Twenty Years After the Tampa Affair, Australia’s Left Must Keep Standing Up for Refugees
In 2001, conservative prime minister John Howard demonized 433 refugees who had been rescued at sea. It inaugurated an era of racist, abusive policies toward asylum seekers in Australia — and a movement that fights in solidarity with refugees.
Australian SAS troops head out in an inflatable boat to the MV Tampa, laden with asylum seekers, in August 2001. PM John Howard’s demonization of the refugees set the stage for decades of anti-immigrant policy. (Mike Bowers / Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
Twenty years ago, in response to a call from the Australian government, the Norwegian freight ship MV Tampa diverted course to rescue passengers on a boat sinking in the Indian Ocean. It saved 433 people from drowning, mostly Hazaras from Afghanistan trying to reach Australia to seek asylum.
Liberal then–prime minister John Howard’s response is now infamous. He cynically transformed the rescue into a political crisis and ushered in a brutal new era of anti-refugee politics in Australia. The result was an immigration system that has condemned thousands of refugees to mandatory offshore and indefinite detention. This system of state-sponsored torture has caused severe mental and physical harm and has led to the deaths (including murders) of some refugees.
Governments and defenders of human rights around the world have condemned Australia’s treatment of refugees, as have millions of Australians. Despite this, Howard’s anti-refugee stance continues to shape Australian politics and is now being copied by right-wing governments around the world. Twenty years after Tampa, the Left has an ongoing responsibility to understand the racist underpinnings of Australia’s immigration detention system — and to fight for refugees’ rights.
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