Australia and Asylum Seekers

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Introduction
An asylum seeker is a person a refugee or migrant who flee from his or her country to
another country in order to seek asylum. From a policy perspective, the term asylum seeker
might be expected to denote who has given the international protection (Fleay & Hartley, 2016).
Considering the statistics, approximately, there are countries such as Ecuador, France, Iran,
Brazil, Switzerland are offering asylum from Australia (Fleay, Lumbus, & Hartley, 2016).
According to the world’s refugee council, a vast majority of the world’s 21.3 million people seek
shelter in the least developed countries with low socioeconomic status (Ziersch, Due, & Walsh,
2018). Nongovernment organization concerned organization concerns with refugee and asylum
seeker since it was difficult for displaced people to seek help due to stringent immigration policy.
The prime reason behind this is lack of the opportunity to legally access to the asylum procedure,
which compelled people to undertake offensive ways for illegal entries (Dauvergne, 2017).
Therefore, in recent years, the public as well as policymakers of many countries are focusing on
the refugee who arrived through third-country settlement. This paper will elaborate description
of the present scenario of asylum seeking people in Australia, key concepts of the sustainability
and it’s potential solutions in following paragraphs.
Description of the scenario seeking Australia:
Considering the data of refugee council of Australia, there are thousands of people
seeking asylum living in the Australian community (Dukic, McDonald, & Spaaij, 2017). Some
of them come by plane, some of them come by boat, and the way they came affected their way of
claiming protection. According to that report, approximately, 19590 had sought asylum in
Australia by boat and living in the community (Dukic, McDonald, & Spaaij, 2017). They have

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been released on bridging Visa E and 1815 were recorded as being waiting to bridge the visa E
which suggested that they do not have lawful permission to stay in the country (Fleay, Lumbus,
& Hartley, 2016). Approximately, 80 % of them living in Victoria or NSW and 1627 people are
living in Queensland (Fleay, Lumbus, & Hartley, 2016).
Asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by bridging Visa e are subjected to a series of
punitive measures that significantly destabilize their mental health and general wellbeing
(Dauvergne, 2017). Besides, these measures also affected their refugee determination process
that includes the inability to apply for permanent residency, removal of free legal assistance,
inability to reunite with immediate family members (Dukic, McDonald, & Spaaij, 2017).
According to statistics, approximately, 30, 000 asylum seekers are affected by these measures
and people who seek asylum have endured the traumatic experiences before arriving in Australia
(Fleay & Hartley, 2016). A considerate number of people clinically diagnosed with disorders
such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. A study by Fleay and Hartley
(2016), suggested that the higher risk of developing the disease are not removed by treatment
unless the key stressors are not removed (Dukic, McDonald, & Spaaij, 2017). Moreover, since
there are lack of medical histories and records the health screening that occurs before Australia
mainly focused on the public health screening rather than individual risk factors and harsh
conditions they exposed to. During the basements, the access to the mediocre and other health
facilities also absent. Consequently, it worsens the mental and physical wellbeing of the asylum-
seeking people. For health professionals, also lack familiarities with the health status of the
refugees also observed. Language barriers created a communication gap that means a delay in
the diagnosis and in timely care of the refugee (Ziersch, Due, & Walsh, 2018). Therefore, in
order to provide wellbeing and livelihood, UNHCR regional representation in Canberra closely

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monitors the situation and work to promote the respect for the international human right of
asylum seekers in Australia. Moreover, Baptcare, a leading residential and community care
provider of Victoria, which supports the people who are seeking asylum to live in the Australian
community (Dauvergne, 2017). Bapt cares with the collaboration of the Australian government
are taking initiative for retaining the Australian commitments for giving international protections
to the people who seek help (Ziersch, Due, & Walsh, 2018). Moreover, considering the Human
Rights act, Australian federal parliament and policymakers are making policies that include the
rights of the people to see the medical specialist due to the trauma caused (Dauvergne, 2017). In
the context of the current situation of the asylum-seeking person, other initiatives can be taken by
the public as well as policymakers for livelihood and well-being of the refugee.
Sustainability and potential solution
Sustainability is the concept of providing the present generation with its need of food,
shelter, quality healthcare and education as well as not affecting the ability of the future
generation to meet their own needs (Martin, 2015). Sustainability in livelihood is an important
concept and it is determined by the presence of ability to cope up with the shocks and stresses of
life, not affecting the natural resource related base and household related livelihood security.
Therefore, to achieve sustainability few aspects should be present so that a sustainable society
for the asylum seekers in Australia could be developed (Koser & McAuliffe, 2014). These pillars
or aspects are environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability for
the maintenance of renewable resources, increase their ability of those people to produce
economic substances for their better livelihood and maintaining the social structure so that their
growth and development could be secured. These are important measures from the sustainability
related point of view as it creates there are several health and social stigma present in the society

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which such people seeking asylum in Australia goes through and their present and future
generations have to face the consequences.
However, there are research evidences that majority of the people in Australia are living
with no proper visa or governmental permission and hence, are unable to receive the
governmental aids or benefits of the governmental policies to maintain the sustainability of their
life. As per James (2014), in Victoria, there are several sanctuaries or housing sections has been
created for the people seeking asylum however, majority of them are unable to use the facility
because of lack of proper governmental permissions and hence, they should be provided with
proper protective visa, and for their sustainable social development related community based
support so that it should be distributed among every asylum seekers within Australia. Further,
psychological peace and support are few of the aspects which helps in the providing a
sustainable environment to the people seeking asylum in Australia. This is an important step as
Creek (2014) mentions that people seeking asylum lives in fear of violence, social stigma, fear of
not being accepted in the foreign country and other social and cultural differences that led them
to seek asylum in other countries like Australia. Hence, they should be provided with physical
and mental healthcare support so that their fear and grievances and emerging violence could not
affect the host country (Robinson, 2013). Therefore, proper psychological support related
measures should also be provided to maintain a mental and social sustainability within the
community. Health and education are the basic fundamental rights of humans and it should be
provided to them in any condition, whether they are living in their own country or seeking
asylum in other nations. Therefore, these asylum seeking communities should be provided with
proper health and educational facilities for their holistic development could be achieved.
Therefore, sustainability is deeply connected to the overall development of people seeking

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asylum in Australia and it should be provided to them with proper governmental policies and
interventions (Hugo, 2014).
Conclusion
Seeking asylum in other countries is not easy for people as the situation in which they
leave their own country, the fear, violence, and stigma haunts them to the host country as well.
Further, they are concerned about the social and cultural difference they will be facing in host
country and hence are unable to raise their voice or demand anything associated withier right in
the host country. Hence, it is the duty of the host country to provide them with all the necessary
fundamental rights and choices so that they can live their life without any fear or concern in the
host country. Besides this, it is also the duty of the host country to provide the sense of
sustainability to the refugee people so that their health, education, social health and so on can be
protected. Further, in this assignment, a detailed background of the people seeking asylum in
Australia and the Australian policies produced for them has been provided so that while seeking
asylum in the country, their fundamental rights could be protected and they can be provided with
all the rights of health educational and other quality aspects that they deserve. Therefore, this
assignment provided a detailed insight of the health and livelihood related issues could be
addressed.

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References
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human rights obligations and righting the wrong for those seeking asylum. The
International Journal of Human Rights, 18(4-5), 479-507. DOI:
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Dauvergne, C. (2017). Making people illegal. In Migrants and Rights (pp. 77-94). Routledge.
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Dukic, D., McDonald, B., & Spaaij, R. (2017). Being able to play: Experiences of social
inclusion and exclusion within a football team of people seeking asylum. Social
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to employment: just what do we know?. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An
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Hugo, G. (2014). Change and continuity in Australian international migration
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