Parties trade asylum policy blows

19 Oct 2012, 5:52 pm   -   Source: AAP

The major parties have clashed over how long asylum seekers arriving by boat should be detained so they have no advantage over others.

A coalition plan to detain asylum seekers offshore for five years has been labelled policy on the run by Labor and dangerous by the Australian Greens.

The coalition says Labor's "no-advantage test" is not stopping asylum seekers from making the boat voyage to Australia without a visa, but it has vowed to deter them by ensuring they spent at least five years in an offshore processing centre.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the no-advantage principle would deter people smuggling because it would ensure those who arrived by boat without a visa wouldn't have an advantage over people who waited their turn in refugee camps.

"You've got to be careful that you don't give a 'how-to' guide to people smugglers, but the principle of people waiting for a substantial period of time on Nauru is a tough one, but it's an appropriate one," Mr Bowen told Fairfax radio.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the coalition would stop the boats with "a blunt message".

"If you come to Australia and you come by boat you will go to Nauru, and you should expect to spend a long time there, and that period of time is around about five years," he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

"It is madness to try to set up some sort of complicated formula where Afghans are processed quicker than Sri Lankans, or are processed quicker than Iranians or Iraqis."

Labor's no-advantage test is "bureau-babble," Mr Morrison said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the recent Houston review had given guidance on determining the length of time asylum seekers should be detained to ensure there was no advantage in arriving by boat.

"It invites people to deliver an integrated set of policy measures that will deal with the question of people smuggling and asylum seekers, so we're not making stuff up along, as we go, the way the opposition is."

Meanwhile, the government of Nauru issued a statement saying six asylum seekers, five Sri Lankans and one Iraqi, had opted to return to their homelands on Friday.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship had organised their return.

Nine asylum seekers sent to Nauru for processing have opted to return to their country of origin.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the government and the opposition were "locked in an auction" to see how cruel they could be to some of the world's most vulnerable people.

The lives of asylum seekers would be destroyed by living on a remote island locked in a refugee prison camp, she said.

"Indefinite detention is dangerous, and a minimum of five years is a recipe for disaster," she said.

"It will push brave men and women, vulnerable children, to absolute breaking point."

A letter signed by asylum seekers on Nauru, dated on Wednesday, was circulated by refugee advocates who said the detention centre was quickly turning into a "hellhole".

The refugees demanded processing of their cases start immediately. They want inspections from the United Nations to see their situation and medical care.

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