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Australia Becomes a Founding Member of the UNHCR's Executive Committee
Australia accedes to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It is the sixth nation to ratify the treaty, thereby bringing it into force, and a founding member of the UNHCR's Executive Committee. -
Petrov Defects
Vladimir Petrov defects from the Soviet Union and is granted political asylum in Australia, starting the Petrov Affair. -
Australia Implements the Migration
The Australian Parliament passes the Migration Act 1958 to manage the entry into, presence in and departure or deportation from Australia of foreign nationals. The Act also regulates Australia's procedures for assessing the claims of asylum seekers and providing protection to refugees. -
Becomes a Signatory to he 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees
Australia accedes to the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Protocol removes the geographic and time limitations of the original Convention, broadening its scope to create capacity to respond to new refugee situations. -
First Detention Centre Introduced
The first immigration detention centre is established in Villawood, in a converted section of the migrant hostel established there in 1949. -
Onshore Detention Implemented
The Australian Government implements a procedure for dealing with onshore applications for refugee status in accordance with the Australia’s obligations under the Refugee Convention. -
Mandatory Detention is Introduced
Mandatory detention is introduced for non-citizens who arrive in Australia without a visa. The legislation, which has bipartisan support, disallows judicial review but limits detention at 273 days. -
MV Tampa Situation
The Norwegian ship MV Tampa rescues 439 Afghan asylum seekers from international waters near Australia. Captain Arne Rinnan attempts to dock at Christmas Island but is refused entry into Australian waters by Prime Minister Howard, who insists the passengers must disembark elsewhere and sends the SAS onto the vessel. This results in a diplomatic dispute between Australia, Norway, and Indonesia and global media coverage. The asylum seekers are eventually loaded onto a Royal Australian Navy vessel. -
The Border Protection Bill is introduced.
The Border Protection Bill is introduced. This provided the Australian Government with the power to: remove any ship in the territorial waters of Australia; use reasonable force to do so; provide that any person who was on the ship may be forcibly returned to the ship; guarantee that no asylum applications may be made by people on board the ship. A digest of the bill can be found here. -
The Pacific Solution is implemented
The Pacific Solution is implemented. Under the policy, asylum seekers arriving without authorisation are sent to Australian-funded detention camps in Pacific Island states, rather than being allowed to claim asylum on the Australian mainland. -
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now the Australian Human Rights Commission) releases A Last Resort?, the report of its naitonal inquiry into children in immigration detention. The inquiry found that children in Australian immigration detention centres had suffered numerous and repeated breaches of their human rights and that children detained for long periods of time were at a high risk of suffering mental illness. The inquiry found that the policy failed to protect the mental -
Compensation for Kuwait Man
A Kuwaiti man receives $200,000 compensation from ASIO after being wrongly detained for two years. While he was immediately granted asylum in 1997, he remained in immigration detention after ASIO incorrectly deemed him a security risk. -
Cornelia Rau Situation
It is revealed that a mentally ill German citizen holding Australian permanent residency, Cornelia Rau, had been held in detention as an unauthorised immigrant for 10 months. -
Peter Qasim Released
The longest serving detainee, Peter Qasim, is released. Fleeing from Indian Kashmir, he spent a total of seven years in detention. For years the Government refused to recognise him as a refugee and Indian authorities denied he was Indian. He is finally released on a bridging visa (into a psychiatric hospital) which denies him the right to permanent protection in Australia.