Operation Sovereign Borders

Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB) is a border protection operation led by the Australian Defence Force and headed by Major General Andrew Bottrell, aimed at stopping maritime arrivals of asylum seekers to Australia. The operation is the outcome of an election policy of the Coalition, which commenced on 18 September 2013 after the election of the Abbott Government at the 2013 federal election. The operation is an attempt to address issues surrounding people smuggling into Australia, by implementing a tough 'zero tolerance' posture towards boat arrivals in Australia. The Commander Operation Sovereign Borders, Angus Campbell, was appointed to the command on the creation of OSB on 18 September 2013.

Background


During the 2013 federal election, Tony Abbott campaigned on a policy that a Coalition government would "stop the boats" and would launch Operation Sovereign Borders, combining the resources of multiple government bodies under direct control of a three star general; Angus Campbell was subsequently promoted and appointed to oversee the operations.

Since appointment of the Abbott Government, the Office of the Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, (now Peter Dutton), no longer releases information on asylum seeker boat arrivals as they occur. It announced it would hold a weekly media briefing instead. In January 2014, having not held a media briefing for almost a month, Minister Morrison announced that, rather than holding weekly briefings, briefings will now be held on what he described as "an as needs basis". On 10 July 2014, Minister Morrison stated that the secrecy policy was put in place by General Campbell, which has been rigorously implemented by ministers, their advisers and various government departments.

Regional Deterrence Framework
On 23 August 2013, during the election campaign, the Coalition announced a key component of Operation Sovereign Borders called the Regional Deterrence Framework. Budgeted at AUD $420 million, the RDF aimed to engage with other countries in the region, particularly Indonesia, to prevent asylum seeker vessels leaving for Australia. The framework included a $20 million proposal (titled "The Indonesian community engagement programme") which was to include:
 * communications campaigns to raise awareness within local villages that people smuggling is a criminal activity;
 * a capped boat buy-back scheme that was to provide an incentive for owners of decrepit and dangerously unsafe boats to sell their boats to government officials rather than people smugglers;
 * support for wardens in local communities, whose role was to be to provide intelligence information to the Indonesian National Police on people smuggling operations;
 * the option in exceptional circumstances for bounty payments for the provision of information resulting in significant disruptions or arrests leading to convictions.

The "buy-the-boats" plan was widely ridiculed, with fact-checking group PolitiFact Australia calling the proposal "ridiculous". Lieutenant General Campbell told a Senate Estimates committee that two months into the OSB program, no boats had been purchased because Indonesia did not support the idea, although he stated that the measure remained available.

Structure
Operation Sovereign Borders operates as a Joint Agency Taskforce (JATF), with the support of a range of government agencies, organised as three operational task groups:
 * Detection, Interception and Transfer Task Group—led by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (incorporating Border Protection Command)
 * Disruption and Deterrence Task Group—led by the Australian Federal Police
 * Offshore Detention and Returns Task Group—led by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection

Outcomes
Abbott's government claimed a 90 per cent reduction in illegal maritime arrivals. There were 207 in November 2013 as opposed to 2,629 in November 2012.

In response, the ALP's immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, claimed there was a 40 per cent reduction in arrivals in the month following the introduction of the Regional Resettlement Arrangement with Papua New Guinea, shortly before the 2013 election.

On 30 March 2014, the Coalition announced that 100 days had passed since a "successful boat arrival". On 19 June, the Government announced six months since the last successful illegal boat arrival.

On 7 July 2014, a vessel containing 157 mostly Tamil asylum seekers from India was intercepted by Australian authorities 27 kilometres (17 mi) from Christmas Island. The government refused to confirm the existence, location or status of the boat, until the High Court placed an injunction on any attempted refoulement of the vessel's passengers to Sri Lanka. Pre-empting the decision of the court, Minister Morrison announced that the people on the boat would be transferred to the Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre in Western Australia, where they would be assessed by Indian consular officials under an arrangement made with that country to repatriate any Indian citizens or residents. On 2 August, Morrison announced that the group had refused to meet with Indian officials and were then transferred to the Nauru detention centre.

Turnback operations
The number of arrivals given in OSB operational updates is defined as those "transferred to Australian immigration authorities", and does not include arrivals in Australian territorial waters who have been subject to a turnback operation—that is, sent out of Australian waters on their own vessel, or an Australian vessel employed for this purpose. As of 7 February 2014, The Australian newspaper estimated that at least "six boatloads" of asylum seekers had been subject to turnbacks by OSB authorities.

On 15 January 2014, an orange fibreglass "survival capsule", containing about 60 asylum seekers, came ashore at Cikepuh in West Java. A second containing 34 people arrived at Pangandaran on 5 February. The Daily Telegraph reported that the Australian government was believed to have purchased eleven of the capsules from Singapore at a cost of around $500,000.

In May 2014, Australia was alleged to have placed two persons who had arrived earlier in the year onto a boat with other asylum seekers which was turned back to Indonesia.

In January 2015, new immigration minister Peter Dutton announced that 15 vessels, containing 429 asylum seekers in total, had been subject to turnback operations of some kind towards Indonesia or Sri Lanka.

In July 2015, shadow minister on immigration and border protection Richard Marles acknowledged that "Offshore processing and regional resettlement, together with the Coalition’s policy of turn-backs, is what actually stopped the boats."

In August 2015, minister Dutton stated that since December 2013, 633 people on 20 vessels have been subject to turnback operations, including a boat from Vietnam in July.

Resettlement
In 2014, the status of refugees sent to offshore processing centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea was decided: 13 people (9 people from Iran and 4 people from Pakistan) were granted aslyum, 7 people (from Iran, Pakistan and Cameroon) received negative assessments. The asylum protection in Nauru was valid from 2014 for up to 5 years. As of 2015 more than 400 people who had their refugee claims rejected had been returned home from the Australian-run detention centre in Papau New Guinea, some of which did so voluntarily.

International response
The Indonesian government has voiced concern over the operation due to its implications for Indonesia's national sovereignty. A member of the Golkar party, Tantowi Yahya, described the plan as 'offensive' and officials from the Indonesian Navy said 'forcing the boats back would also unfairly shift the burden of dealing with the asylum-seeker problem back on Indonesia'. The policy has also come under fire from refugee advocates.

On 26 September 2013, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa took the 'unusual step' of releasing details of his talks about the policy with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop, which was later blamed on a clerical error.

Australia has apologised for violating Indonesian waters during their "tow back" operations. These incursions occurred after CDF David Hurley stripped naval personnel of workplace safety protections that would have required them to exercise "reasonable care" to protect their safety and that of the refugees. On 21 January 2014, Customs and Defence announced that a joint review would be conducted to investigate the circumstances under which Australian naval vessels entered Indonesian territorial waters. The inquiry, which covered the period between 1 December 2013 and 20 January 2014, found that two RAN frigates had crossed into Indonesian territory four times during the period, while Customs vessels did so on another two occasions. In response, one Australian Navy officer lost his command, while several others were disciplined. Indonesia has responded to the incursions by deploying military assets to intercept people-smuggling boats.

Media response
Several journalists and media outlets have expressed concern and frustration over the tightly-controlled release of information about Operation Sovereign Borders, usually restricted to the weekly briefings held on Friday afternoons. In the weekly briefings, both Minister Morrison and Lieutenant General Campbell have refused to discuss "operational" or "on-water" matters in response to questions from journalists. The Minister has rationalised the control of information by stating that the government was not "operating a shipping news service for people smugglers".

On 22 January 2014, the ABC broadcast allegations that Royal Australian Navy personnel had mistreated asylum seekers during an OSB operation, including video footage of passengers receiving medical treatment in Indonesia for burns on their hands, which they claimed were sustained when they were forced to touch a hot boat engine. Minister Morrison downplayed refugee claims of being abused by the navy, saying that they had "strong motivations to fabricate stories", and was among several ministers to call for the ABC to apologise to the navy. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that "if there is any co-operation we can extend to ensure that these allegations are scotched then we'd be prepared to do it". The ABC's Media Watch program opined that ABC News had "over-reached" when reporting the story, and should have been more thorough in verifying the claims. On 4 February, ABC managing director Mark Scott issued a statement in which he said "The wording around the ABC's initial reporting needed to be more precise on that point", referring to the video footage verifying the injuries but not how they had occurred. On 7 February, Fairfax Media's correspondent in Indonesia, Michael Bachelard, interviewed Yousif Ibrahim Fasher who repeated the initial allegations, as well as several further claims of mistreatment and possible breaches of maritime law.

Legal response
53 Australian legal scholars signed a joint statement condemning the transfer of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, claiming a breach of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

On 7 July 2014, the High Court of Australia placed an injunction on the transfer of 153 asylum seekers to Sri Lankan authorities while the full bench of the court considered a challenge to the handover mounted by refugee advocates on the grounds that the government was breaching "non-refoulement" obligations under international law.