Australia–Indonesia cooperation on asylum-seekers: a case of ‘incentivised policy transfer’

Abstract

Australia and Indonesia have engaged in cooperation on asylum policy since the late 1990s, bilaterally on immigration detention and people-smuggling agreements, and multilaterally through the Bali Process. Seen from a global perspective, this form of cooperation is one of many such bilateral and multilateral agreements that stymie the ability of asylum-seekers to gain effective and durable protection. This article argues that policy transfer theory can explain how these agreements are achieved, their political implications, and their outcome for the refugee regime and the asylum-seekers reliant on the regime for protection. In the case study of Australia and Indonesia, the authors argue that the cooperation is best understood as a form of ‘incentivised policy transfer’, whereby Australia has provided substantial financial and diplomatic incentives to Indonesia to adopt policies consistent with Australia's own. The implications for asylum-seekers in the Asia-Pacific region are substantial, and include an increase in the use of immigration detention in Indonesia and the introduction of border security measures that restrict the ability of asylum-seekers to reach territory where they may claim protection under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

1990年代以来澳大利亚和印度尼西亚在避难政策上开展了合作，包括移民收容以及偷渡方面的双边协议，以及通过巴厘岛进程达成的多边协议。从全球视角来看，这种形式的合作属于众多同类的双边及多边协议，它们妨碍了避难者获得有效、持续保护的能力。本文指出政策转移理论可以解释这些协议是如何达成的，它们的意义和结果对于避难体制以及向该体制寻求庇护的人又意味着什么。在澳大利亚和印度尼西亚的个案研究中，作者提出最好把两国的合作理解为一种“激励性政策转移”，即澳大利亚向印尼提供大量的财政和外交激励，使之采取与澳方协调一致的政策。这一做法对亚太地区的寻求避难者意义重大，导致了印尼难民收容所的增加以及边境安全措施的引进，使得寻求避难者难以抵达他们想要抵达的地方，获得难民公约规定给予他们的保护。

Keywords:

• asylum policy
• Australia
• immigration detention
• incentivised policy transfer
• Indonesia
• people-smuggling

Notes

1. Non-refoulement is one of the key principles of the Refugee Convention and is set out in Article 33 (1). In essence, the principle holds that states should not return refugees to a place where their life or freedom may be threatened.