Elements of the campaign have been launched on the Australian Customs and Border Protection website

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Australian authorities have published a graphic campaign, seemingly aimed at deterring asylum seekers. It uses the slogan: “No way. They will not make Australia home”, and shows a map of Australia with a line struck through it. The campaign has also used a graphic novel depicting asylum seekers in distress in an offshore detention centre.



Elements of the campaign have been launched on the Department for Immigration and Border Protection website and on the Customs and Border Protection website, with neither department willing to comment on the material. The campaign also appears to include the first official concession that the Coalition government has ordered Australian defence personnel to turn asylum seeker boats back.



A section of the immigration site says: “Don’t waste your money – people smugglers are lying. The Australian government has instructed the Australian Defence Force to turn back boats where it is safe to do so.”

The 18-page digital graphic novel appears to be aimed at Afghan asylum seekers and was first published on the Customs and Border Protection website in November. It shows images of people suffering medical problems and depression in offshore detention centres.

The campaign also shows an illustration of a small boat on rough seas. The immigration department said it was a matter for Customs and Border Protection, who did not provide a comment by deadline.

The slogan for the campaign. Photograph: DIBP website

Immigration and border protection minister Scott Morrison also declined to comment, despite repeated attempts at contacting him.

In opposition, Morrison criticised the Labor government for running a multimillion dollar advertising campaign purportedly aimed at dissuading asylum seekers from arriving in Australia by boat.

The Labor government adverts, introduced on 19 July after the so-called PNG solution was introduced, were labelled as “propaganda” by the Coalition after they were published in newspapers in Australia before they were circulated abroad. The Labor government spent more than $3 million on the adverts for domestic publication.

“These ads are NSW Labor 101,” said Morrison at the time, “They are ram-raiding the taxpayer’s ATM … Eddie Obeid would be proud.”

Guardian Australia asked Customs to specify whether the new campaign would be published in domestic media or abroad, and how much the campaign had cost, but is yet to receive a response.

Green immigration spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson-Young described the graphic novel as “fear-mongering propaganda”, adding that it “fails to even acknowledge that the vast majority of refugees are felling war, torture and terror”.

“This document is in incredibly poor taste. The fact that it came from the Australian government is a disappointing indictment on our once generous nation which helped to draft the Refugee Convention,” she said.

