Australia has appealed to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region to consider establishing asylum-seeker processing centres similar to those in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
The Gillard government put forward the idea at a regional conference in Bali this week.
Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor also announced at the forum that Australia will increase its refugee intake from Indonesia.
Michael Kenny reports.
Thirty-seven countries attended the Bali Process talks, with Australia represented by Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor.
The debate in Australia over the direction of asylum-seeker policy is intensifying ahead of the federal election in September.
Last year alone, over 17,000 asylum-seekers tried to reach Australia by boat and over 3,000 have attempted to do so in the first three months of this year.
Senator Carr told delegates the federal opposition has undermined the Gillard Government's efforts to stem boat arrivals by blocking its plans to allow asylum claims to be processed in Malaysia.
Mr Carr says regional cooperation on asylum processing is a critical part of combating people-smuggling.
"Sustaining momentum however is more vital than ever. With the continued irregular movement of people in and through our region, people-smugglers and human traffickers continue to thrive. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2012 saw unprecedented migratory movements on all maritime routes in the Asia-Pacific region."
The countries present at the Bali talks backed plans to revamp a counter-terrorism agency established following the 2002 Bali bombings to work at shutting down people-smuggling.
The Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation is to be expanded to become a key part of regional efforts to combat people-smuggling and human trafficking.
The centre will have a new role in bringing together law enforcement and immigration experts from across the region.
Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor says Australia will also increase its annual intake of refugees from Indonesia by a further 600 places, in line with the recommendations made by the government's expert panel on asylum-seeker policy.
But the federal opposition's immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, believes any further increases in the refugee intake could be counter-productive.
"One of the problems of increasing the intake out of Indonesia - and the Indonesian government have expressed concern about this themselves on occasions - is that it creates a magnet for people to come to Indonesia. What Australia should be doing and what a coalition government would be doing, would be working with Indonesia and other countries in the region to help not only stop boats coming to Australia, but to stop the asylum seekers trying to transit through this region."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says closer regional cooperation is critical to combating people smuggling.
The UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, says growing numbers of people are taking to the seas, leaving some receiving countries feeling over-burdened with the responsibility of dealing with the problem.
The Australian Greens believe the solution to combating people-smuggling lies in expanding Australia's annual quota for refugees, thereby giving potential asylum-seekers a safer pathway to gaining permanent residency than risking perilous boat journeys.
The Greens' immigration spokeswoman, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, says the current emphasis upon offshore processing has failed and the government needs to consider a fresh approach.
"The Manus Island and Nauru detention centre and the *'no advantage test' has been a fundamental failure to stop those boats. We are having more boats. We're still having terrible boat tragedies and yet all the while, there are people desperately waiting to be resettled out of Indonesia. It's time the Australian government listened to our neighbours. They're asking us to take more people. We should do that."
Share
