September
18, 2012
Australian
defence personnel are set to begin building temporary accomodation for asylum
seekers on PNG's Manus Island as another planeload of Tamil asylum seekers is
processed in Nauru.Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told reporters in Canberra four C-130 aircraft departed Australia for PNG today, with 25 ADF personnel on board.
Mr Bowen said the team will work with other personnel already on the island.
The Manus Island processing facility will accommodate around 900 fewer asylum seekers than the 1500 person capacity centre on Nauru but is an integral part of Labor’s version of the Howard-era 'Pacific Solution'.
Mr Bowen said the current facilities were in an advanced state of disrepair. He could not say when it was expected asylum seekers would be housed on the small island.
Another planeload of Tamil asylum seekers touched down on Nauru early this morning, the second since Labor restarted offshore processing, and after a short breakfast were being shown to the tents that will be their homes for the months until permanent accommodation is built.
Ushered one by one off the white immigration Airbus jet by Australian Federal Police officers and into two waiting minivans, the 36 Tamil men — each wearing a white immigration department identification tag at their neck — were driven up the hill to the Topside OffShore Processing Centre, where they are expected to spend up to several years while their refugee claims are examined.
All came from the Christmas Island detention centre, which has already passed its regular capacity due to a surge in boats this year. All are claiming refugee status due to ongoing allegations of extrajudicial killings and disappearances in Sri Lanka.
Most of the men sat quietly, looking out the window of their bus as they were driven through the gates of the camp, though one man covered his face with his hands.
The minibuses were preceded by immigration officials and followed by a group of private security guards in a people mover.
With the Australian Army almost finished building the tent city, today’s arrivals will soon be followed by more. A boat carrying 10 people was detected off West Australia’s coast last night.
Another planeload of several dozen Tamils is expected later this week, and the first group of Afghan Hazaras early next week. By then the camp will house more than 150 asylum seekers.
Some of those 150 may also turn out to be women, children or whole families, as Immigration Minister Chris Bowen last week told a press conference that "you can expect to see a broad cross-section of people transferred to Nauru next week and in coming weeks".
Despite promises by Mr Bowen that Labor’s system on Nauru would involve a processing centre, not a detention camp, the site’s inhabitants are forbidden from leaving.
Mr Bowen said the Nauruan Government had agreed the processing of asylum seekers would occur under local law.
Under the recommendations of the Houston Report, asylum seekers on Nauru were assured of strict legal protection and welfare arrangements, including open access to physical and mental health services, education and training facilities and ready assistance with making asylum claims.
The transfer of the 36 Tamils men had gone ‘‘smoothly,’’ Mr Bowen said. Future transfers would include a ‘‘broad cross section of people’’, including ‘‘regular transfers’’ of families and groups with special needs such as children.
‘‘We would need to see transfers being operated and implemented to show the people smugglers and asylum seekers to show this policy is up and running and working,’’ he said.
‘‘That will take a little bit of time, it would take the transfers to be occurring on a regular basis.’’
A Nauruan government spokesman, Rod Henshaw, said on ABC radio that the situation was a "period of settling in".
"I know the Nauru government is anxious to have them settled and, over a period of time, to give them the privileges of wandering around."
He said he hoped the asylum seekers would be free to leave the camp in weeks or a month. ‘‘I couldn’t put a time on it ... but that is the objective, [to give the asylum seekers] the freedom of the island to some degree.’’
Questions also continue to be asked about the decision to process the refugee claims under Nauruan law. Last week the regional head of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Rick Towle, said that Australia was handing over legal responsibility for people seeking asylum in that country.
Some have expressed concern that Australia may disagree with a refugee approval made under Nauruan law and refuse to take the person, meaning they can’t be returned to their country or resettled in Australia.
The media remained barred from the site.
