> The Sydney attack is the result of much preparation work

Q: Please outline briefly the legal work you do to aid refugees.
George Newhouse: My work with refugees began when the late Harry Freedman and I represented Vivian Solon, who was wrongfully deported from Australia to the Philippines, and Cornelia Rau, who had a mental illness and was wrongfully detained in an Australian detention centre for ten months.

The cases of these two vulnerable women changed the way Australians viewed the immigration detention system and led to reforms implemented by Prime Minister John Howard, but since then the “cowboy culture” has returned in the form of the Australian Border Force.

Sadly, people seeking asylum have become political pawns and in recent times Ministers for Immigration have dismantled basic protections for them, such as media scrutiny, transparency, due process and access to proper medical care in detention, with the consequence that vulnerable lives are being destroyed. This is evidenced by the recent tragic and unnecessary death of Fazel Chagini on Christmas Island and the difficulties that Abyan, a 23-year-old Somalian rape victim on Nauru had in accessing appropriate medical treatment in Nauru and, later, in Australia.

It is one thing to have a strong border protection policy; it is another knowingly to allow men, women and children to be harmed in our care.

The sorts of people I have helped include families of people who have died in Immigration detention or in boat tragedies. My focus is on Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. I have assisted individuals who faced a variety of serious problems including orphaned shipwreck survivors, people detained on the high seas in danger of return to their persecutors; and sick and vulnerable people in detention.

In 2013, together with Julian Burnside and Dan Mori, I mounted a constitutional challenge to the detention of asylum seekers on Nauru. I have championed the use of the common law duty of care to have children released from fenced detention and I have acted for the families of the deceased in three Australian inquests into refugee boats that sank at sea.

Q: Is your personal commitment to this work connected to your Jewish identity?

George: My work is inextricably tied to my Jewish identity. I was imbued with a tradition of service to the vulnerable in the community. My grandfather had visited refugee camps after World War II to assist orphaned Holocaust survivors come to Australia for a new life, and both he and my father had a long history of service to the Jewish community in Sydney and in Brisbane.

I grew up around Holocaust survivors and learned their history. I cannot look at those who have fled violence and war and who risk death on their return without empathising with them, given the experience in Europe and of those who attempted to flee to Palestine but were detained in Cyprus by the British Government.

Finally, my many years of religious education have had an impact on me – in particular the concept of tikkun olam.

Q: What kind of engagement on this issue would you like to see from the Australian Jewish community?

George: I find many Jewish people are touched by the plight of refugees and are supportive of better processes and standards of care but, as with the broader Australian community, this concern does not always translate into a public call for change to government and policy-makers.

It might assist if the Jewish community spoke out about the systemic injustice and cruelty. This might be through calling for proper process, transparency, proper medical care, the sharing of their own refugee experience (especially the antisemitic prejudice suffered by Jewish refugees coming to Australia) and explaining the background to the Refugee Convention.

Many Australians are not aware that Jews seeking asylum were turned away from Western and other countries prior to and during the Holocaust, and many were returned to their death at the hands of the Nazis.

Also, with government support cut to many NGOs and legal centres that assist refugees, financial or volunteer support from members of the Jewish community would be helpful.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

George: The conflict between border security and the treatment of asylum seekers is a vexed issue but consecutive governments have dehumanised people seeking asylum to the point where many Australians are no longer able to empathise with their plight. I don’t have the answer to that conundrum but I am hoping that a more balanced approach will prevail under the Turnbull and subsequent Australian Governments and that we can put the worst behind us.