Australia will transfer 157 Tamil asylum seekers it has been holding at sea for nearly a month to a mainland detention centre, the immigration minister said yesterday, in an apparent setback for the government’s policies.
Australia has provided little information about the asylum seekers, detained by customs after setting sail from India. Their case was due to be heard by the high court next month.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison struck a combative tone, refusing to answer questions about the condition of the asylum seekers or the impact the move could have on policy.
He insisted, however, that the government was not backing down from a regime that he says prevented the thousands of boat arrivals a month the country experienced during much of 2013 and the resultant spike in deaths at sea.
“They will not be resettled in Australia. That is the policy of the Australian government and there is no change to our policy on any front and more importantly there is no change to our resolve,” he said.
Australia uses offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru to process would-be refugees trying to reach the country, often in unsafe boats after paying people smugglers in Indonesia. A government source said that this group of asylum seekers would be transferred to the remote Curtin Detention Centre in outback western Australia.
Under a tough policy brought in by former prime minister Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party, no one attempting to arrive in Australia by boat to claim asylum can ever be settled in the country, regardless of the final status they get.
Mr Morrison said a deal had been reached with India during a visit there this week to grant consular access to the detention centre in order to identify Indian nationals who could be returned to their home country. “The minister for home affairs has confirmed to the Australian government that in addition to India’s standing policy of receiving returns of any Indian citizens, he indicated to me at our meeting that they will also consider the return of those who may be Sri Lankan nationals,” Mr Morrison said.
In New Delhi, India’s interior ministry denied any offer had been made to take in Sri Lankan nationals. “This is not true at all. We have only asked for consular access to those who might be Indians. We have not offered to take Sri Lankan nationals.” – (Reuters)