A Crisis of Compassion
by Melinda Tankard Reist
Zadok Perspectives Issue No. 64
Winter 1999

Part 5

BOTH THIS AND THE previous Government have attempted to legislate away their obligations to women who have suffered, or expect to suffer, fertility-control related persecution. (This is a common theme-whenever a court rules in favour of a refugee, legislation is immediately drafted to roll back their rights.)

In December 1994, Justice Sackville ruled that a married man and woman who had a well-founded fear that they would be forcibly sterilised if returned to China were refugees. He found that China's fertility control policies helped identify them as part of a "particular social group", on the grounds under the UN Refugee Convention under which claimants can apply for refugee status. The couple had arrived in Australia in 1993 when the woman was eight months pregnant and gave birth to a son. The then Labor Government immediately enacted legislation to prevent any applications on the basis of fertility control related persecution. However, this became unnecessary when the High Court overturned the Federal Court ruling.

This means there are no grounds by which women in this category can apply. In the case of a Chinese couple in detention for six years and who have three children, there are no grounds on which they can make a case that they fear forced sterilisation and other punishments for non-compliance with the policy (the mother has suffered two forced abortions before leaving China). They were denied permission to register their marriage when they married in 1989 and refused birth permission certificates for their two children born in 1990 and 1992.

While awaiting removal, their third child was born. A new attempt was made to secure their safety, by lodging an application on the child's behalf. While the Refugee Review Tribunal found in September last year that, as an unauthorised "black child", Martin would face persecution if returned to China, with the "denial of access to subsidised food, health and education and all other welfare benefits for many years", it determined this persecution did not fall within a Convention-based ground. The Federal Court later ruled in the boy's favour, though this ruling was overturned.
Unless the Immigration Minister intervenes, this family also will be deported.

Diffidence and hostility greets unauthorised arrivals. Asylum seekers have been denied access to legal advice, detained for extended periods and held incommunicado in far away places. As Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti has pointed out: "Our policy to overseas asylum seekers in circumstances where we can control the numbers and choose those who we take is second to none. But if they come here and seek refugee status, then our record is one of the hardest, most uncompromising and least humane."

The Christian concept of welcoming the stranger and providing them comfort has steadily been eroded in this country. Mercy and compassion have fallen victim to the forces of economic rationalism, trade considerations and the need to avoid diplomatic incidents. Those in genuine need of our protection are falling through the cracks. Border control-not refugee protection-has become the watchword. With the arrival of recent boats, the assumption in the media and elsewhere is that all on board are illegals, invading our shore. No one appears to have asked whether there might be genuine refugees amongst them.

Our laws are supposed to serve the common good. Politics relating to pregnant Chinese women are serving no good at all. In the case of Ms Zhu and her son, a grave offence have been committed against their dignity. How can that be tolerated?
But there is still time to make reparation.

To: Part 6

Melinda Tankard Reist Melinda Tankard Reist is a freelance writer with a special interest in bioethics, medical abuses of women and human rights abuses in population programs. She advises Senator Brian Harradine on these issues. Her forthcoming book, Giving Sorrow Words: Women's Stories of Abortion Grief, will be published in March next year by Duffy and Snellgrove.