BOAT
PEOPLE

1989-2015

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BOAT
PEOPLE

1989-2015

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Thai/Cambodia Border Refugee Camp 1989. In a 1989 photo, Vietnamese boat people wait for food in a Hong Kong refugee camp.

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Children in a Thai/Cambodian refugee camp 1989.

Beginning of a new wave of boat arrivals, with about 300 people arriving by boat each year, mostly from Cambodia, Vietnam and Southern China.

1989

NEW BOAT ARRIVALS

Paul Keating, Australia's Prime Minister in 1992. View of Port Hedland Detention Centre, 2002.

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Curtin Detention Centre in the Kimberley. First opened 1995.

The Labor Government of Paul Keating introduces mandatory detention for all people arriving without a valid visa.

1992

MANDATORY DETENTION

View of Woomera Detention Centre. Chidren's playground at Woomera Detention Centre.

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View of Baxter Detention Facility, near town of Port Augusta South Australia. The Baxter Centre was opened in 2002. Entrance gate, Baxter Detention Facility. Baxter was closed in 2007.

More asylum seekers begin to arrive, predominantly from the Middle East. The numbers are larger than before. Woomera Detention centre in South Australia opened.

1999

WOOMERA DETENTION CENTRE

Norwegian freighter, MV Tampa with 433 rescued asylum seekers aboard. Asylum seekers on the deck of the Tampa.

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John Howard, Australia's Prime Minister in 2001.

August: John Howard's Government denies permission for the Norwegian vessel the MV Tampa to enter Australian waters after it rescued 438 mainly Afghan refugees from a stranded boat off Christmas Island.

It leads to what becomes known as the 'Pacific Solution', where outlying territories of Australia such as Christmas Island are excised from the migration zone. This means asylum seeker arrivals there cannot automatically apply for an Australian visa. Asylum seekers sent to detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea while their refugee status was decided.

2001

TAMPA

Cartoon about the Children Overboard affair. The person being interviewed is Peter Reith who was Minister for Defence at the time of the affair. One of pictures used to falsely claim that asylum seekers had thrown their children into the sea.

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Peter Reith, Minister for Defence in John Howard’s government at the time of the Children Overboard affair.

7th October: the ‘Children Overboard’ affair. Asylum seekers were wrongly reported as having thrown children overboard from their boat. The Government released photos of children in the water to support the claim. It was more than 4 weeks before the report was publicly corrected and it was acknowledged that the photos had been misused.

2001

CHILDREN OVERBOARD

Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister in 2008. Entrance to Christmas Island Immigration Centre.

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The Christmas Island Detention Centre in 2008.

The Labor Government closes the centres at Manus Island and Nauru. Asylum seekers arriving by boat to be processed at Christmas Island.

2008

MANUS
ISLAND
& NAURU
CLOSED

Nauru is a 21 square kilometres island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It is 42km south of the equator and 4500km from Australia. Manus Island Detention Centre. It was opened by John Howard’s government in 2001, closed by Kevin Rudd in 2008 and re-opened by Julia Gillard’s government in 2011.

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Julia Gillard, Australia's Prime Minister in 2011.

Over 100 boats carrying more than 5,000 refugees, mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, arrive in Australia. Julia Gillard’s Labor Government reopens the asylum seeker processing centres at Manus Island in PNG and Nauru.

2011
2012

MANUS
ISLAND
& NAURU
RE-OPENED

Kevin Rudd. He replaced Julia Gillard as Australia's Prime Minister in June 2013. April 10 2013. Boat carrying 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers reached the Australian mainland at Geraldton on the coast of Western Australia after a journey of 6 weeks and 5000km. Just one month later the entire Australian mainland was excised.

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Interior of tent for asylum seekers on Manus Island 2013.

May: Australian mainland excised from Australia’s migration zone.

July: the Labor Government announces that any asylum seeker who came to Australia by boat without a visa would be refused settlement in Australia, and would instead be settled in Papua New Guinea.

2013

BOAT PEOPLE:
NO
SETTLEMENT
IN AUSTRALIA

Scott Morrison, Australia's Minister for Immigration from September 2013. Asylum seekers after being towed back to Indonesia.

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Tony Abbott, Australia's Prime Minister September 2013 to September 2015.

September: Tony Abbott’s Government continues Kevin Rudd’s policy of refusing settlement in Australia. The Government introduces Operation Sovereign Borders with the aim of ‘stopping the boats’.

2013

OPERATION SOVEREIGN BORDERS

Reza Berati, 23 year old asylum seeker, killed during a disturbance at Manus Island Detention Centre. Mr Berati was struck from behind by an employee of the centre. A review found that Mr Berati suffered a severe brain injury caused by a brutal beating.

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Australian activists held a lunchtime protest outside the Immigration Department offices in Sydney. Feb 2014: One person was killed and 77 injured during a second night of rioting at an Australian immigration detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

The Coalition Government reaches agreement with Cambodia for resettlement of refugees.

Iranian asylum seeker, Reza Berati, killed in the Manus Island detention centre.

2014

CAMBODIAN
RE-
SETTLEMENT

Gillian Triggs, President, Australian Human Rights Commission. Drawing by a child held in a detention centre.

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Drawing by a child held in a detention centre. Drawing by a child held in a detention centre.

Australian Human Rights Commission report, The Forgotten Children, the Report of the National Inquiry into Children in Detention released by the Australian government on 11th February.

2015

CHILDREN
IN
DETENTION

Further Reading

Personal refugee stories at The Refugee Council of Australia

About

Educational material for students of
Sydney Distance Education High School

Website by A Rodley

May, 2015