The securitisation of migrant smuggling in Australia and its consequences for the Bali Process

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the Bali Process in the context of Australia’s securitised approach to migrant smuggling, and the consequences this has for both the Australia–Indonesia diplomatic relationship and the Bali Process overall. The Bali Process is the premier regional forum for combating migrant smuggling and is well placed to discuss and develop regional cooperation policies on irregular migration within the region. In particular, the Bali Process remains a key domain where Australia and Indonesia can contest and amend the norms and practices around the human rights of refugees and asylum-seekers. This article traces and analyses the emergence of Australia’s bilateral agreements for offshore processing and resettlement between 2011 and 2014, which Australian political elites aligned rhetorically to the Bali Process, but which the authors argue remain in tension with stated Bali Process objectives in terms of rights and protections for asylum-seekers and refugees. This article identifies that Australia’s security-driven policies and regional disagreements over humanitarian responsibility remain an ongoing tension within Bali Process states, and provides commentary on the implications of this for future Australian policy relating to regional cooperation on irregular migration.

KEYWORDS:

• asylum-seekers
• Australia–Indonesia relations
• Bali Process
• human rights
• migrant smuggling
• refugees
• securitisation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of Queensland, that supported part of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.