Nauru looks to hike refugee visa fees

26 Oct 2012, 6:03 pm   -   Source: AAP

Nauru may soon charge $1000 per month on visas for asylum seekers the Australian government sends there.

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The federal government may face an $18 million yearly visa bill for the asylum seekers it sends to Nauru for offshore processing.

The tiny Pacific island nation may introduce a new visa category, which it calls an Australian regional processing visa, that costs $3000 for three months, ABC radio reported on Friday.

The visas could net the Nauru government $90 million over five years, if the offshore processing centre reaches its capacity of 1500.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the commonwealth would cover visa costs, although no money has yet been paid.

"The government was aware of the visa requirements. It is reasonable that people being transferred to Nauru are on valid visas," the spokesman said in a statement.

"The visa charges are the subject of discussions between Australia and Nauru, so it would not be appropriate to comment further," he said, adding that the ongoing costs were factored into the operating budget for Nauru.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on the reports when asked on Friday.

"We'll keep working with the Nauruan government on the offshore processing arrangements that were announced some time back," she told reporters in South Australia.

The opposition's immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the government was being "very shadowy" regarding the cost of running Nauru.

"It's all shrouded in secrecy and it's important the government come clean," he told the Nine Network earlier on Friday.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey said Australians would end up paying for the visas "because we're the custodians of these people".

"They're entitled to charge what they want," he told reporters in Sydney.

"It doesn't surprise me, given that it looks like there's going to be more people going on boats to Nauru than there has been Japanese visitors to Australia."

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said sending asylum seekers to Nauru would cost Australia "absolutely huge amounts of money".

"Ultimately a lot of them will come back to Australia in the long term anyway, having been found to be refugees," she said.

"What we should do is invest in safe pathways to Australia, and I think what we're seeing now is a complete unravelling of the government's so-called compromise."

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