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12 Pac. Rim L. & Pol'y J. 49 (2003)
In the Wake of the Tampa: Conflicting Visions of International Refugee Law in the Management of Refugee Flows

handle is hein.journals/pacrimlp12 and id is 61 raw text is: Copyright C 2003 Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal Association IN THE WAKE OF THE TAMPA: CONFLICTING VISIONS OF INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE LAW IN THE MANAGEMENT OF REFUGEE FLOWS Mary Crockt Abstract: The Australian Government's decision in August 2001 to close its doors to a maritime Good Samaritan, Norwegian Captain Rinnan, his crew, and 433 Afghan and Iraqi rescuees, provided a curious contrast to the image of humanity, generosity, and openness that Australia tried so hard to foster during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Victims or villains according to how the facts and the law are characterized, the MI/V Tampa rescuers represented for lawyers the intersection of a variety of areas of law and a clash of legal principles. The ambiguities in both international and state law pertaining to asylum seekers and refugees give rise to questions of state responsibility. The stand taken by Australia set a precedent that, if followed by other refugee receiving countries, could only worsen the already deplorable problems facing asylum seekers in the world today. The immediate Australian response to the Tampa Affair was a rash of legislative amendments to Australia's 1958 Migration Act that stifled appeals to federal.courts and granted officers a broad range of power over rescuers within and outside of Australia's territorial jurisdiction. Australia has also responded with Operation Relex and the Pacific Solution which have not only been inadequate to address the needs of the rescuers, but have arguably violated both state and international law. The conflicting interpretations of the law-both domestic and international-that have emerged in the wake of the Tampa may be testament to the inadequacies of the legal framework for the protection of refugees. I. POINTS OF DEPARTURE The decision by the Australian Government to close its doors to sea- borne asylum seekers, or boat people, in August 2001 took many people by surprise.' Perhaps it was the nature of the incident that led to the t B.A. (Hons.) L.L.B. (Hos.) Ph.D. (Melb.), Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sydney; Chair, Nationality and Residence Committee, International Law Section, Law Council of Australia. This Article is based on various lectures and seminars Professor Crock has delivered on the subject of the Tampa Incident, but was prepared first and foremost for the Symposium held at the University of Washington, Seattle, Australia's Tampa Incident: The Convergence of International Domestic and Refugee and Maritime Law in the Pacific Rim, in April 2002. Mary Crock also authored a second article on the Tampa Incident, entitled Mary Crock, Durable Solutions or Politics of Misery? Refugee Protection in Australia After the Tampa, in FENCED IN: BORDER PROTECTION, ASYLUM AND DETENTION IN AUSTRALIA (Michael Darcy ed., forthcoming). Thanks are due to Edwin Abuya, Ben Saul, and Ed Santow for research assistance, and to the following people who provided commentary on drafts of this paper: Guy Goodwin- Gill, Don Rothwell, Penelope Mathew, Michael Head, Veronica Taylor, Jessica E. Tauman, Ron McCallum, Ellen Hansen and Marissa Bandharangshi. Any errors that remain and opinions expressed are the author's own. Donald Rothwell provides the following account of the events that began the Tampa Affair:

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