of members of the Liberal and National parties, at the 2007 federal election. The Rudd government concluded on 24 June 2010 when Rudd, under pressure from an impending leadership caucus ballot, stepped down from the leadership of the ALP and was succeeded by his deputy, Julia Gillard. Rudd was re-elected leader of the Labor Party in 2013 and served a second term as prime minister.
Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre or commonly just Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, is an Australian immigration detention facility located on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
On 15 December 2010, an Indonesian fishing boat carrying 89 asylum seekers and 3 crew members sank after being dashed against the rocks near Rocky Point, Christmas Island, an external Australian territory. 50 people died and 42 were rescued. The incident was the worst civilian maritime disaster in Australia in more than a century.
Illegal immigration to Australia is defined by the Migration Act 1958, which distinguishes between "lawful non-citizens" and "unlawful non-citizens".
The second Rudd government was the federal executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party. It commenced on 27 June 2013 and ceased on 18 September 2013. Rudd had previously served a term as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and been replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard, following an internal party spill. Rudd regained the Labor Party leadership by successfully re-challenging Gillard in a June 2013 party spill. On 5 August, Rudd called an election for 7 September 2013, which resulted in the defeat of his government by the Liberal/National Coalition led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, with government policy and public opinion changing over the years.
The Abbott government was the federal executive government of Australia led by the 28th Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The government was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition. The Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss, served as Deputy Prime Minister. Following the 2013 Australian federal election held on 7 September, the Coalition defeated the second Rudd government, ending six years of Labor government. The Abbott government was sworn into office on 18 September 2013. Less than two years later on 14 September 2015, Malcolm Turnbull defeated Abbott in a leadership ballot, 54 votes to 44 and the Turnbull government became the executive government of Australia.
General Angus John Campbell, is a senior officer in the Australian Army, serving as the Chief of the Defence Force since 6 July 2018. He was previously posted as Commander Operation Sovereign Borders from September 2013 until he was appointed Chief of Army in May 2015.
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea.
The Australian Border Force (ABF) is a federal law enforcement agency, part of the Department of Home Affairs, responsible for offshore and onshore border enforcement, investigations, compliance, detention operations and customs services in Australia. Through the ABFs Marine Unit, the ABF performs Coast Guard and marine law enforcement duties and is a component of the Maritime Border Command. The ABF is also part of the National Intelligence Community and is an active member of the World Customs Organization.
The Murugappan family, also known as the Nadesalingam family, consists of Nadesalingam Murugappan (Nades), his wife Kokilapathmapriya Nadesalingam (Priya) and their two daughters. They are Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum in Australia. The couple married in Australia after arriving separately on people smuggler boats; their children were subsequently born in Australia. Until their detention by the Australian Border Force in March 2018, the family, which was resident in the central Queensland town of Biloela, was consequently referred to as the Biloela family by some media. The cause of the couple and their children has been supported by some residents of Biloela as well as asylum-seeker advocates. The Australian federal government of the time assessed them not to be refugees and, consequently, detained and sought to remove them.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[The] background note provides a brief overview of the historical and political context surrounding boat arrivals in Australia since 1976.