Australia will move to send asylum-seekers to the Pacific states of Nauru and Papua New Guinea to deter boatpeople from risking their lives at sea, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Monday.
The decision came after an expert panel headed by former defence chief Angus Houston said Canberra should introduce greater disincentives to stop would-be refugees from paying people-smugglers to bring them by boat to Australia. The move is a political compromise by Gillard, who had resisted reopening the centres on Nauru and PNG in favour of a new arrangement with Malaysia that was at first struck down by the High Court and later rejected by parliament. But she said she needed to act to stop people drowning en route to Australia and she hoped that parliament would pass amended legislation this week.
“If the opposition co-operates, the minister would then make the relevant determinations for processing on Nauru and PNG immediately,” she said. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said if the legislation was passed, the plans would have to be approved by the PNG and Nauruan governments. But he warned: “From this point forward, anybody who comes to Australia by boat runs the risk of being transferred to an offshore processing place.” The prime minister said the government had endorsed in principle all recommendations in the report, including that Australia’s annual humanitarian intake be increased from the current 13,750 to 20,000.
The much-awaited independent report also called on Canberra to work closely with Indonesia, a transit country for many boatpeople, and Malaysia to stem the influx of maritime arrivals. Gillard’s speech came as police in Indonesia revealed they had arrested another 150 Afghan and Pakistani nationals who were planning to make the dangerous trip by boat to Australia.
