Date November
30, 2012 | AAP
Andrea Hayward
Almost 600 asylum seekers have now been returned to Sri Lanka against
their will, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says.
A group of 50 Sri Lankan men were sent from Darwin to Colombo on Friday,
boosting the number "involuntarily" returned home to 593 since August
13, when the government restored offshore processing.
"The group was made up of single adult men - all recent arrivals
from different boats," Mr Bowen said in a statement.
"The Sri Lankans were advised of their status and that they were
subject to removal from Australia.
"They raised no issues that engaged Australia's international
obligations."
Mr Bowen said the government would continue to deport people in the same
circumstances.
"People who pay smugglers are risking their lives and throwing
their money away," he said.
"There is no visa on arrival, there is no speedy outcome and there
is no special treatment."
A further 107 Sri Lankans have returned home voluntarily.
The minister said the people returning involuntarily would not get
access to reintegration assistance.
"We will continue to transfer people to Nauru, and to Manus
Island," Mr Bowen said.
Twenty-eight asylum seekers arrived on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island
on Friday, including family groups.
They are the second group to arrive at the island, where landowners are
demanding compensation for the use of traditional land where the Howard-era
detention facility is being revived.
Construction of a permanent facility on Nauru has also been delayed as
the tiny Pacific nation's government finalises lease agreements with
landowners.
"Until then construction cannot begin," Nauru's Foreign
Affairs Minister Kieren Keke told the government's fortnightly bulletin.
"There's existing leases on the land, but the legal advice is that
some adjustments need to be made and landowners have fresh demands.
"So we need to find agreements with those new demands."
Asylum seekers will be moved out of tents into permanent accommodation
as construction progresses, Dr Keke said.
Interviews with asylum seekers by Nauru's justice department, with
assistance from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, started at the
weekend.
