More boats will come, PM warns

14 Oct 2011, 6:16 pm   -   Source: AAP/AAP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned that the failure to secure a refugee swap deal with Malaysia risked more asylum-seekers gambling with their lives on unauthorised boat journeys.

RELATED

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned that the failure to secure a refugee swap deal with Malaysia risked more asylum-seekers gambling with their lives on unauthorised boat journeys.

Gillard conceded this week she could not implement the deal because she could not get the necessary legislation through the parliament.

Ms Gillard says the government remains committed to the deal but will revert to onshore processing for now.
  
The arrangement was aimed at stopping the flow of hundreds of people, mostly from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, coming by boat from Asian hubs each year in the hope of being resettled in Australia.
  
"We are at real risk... of seeing more boats," Gillard told ABC radio as she laid the blame squarely on opposition leader Tony Abbott, whose Liberal/National coalition refused to support the bill allowing the swap.
  
"My view is that we should be implementing the arrangement with Malaysia... it would be the greatest deterrence to stop people risking their lives at sea and getting on leaky boats," she said.

The Malaysian government said the deal with Australia would have tackled people trafficking.

"People trafficking is one of the hidden horrors of modern life and the arrangement between our governments would have tackled it in a way that protected the interests of Australia, Malaysia and, above all, the migrants involved," the Home Ministry said.

"Building on the momentum established over the past few months, we will continue to work with Australia to find new and effective ways to deal with this 21st century trade in human misery."

Ms Gillard on Friday repeated her claim that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was to blame for the defeat of the legislation, which would have reinstated the government's power to send asylum seekers to third countries, after a High Court decision nullified it.

"We are at risk of seeing more boats," she said. "If we do see that, there is one person to blame, Tony Abbott, for this mindless negativity, his reckless strategy which has brought offshore processing to an end."

The coalition says it will back Labor's migration law changes only if offshore processing is limited to countries which are signatories to the United Nations refugee convention. Malaysia is not a signatory.

Mr Abbott is not giving ground, saying Ms Gillard's own stubbornness is the real culprit. "She should have known weeks ago that the Malaysia people-swap was dead, she has never had a plan B," he said.

The Australian Greens called for an end to the blame game between the major parties.

"Rather than blaming each other, let's get on with the job we've already signed up to do under the refugee convention," Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Greens are happy with the return to onshore processing but want it made more efficient and humane.

Senator Hanson-Young has also called for an increase in Australia's humanitarian intake, from just under 15,000 now to more than 20,000.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said he had not considered heeding opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison's call for him to resign over the policy collapse.

"I treat that with the disdain it deserves," Mr Bowen said.

The government will now make greater use of bridging visas for asylum seekers who have arrived by boat, to take some pressure off detention centres. It will also continue putting some asylum seekers into community-based detention.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has welcomed the government's move to onshore processing and the increased emphasis on community-based solutions.

Amnesty International said the move back to onshore processing put Australia back on the same page as every other Western democracy.

Under the Malaysia solution, the government wanted to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 already processed refugees.

Any increase in boat arrivals is likely to put more pressure on the country's immigration review tribunals, which are already struggling to keep up with a huge increase in workload.

Applications to the Refugee Review Tribunal were up by 31 per cent to 2966 in 2010-11, its latest annual report shows.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.