How Australia's migrant policy works

Tony Abbott claims Europe should copy his controversial "turn back the boats policy" and it is timely to review Australia's approach and whether it works and where.

Tony Abbott's recent call for Europe to adopt Australia's own hard-line "stop the boats" approach to asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean has come under heavy criticism.

Illegal migrants running aground on Zefyros beach on Rhodes Island

Experts have warned the controversial Australian methods - which include deploying the navy to tow back boats, setting up remote island detention centres and even providing fresh lifeboats for the voyage back to foreign water - are inhumane, unlawful and will certainly not work in Europe.

But how exactly does Australia's approach work - and could it really be replicated?

Since he came to power in September 2013, Abbott's measures have effectively brought an end to the arrival of asylum seekers by boat, after more than 20,000 arrived - or almost a boat a day - in 2013.

Refugees

This has meant, some people have languished in the centres for years, while those recognised as refugees could be released into countries such as Papua New Guinea, a poverty-stricken nation with high rates of violence and disease, and Nauru, a tiny, isolated and effectively bankrupt island.

Despite critics saying the measures are in breach of international law, Abbott has insisted they are the most effective way to stop the flow of boat arrivals and the people smuggling trade.

Like Europe, Australia has witnessed numerous tragedies in which rickety boats sunk while attempting the voyage, leaving hundreds of asylum seekers dead.

Australia's tough response marks a vast shift from the 1970s, when Canberra opened the doors to thousands of boat people fleeing the Vietnam war and its aftermath.

Malcom Fraser, a former conservative prime minister, allowed 2,059 Indo-Chinese boat people to settle, along with more than 200,000 refugees whose claims were settled in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand from 1976 to 1982.

Fraser, who died last month, said the Abbott government's policies were cruel and tyrannical and had "destroyed the rule of law as we know it".

Most of the asylum seekers in recent years have come via Indonesia from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

International criticism

Critics say conditions in the offshore detention camps are inhumane and that Australia's approach is inconsistent with international law and with the country's obligations as a signatory to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention.

A UN report last month found that Australia's detention of children and the indefinite holding of asylum seekers in harsh conditions on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea was a violation of the international convention against torture.

Alex Reilly, an expert on refugee law at the University of Adelaide, said Australia's approach breached international laws against indefinite detention and was probably also a violation of Australia's obligations under the 1951 convention because it encouraged detainees to return home and risk persecution.

"Keeping someone on an off-shores detention centre without any prospect of release is indefinite detention," he told The Telegraph.

"The legality of Australia's approach is by no means certain and clearly breaches rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Some asylum seekers have voluntarily gone back but that may be because conditions in offshore detention are so dreadful that they are willing to go back and be persecuted at home."

But could it work here?

Responding to the capsizing of a boat off Libya which left some 800 people dead, Abbott extended his mantra to Europe, saying the "only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats."

"We must resolve to stop this terrible problem and the only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people smuggling trade," he said. "That's why it is so urgent that the countries of Europe adopt very strong policies that will end the people-smuggling trade across the Mediterranean."

But some analysts have warned that Abbott's approach will not work in Europe because Australia has the advantage of being geographically isolated, so that forcefully deterring boat arrivals leaves them with no alternative destinations.

"At one level the Australian policy has worked - it has been a great disincentive to people to come because they know they won't be processed in Australia," Associate Prof Reilly said.

"In the Mediterranean, if people can't make it to Italy, they may attempt less safe passage to other countries. If people can't get to Australia, they have nowhere else to go. The next place is New Zealand which is untenable - it is so far away."

- The Telegraph