Australia proposes new policy for asylum seekers

By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

Australian PM Julia Gillard makes a policy announcement regarding asylum seekers. (Photo Courtesy of CBC News.)
Australian PM Julia Gillard makes a policy announcement regarding asylum seekers. (Photo Courtesy of CBC News.)

SYDNEY, Australia – In an effort to unveil a new refugee policy, Australia’s new leader has proposed a plan to develop a regional processing center in East Timor in order to curb public opposition to an influx of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

“In recent days I have discussed with [President] Ramos Horta of East Timor the possibility of establishing a regional processing center for the purpose of receiving and processing irregular entrance to the region,” Julia Gillard announced in her first policy speech since assuming her role as prime minister.

“A boat ride to Australia would just be a ticket back to the regional processing center,” Gillard added.

A hotly debated topic in Australia, illegal immigration has been dealt with in different ways by past leaders. Prime Minister John Howard set up detention centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. In 2007, Kevin Rudd supported a processing center at Australian-run Christmas Island, which can no longer cope with the number of people.

Though Australia only receives a tiny fraction of the world’s asylum seekers, since 2007 more than four thousand asylum seekers, many of them Afghans and Sri Lankans, have made the dangerous voyage via Indonesia on rickety boats, fleeing war and persecution.

East Timor’s deputy prime minister, José Luis Guterres, says that the country’s government has told Australia that East Timor is not ready establish such a center, though the government will consider Gillard’s request and send an official response soon.

Added East Timor’s foreign minister Zacarias da Costa, “We are a new country. Of course our borders are not yet one hundred percent secure. We are still developing our policies and we’ve been working together with Australia to strengthen our own mechanisms.”

Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott has also announced measures to deal with asylum seekers, including prioritizing offshore refugee applicants and turning away incoming boats when possible.

Gillard also announced that the Australian government was lifting the suspension on processing claims for Sri Lankans after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report that the Sri Lankan refugee situation was improving.

For more information, please see:

Sydney Morning Herald – Labor’s Indian Ocean Solution – 7 July 2010

ABC News – East Timor ‘not ready’ for asylum centre – 6 July 2010

Al Jazeera – Australia plans new refugee policy – 6 July 2010

CBC News – Australia proposes East Timor refugee hub – 6 July 2010

New York Times – Australia Proposes Refugee Hub in East Timor – 6 July 2010

Sky News – PM Gillard Attempts To Calm Immigration Storm – 6 July 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive