Govt confirms plan to transfer asylum seekers offshore
The Federal Government will introduce legislation that means asylum seekers who make it to the Australian mainland will be transferred to offshore immigration centres for assessment.
Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone says it is essentially an extension of the so-called "Pacific solution".
Senator Vanstone says people found to be refugees will stay offshore until they are resettled in a third country.
"Unauthorised boat arrivals and their asylum claims will be treated in the same way whether they land on offshore excise islands for the mainland," Senator Vanstone said.
"That will in fact introduce some more equity into the situation."
Furious reaction
The reaction from refugee and human rights advocates to the Federal Government's proposals for dealing with any flow of Papuan asylum seekers has been furious.
The policy has been described as extreme, alarming and disappointing.
Refugee lawyers had been expecting the Government to give Indonesia a say in the Immigration Department's process of determining asylum seekers' claims.
But expanding the regulations that allow thousands of islands off the mainland to be excised form Australia's migration zone, to deport asylum seekers who arrive on the mainland to offshore centres like Christmas Island or Manus Island where Australian migration law does apply, has taken some by surprise.
Dr Graham Tom from Amnesty International says excising territory is a very retrograde step.
"It is a surprise, given the way that the 43 Papuans were assessed when they arrived," he said.
"The fact that they had their cases assessed on their merits, the fact that the Department believed that they would face persecution and they were granted protection in this country, did send a very clear signal that all refugees would be treated equally, that they would each have their cases assessed on their merits and this was very positive and the Australian Government made it very clear that's what it was going to do to all governments concerned.
"So to then turn around now and try and placate foreign powers from which individuals are fleeing was a very surprising step and an extremely disappointing step."
Dr Tom is concerned about the signal the Government is sending.
"To send people to a country to be processed where they don't get to have the full benefits of the refugee status determination system here is clearly a penalty," he said.
International law 'breach'
Amnesty says sending asylum seekers to offshore processing centres is better than allowing a foreign power have a say in refugee claims being assessed in Australia because that is less likely to put lives at risk.
But the human rights organisation says it still puts Australia in breach its international obligations.
David Manne from the Melbourne-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre backs Amnesty's stance.
"This is an extreme and alarming development and a radical and very dangerous over-reaction," he said.
"Effectively the Australian Government is signalling that its prepared to be pressured by a foreign government to rewrite our own laws and our commitment to basic fundamental protection of vulnerable people who come to our country.
"It says that we are not prepared to abide by the basic and fundamental rights that apply under the refugees convention to people who come to our country.
"People have a clear cut fundamental right to seek asylum in Australia and to have their case for protection fully and properly heard in Australia.
"This proposal says that the whole of Australia has become a dehumanised zone ... where basic fundamental human rights do not apply."
Source: ABC
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