- by: Dennis Shanahan, Political editor | From: The Australian
- November 23, 2012
ILLEGAL immigrants from
Sri Lanka who are not claiming to be refugees but are overwhelming the
detention system are being targeted for forced returns, some within 48 hours of
arrival.
The Gillard government's
new focus includes regular forced returns of Sri Lankans to their home country,
Australian Federal Police working in Sri Lanka to target people-smugglers,
quickly classifying illegal arrivals as economic migrants, refusing
"reintegration assistance" for those forcibly returned and sending the
most recent arrivals to Nauru and Manus Island.
In the three months
since the government announced its policy of putting asylum-seekers in
detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea for five years, more than 3500
Sri Lankans have arrived illegally by boat, with most not being from the Tamil
minority that lost the civil war three years ago. In all, 7868 asylum-seekers
have arrived since the August 13 announcement.
While asylum-seekers
from Pakistan and Afghanistan have dropped off markedly since August 13, Sri Lankan
"economic migrants" have almost doubled, swamping detention and
offshore processing centres on Christmas Island, Nauru and the reopened Manus
Island in PNG.
Tony Abbott has
responded to the government's failure on offshore processing by declaring the
Coalition will not agree to the government's plan to expand the humanitarian
refugee intake.
In a policy and budget
cut promise to be given in a speech today, the Opposition Leader says: "If
elected . . . the Coalition will save around $1.3 billion over the forward
estimates by not proceeding with the government's plan to increase the level of
Australia's humanitarian intake from 13,750 a year to 20,000.
"The Coalition will
always support a generous humanitarian program. However, it should not be
expanded while the government cannot afford to pay for it."
Mr Abbott said the
government had made it clear that increasing the size of the humanitarian
program would not stop the boats.
Analysis of boat arrival
nationalities, obtained by The Australian, reveals that in January there were
no arrivals from Sri Lanka, but since April, when about 100 arrived, the Sri
Lankan total has jumped every month to a peak last month of more than 1200.
In the same period the
number of Pakistani arrivals has dropped from 100 in August to just 10 this
month, while Afghan asylum-seekers are down from 360 in August to 100 last
month. The number of Iranians has remained steady at about 420 and Iraqi
arrivals have doubled to just over 200 last month although they are well down
so far this month.
Immigration Minister
Chris Bowen, who announced yesterday the forced return of 40 Sri Lankan men,
said the government would "continue to return people to Sri Lanka"
and "transfer people to Nauru and Manus Island".
In a reference to Sri
Lankans who were not seeking refugee status on the basis of being part of a
persecuted Tamil minority after the end of the civil war in 2009, Mr Bowen
said: "We will continue to return people where they do not engage
Australia's international obligations."
Government sources told
The Australian that most of the Sri Lankan illegal boat arrivals were not
Tamils but economic refugees who were not seeking refugee status.
Mr Bowen acknowledged
the "big increase" in Sri Lankan arrivals and said the government
would "immediately return anybody who does not have a credible asylum
claim, which we've been doing".
The involuntary return
of 40 Sri Lankan men yesterday by plane took to 466 the number of Sri Lankans
who had been sent home since August.
Mr Bowen said the
Greens' claim that their policy of expanding the humanitarian intake to 20,000
without a deterrent effect would cut the number of boat arrivals was wrong.
In his speech, Mr Abbott
cites Mr Bowen's remarks to support the Coalition's decision to limit the
humanitarian intake to 13,750 as part of a plan to save $1.3 billion over the
budget estimates.
"Over the coming
months, the Coalition will release a series of savings measures that will
demonstrate our strong commitment to fixing Labor's budget mess," Mr
Abbott will say.
"Restoring control
to our borders through putting in place the proven Howard policies will also
deliver significant savings to the budget. Each boat arrival costs the taxpayer
more than $12 million."
The Opposition Leader
will say that the Coalition has a "proud record of supporting those most
in need".
"Under the Howard
government, the humanitarian intake was expanded to over 13,000 places, making
it one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world," Mr
Abbott's prepared speech says.
"Under the Rudd and
Gillard governments, there have been more than 30,000 illegal arrivals. This
means that, to a large extent, the management of the humanitarian program has
been outsourced to the people-smugglers.
"If elected, the
Coalition will again refocus Australia's refugee and humanitarian program to
give priority to genuine refugees applying offshore.
"Under the
Coalition, a minimum of 11,000 places of the 13,750 places for the refugee and
humanitarian program will be reserved for offshore applicants.
"This will reverse
the trend under Labor where the number of places available for offshore refugee
and humanitarian entrants fell to 6718 places in 2011-12."
