Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My grievance is about the global movement of people and how it is being handled—or not handled. I recently attended a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Adult Migrant English Program, which has been empowering refugees and other migrants through English language learning and training. The Adult Migrant English Program was first established by Australia's first minister for immigration, Arthur Calwell, as part of the then government's provision of teaching English to the thousands of newly arrived migrants who formed the great post-World War II migration program. In fact, six months before it was officially introduced, a trial version of the AMEP was run at the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre as part of our settlement of our new Australians. Australia was the only country in the world to provide English language classes to newly arrived migrants at the time, and we have led the way ever since.

In celebrating 75 years of service to newly arrived migrants, Victoria's largest AMEP service provider, Melbourne AMEP, led by Melbourne Polytechnic, gave past and present students and teachers, including TAFE community partner providers, the opportunity to celebrate this milestone event and recognise student achievement. Present in the audience was a very special guest: Mary Elizabeth Calwell, the daughter of Arthur Calwell, who remembers well the initial implementation of the English language program as key to assisting newly arrived migrants to settle in Australia by giving them access to services and ultimately pathways to employment and settlement.

Of the many service providers at the event on the day, I want to especially mention the Meadow Heights Education Centre in my electorate of Calwell, its president, Phillip Perroni, and its CEO, Nader Hanna. Thank you for the excellent work that you do in ensuring that our newly arrived migrants and refugees are assisted with professionalism and care and given every opportunity to learn English and achieve positive settlement outcomes.There were many stories of success spoken about on the day, and I congratulate Frances Coppolillo, chief executive at Melbourne Polytechnic, and her staff for organising a wonderful day. I also want to take this opportunity to commend the work of the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs and member for Scullin for his continued work and policy reform in this space.

We recently celebrated Refugee Week, which offers us an opportunity to reflect on Australia's long history of resettling refugees and others in humanitarian need. Australia has welcomed over 950,000 refugees since World War II, and 67.7 per cent of our community in my electorate of Calwell have parents born overseas. They have made tremendous contributions to our nation. The migrants and refugees in my electorate have brought a diversity, a commitment and a dedication that has shaped the Australia we know today. The experiences in arriving from difficult circumstances, needing to find employment, educating children whilst buying a home and contributing to our nation are things felt by many and, on occasions such as this, programs such as AMEP resonate that much stronger.

The world today is in constant flux, experiencing the largest global movement of people in our history—some 100 million people are on the move, and I understand that that figure is growing. They are a combination of refugees and also people wanting to migrate from impoverished countries, looking for better opportunities in wealthier countries. They choose pathways that are fraught with life-threatening dangers, and they make perilous journeys across the seas and on inland cargo. They are people who, having no other choice, choose to put their lives and safety into the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers. We have seen so many times the tragic outcomes of such ventures, not only in our own region but also more recently and more frequently in Europe and in the UK.

My grievance is, as I said earlier, about the global community's failure to tackle collectively the issue of the global movement of people. I was recently in Greece and Cyprus, where there is now a huge problem around managing and dealing with the thousands of migrants and refugees who have fled war, and those who have come through the people-smuggling pipeline. Both Greece and Cyprus are struggling to address challenges to their social cohesion stemming from the perhaps unintended consequences of a deputisation of the issue in Europe under the guise of the so-called Dublin Regulation. The objective of the Dublin Regulation is to ensure quick access to the asylum procedures and the examination of an application on its merits by a single, clearly determined EU country. The regulation establishes the member state responsible for the examination of the asylum application.

In this case, Greece, Cyprus and Italy are the first countries the refugees and migrants reach and therefore they are responsible for processing. Of course these countries do get financial assistance, but they have ended up becoming a holding pattern for people who, in all cases, simply want to move on into other countries in the European Union. A report by Amnesty International called Europe's borderlands says:

The construction of a Fortress Europe that has severely limited the safe and legal avenues of entry for refugees to the EU at the same time as an explosion in the global refugee population, has inevitably generated considerable pressure on the EU's periphery states—particularly Greece and Italy, who are struggling to cope with the increase in arrivals of refugees and migrants. These pressures … reflect the need for both greater global solidarity, in response to the ever-growing refugee crisis, and greater internal solidarity between EU member states that currently share the responsibility for receiving asylum seekers unequally.

In practice, the ratification and implementation of the Dublin Regulation has highlighted some of the failures in Europe to actually address the issues of the global movement of people. The Dublin Regulation has, perversely, created almost the effective subsidisation of human trafficking throughout Europe—unintended consequences. Thousands of refugees and migrants become vulnerable to exploitation in both the labour markets and in the trafficking of women, and this risks the proliferation of a form of modern-day slavery in the heart of Europe. By leaving people to languish in the frontline member states, Europe is failing to find agreement on a fairer solution which takes pressure off countries such as Greece and Italy and provides a more comprehensive, practical and coherent global response.

Migration and the global movement of people is an issue for the world community, and we need to deal with it accordingly. Failure to do so will only add to the worrying trend of politicisation of refugees and migrants by many conservative and nationalistic movements that are now making a mark on the electoral map of Europe. The tensions around migration cannot be confined to one geographical location, country or continent. The refugee and migrant experience the world over is one which ultimately can be shaped by either fear or a welcoming attitude, and I'm very glad that we here in our communities have chosen the latter—a welcoming attitude. Belonging is not just a sense or a feeling; it means very deliberate and concrete actions to ensure that everyone, regardless of their culture, birthplace, language or religion, has access to safety, shelter, education, work, health care, respect and the freedom to live in peace in our communities right across our country here in Australia.

Migration is a core feature of our modern Australia, and it's the foundation upon which this country's social and economic prosperity is built. We should never take our success for granted—nor should we be quick to criticise. My grievance is that too often we do both. What we have to do is contrast our situation here in Australia to that of some of the responses in Europe. With respect to the implementation of mandates which would result in effectively maintaining the conditions in which human trafficking seems to occur in Europe, as the Finnish Non-Discrimination Ombudsman pointed out, 'the Dublin regulation is not adequately commensurate with the protection of victims of human trafficking'. The ombudsman found that, in complying with the Dublin III Regulation in relation to the return of victims to another country, which, in this context, was another EU country:

… victims of human trafficking receive inconsistent assistance, the system in place for the receipt of returnees is overstretched, and, due to the lack of information exchange, the receipt of assistance may be interrupted during the return.

They can be returned to an EU country in which they have been a victim of trafficking, without adequate protection. (Time expired)

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 18:23