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Australia-Indonesia cooperation on asylum-seekers: a case of 'incentivised policy transfer'

journal contribution
posted on 2014-01-01, 00:00 authored by Amy NetheryAmy Nethery, C Gordyn
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.

History

Journal

Australian journal of international affairs

Volume

68

Pagination

177-193

Location

Abingdon, England

ISSN

1035-7718

eISSN

1465-332X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2013, Australian Institute of International Affairs

Issue

2

Publisher

Routledge