AUSTRALIA CONFRONTS IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/strong-lure-of-a-soft-landing-in-australia-for-asylum-seekers/story-e6freuzr-1225847684255
Strong lure of a soft landing in Australia for asylum seekers
By Paul Toohey and Steve Lewis
From: The Daily Telegraph
March 31, 2010 12:00AM
GLOBAL refugee groups have warned that the tide of asylum seekers is showing no signs of slowing, placing further pressure on Australia to receive boat people.
They have suggested Labor’s softer border protection policies have contributed to the record flow of asylum seekers arriving in Australia.
The Federal Government this week reached an unwelcome milestone with the arrival of the 100th asylum seeker boat since it took office. That pushed the number of refugee arrivals under the Rudd Government to 4386.
With the Christmas Island detention centre full, the Government has been forced to send planeloads of asylum seekers to the mainland. Among those were 89 asylum seekers transferred to Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre.
While Prime Minister Kevin Rudd claims the 89 asylum seekers are about to be “sent home”, not all are likely to be deported.
Many stand a good chance of winning permanent residency visas under a humanitarian appeal process introduced by the Rudd Government.
The 89 – whose applications for refugee status were rejected by Immigration Department officers – have the right to appeal to a special merits review panel, made up of former refugee review tribunal members.
“There has been a reasonable success rate at review,” the Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul said.
It was also confirmed yesterday that the 89 are being offered $1000 in cash plus airfares home but only if they do not have their case reviewed. If they fail before the panel, they will not get the $1000 and, in some cases, would immediately be deported.
The Immigration Department said offering cash to refugees was a policy most recently used with those in Nauru under the previous government’s Pacific Solution.
The deal offered to the 89 comes as the International Organisation for Migration and the UN High Commission for Refugees said they believed the international movement of refugees would continue indefinitely.
The UN said unauthorised asylum seekers had been attracted to Australia by Labor’s border protection policy, but argued the Federal Government was showing moral leadership rather than going soft.
“If increasing numbers can be explained it’s because Australia offers fair and humane refugee protection policies whereas many other countries don’t,” UNHCR representative Rick Towle said.
“The challenge is to raise the quality of protection offered in other places, not downgrade the standards Australia holds.”
Asked if things had improved for asylum seekers under Labor, Mr Towle said: “I would say certainly there have been considerable improvements in the quality of asylum offered, not least the abandoning of the Pacific Solution in late 2007.
“At a time of vigorous public debate in Australia, we hope to see strong, moral leadership.”
The remarks came as it can be confirmed that 20 detainees who have escaped detention centres since July 2009 remain on the run.
Chinese nationals made up 20 of the 24 detainees who had escaped from detention centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and South Australia.
Just four have been “relocated”, causing further embarrassment for the Rudd Government.
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