The Evolution Of Australian Refugee Policy (1945-2007)

After the World War II, Australia needed mass of population because of the rapid development of economic society and strengthened its border. Australia intook a great deal of refugees from Europe according to its standard and procedure in the situation which traditional refugees from England could not satisfy the demand. This was the beginning that Australia intook refugees in a large scale. In the middle of 1970s, part of Indo-Chinese boat people sought asylum to Australia after the failure of the Vietnamese War, which caused panic of Australian, therefore Australia had to review its immigrant policy, and regulated the first formal official refugee policy in 1977, which accentuate the entry of boat people.Cambodian boat people were detained by the Federal Government immediately when they landed to Australia in 1989. They would be bestowed refugee status after they were determined, which was the refugee policy of mandatory detention during Hawke and Keating period. During the Howard Coalition Government, the government declared"the Pacific Solution"for"MV Tampa Affair"to deal with vast Middle-East boat people and implemented the refugee policy of"Offshore Detention", which emphasised the control and prevention of boat people.