Australia signs pact to send asylum-seekers to PNG
20 July BBC
Asylum-seekers arriving by boat will no longer be resettled in
Australia but will go to Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has
announced.The news came as Mr Rudd set out an overhaul of asylum policy
ahead of a general election expected shortly.
Australia has seen a sharp rise in the number of asylum-seekers
arriving by boat in recent months.
Following the news, rioting reportedly broke out at an asylum centre
in Nauru. It was unclear if there was a link.
Thousands of asylum seekers attempt to reach Australia by boat every
yearPolice have been called in to help with a major disturbance at the
asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru,” the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) reported.The cause of the disturbance, involving 150
detainees, had not been established, ABC added.
Mr Rudd had said the “hard-line decision” was taken to ensure border
security. It was also aimed at dissuading people from making the
dangerous journey to Australia by boat.“Our country has had enough of
people-smugglers exploiting asylum-seekers and seeing them drown on the
high seas,” he said.The deal called the Regional Settlement Arrangement
was signed by the Australian and PNG leaders on Friday.
Mr Rudd, who ousted Julia Gillard as Labor Party leader amid dismal
polling figures last month, made the announcement in Brisbane flanked by
PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.From now on, any asylum-seeker who
arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in
Australia as a refugee,” Mr Rudd said.
Under the agreement, new arrivals will be sent to PNG - which is a
signatory to the United Nations Refugees Convention for assessment and
settled there if found to be a refugee.To accommodate the new arrivals,
an offshore processing centre in PNG's Manus island will be
significantly expanded to hold up to 3,000 people. No cap has been
placed on the number of people Australia can send to PNG, Mr Rudd said.
The new arrangements will allow Australia to help more people who are
genuinely in need and help prevent people smugglers from abusing our
system.”
The rules would apply to all those arriving in Australia by boat from
today, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said.
In return, Australia is to channel aid to PNG, including to a major
regional hospital and the university sector, The Australian reported. No
costs were disclosed in connection with the deal.Boat arrivals have
soared in the past 18 months, with most asylum seekers coming from Iraq,
Iran, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
They make their way to Indonesia and from there head to Christmas
Island, the closest part of Australian territory to Java.They travel in
boats that are often over-crowded and poorly-maintained. Several have
sunk in recent months, killing passengers.
Last year, the Australian government reintroduced a controversial
policy under which people arriving by boat in Australia are sent to
camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea for processing.But the policy has so
far failed to deter boat people, who are arriving in increasing numbers.
It has also been strongly criticised most recently by the UNHCR - for
the conditions which asylum-seekers face at the camps.
Late on Thursday, Indonesia said it had agreed to stop giving
Iranians visas on arrival as part of the measures to ease the
problem.Asylum has become a key election issue in Australia and polls
must be called before the end of November.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott - whose party looked on course to
trounce Labor at the polls before the leadership change - has said he
will turn boats back to Indonesia when safe to do so.Responding to this
agreement he said: “While this certainly is a very promising development
in offshore processing, it is about processing boat people, it's not
about stopping the boats and that in the end is what we have to have.”
Human rights advocate David Manne, meanwhile, said Australia had
signed up to international conventions to protect “people who come to
its shores, not exposing them to further risks elsewhere”.
The fact remains that Australia hosts only 0.3% of refugees worldwide
and yet what we see here is a policy designed not only to deter asylum
seekers from coming and seeking refuge in Australia, but one that also
proposes to shift our responsibilities on to others,” ABC quoted him as
saying.
Rights group Amnesty International's regional refugee co-ordinator
Graeme McGregor said the move would be marked “as the day Australia
decided to turn its back on the world's most vulnerable people, closed
the door and threw away the key”. |