Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Justice is a difficult concept to define that relates to what is right and wrong and what is fair and unfair. It relates to ideas of equality and is closely entwined with the values and ethics that people hold. Laws can only be as just as the society from which they stem. This is reflected through the stance that Australia’s Federal Government has taken in relation to asylum seekers, non-legal migrants, boarder applicants and refugees or “boat people” as they have been called by both media and government officials alike. The problem becomes more complicated as manipulation and misrepresentation become key to the governments, and the medias, harsh stance on these “boat people” who have unfairly been labeled as criminals. To combat societies fears, enhanced through media, non-reviewable and indeterminate mandatory detention has been enforced upon all those seeking asylum within Australia without valid documentation. Efforts to decrease Australia’s intake of asylum seekers such as the “Pacific-Solution”, have, despite softening the flow of asylum seekers to Australia, been consistently criticized. In determining a just solution to a nations “refugee crisis” it is important to maintain the fundamental principles an