Volume-XII, Issue-V, September 2026 |
Normalising Offshore Detention: Government Framing and Refugee Protection in Australia Shameer Kasim, Research Scholar, Università Magna Græcia di Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy |
Received: 28.08.2026 | Accepted: 19.09.2026 | Published Online: 30.09.2026 | Page No: 196-215 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.05W.385 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
Australia’s refugee governance regime has increasingly moved away from a protection-based model towards one based on deterrence, externalisation and migration control. Australia is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, but its offshore processing regime, particularly on Nauru and Christmas Island, has faced ongoing legal and humanitarian criticism concerning its compliance with international refugee law and the principle of non-refoulement. This article heavily examines the ways in which legal laws and the framework intended to protect refugee rights have been used in practice to purposefully to detain refugees, enforce access to asylum procedures and divide state responsibility through offshore processing arrangements. Using legal methods, government policy, parliamentary material, judicial decisions and publicly available evidence, including the Nauru Files and reporting on Australia’s offshore detention regime, the article traces the development of Australia’s externalisation policies and the political narratives that support them. Allegations of abuse, long detention, refugee deaths and the ignorance of responsibilities between Australia and Nauru are given maximum attention, creating a confusing legal landscape in which accountability is often contested. The article argues that Australia’s offshore detention system is part of a broader transformation in refugee governance, raising important questions about state responsibilty, legal ignorance and the future of refugee protection. | ||
Keywords: Refugee Governance; Offshore Detention; Externalisation; Government Framing; Non-Refoulement. |