Health professionals confront the intentional harms of indefinite immigration detention : an Australian overview, evaluation of alternative responses and proposed strategy

Michael Dudley, Peter Young, Louise Newman, Fran Gale, Rohanna Stoddart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the following: how indefinite detention for deterrence (exemplified by Australia) injures asylum-seekers; how international legal authorities confirm Australia’s cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; how detention compromises health-care ethics and hurts health professionals; to weigh arguments for and against boycotting immigration detention; and to discover how health professionals might address these harms, achieving significant change. Design/methodology/approach: Secondary data analyses and ethical argumentation were employed. Findings: Australian Governments fully understand and accept policy-based injuries. They purposefully dispense cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and intend suffering that causes measurable harms for arriving asylum-seekers exercising their right under Australian law. Health professionals are ethically conflicted, not wanting to abandon patients yet constrained. Indefinite detention prevents them from alleviating sufferings and invites collusion, potentially strengthening harms; thwarts scientific inquiry and evidence-based interventions; and endangers their health whether they resist, leave or remain. Governments have primary responsibility for detained asylum-seekers’ health care. Health professional organisations should negotiate the minimum requirements for their members’ participation to ensure independence, and prevent conflicts of interest and inadvertent collaboration with and enabling systemic harms. Originality/value: Australia’s aggressive approach may become normalised, without its illegality being determined. Health professional colleges uniting over conditions of participation would foreground ethics and pressure governments internationally over this contagious and inexcusable policy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)35-51
Number of pages17
JournalInternational Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • Australia
  • detention of persons
  • health aspects
  • mental health
  • political refugees

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