A plane carrying dozens of Sri Lankan men arrived on Nauru this morning as the airlift to transport asylum seekers from Christmas Island began. Earlier, the Nauruan government said it was expecting between 40 and 50 asylum seekers to be transferred from Christmas Island.
It is understood the asylum seekers are Sri Lankans and that they are all unaccompanied males. The group will be the first to be dealt with under the Federal Government's new offshore processing legislation.
The Immigration Department says the temporary tent camp built by the Australian Army on Nauru is now ready to house its first occupants. Initially it will be able to house 150 asylum seekers, who will sleep five to a tent in the all-male camp.
The tents will have wooden flooring, lighting and power points. There are also kitchen facilities, a dining hall and facilities for people to use phones and the internet. Women and children will be housed elsewhere on the island.
The Opposition claims asylum seekers sent to Nauru can expect to be resettled under the Federal Government's plans.
This morning Christmas Island's administrator said asylum seekers in the island's detention centre were calm, despite knowing they might be sent to Nauru. Brian Lacy told AM there are currently 2,000 asylum seekers on the island, and he warned the Government not to allow the numbers to rise above that.
"As a matter of fact the mood is quite calm at the present time," he said. "It has been calm and continues to be calm, and that's despite the fact that all of the people that have arrived after August 13 have actually been informed that they are subject to removal to Nauru and Manus Island."
The Greens have raised concerns that authorities may use tasers, guns and batons to get Nauru-bound asylum seekers on and off planes. The federal government has said that reasonable steps would be taken to ensure the asylum seekers followed instructions.
Also on Thursday a boat carrying the fifth-largest group of people to arrive this year was intercepted off Western Australia. All persons arriving by boat since August 13 run the risk of being taken to Nauru for processing or to another detention facility being reopened on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.
(Since Labor's Kevin Rudd's defeat of John Howard's conservative government in 2007 General Elections the previous deterrent measures such as Pacific Island detention centers and short-term Protection Visas were scrapped, and the result is the deluge of illegal boat people mostly Muslims from the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Frightened by Australian public opinion against the hordes of illegal boat-Muslims Julia Gillard's Labor government has so-far brought back the Pacific Island detention policy last year, but the boats are still arriving with the tacit support of Muslim Indonesia with funding from the OIC and Saudi Arabia.
IMHO the only sure way to stop the Muslim boats illegally entering Australia is to issue these illegal Muslims with short-term Protection Visas instead of the current Labor government's stupid policy of generously issuing them Permanent Resident Visas immediately and later the Australian Citizenship within two years.
John Howard Conservative Government had done it before and stopped the illegal Muslim flow completely till this stupid Labor mob came in and totally flooded Australia with Muslim Illegals - who will eventually vote for Labor once they get their citizenships and voting rights - like Labor's left wing counterparts have been doing in the Europe and rapidly turning the continent into the Islamic Republic of Eurabia.)
Sinking refugee boat off Australian Coast. |
More AFP Officers on the Plane than the Refugees
A chartered commercial aircraft is expected to land on Nauru with about 40 male asylum seekers and a contingent of Australian Federal Police on Friday morning. Tent accommodation has been prepared for the asylum seekers, while more permanent facilities are built.
AFP officers arriving Christmas Island to escort refugees. |
The Greens have raised concerns that authorities may use tasers, guns and batons to get Nauru-bound asylum seekers on and off planes. The federal government has said that reasonable steps would be taken to ensure the asylum seekers followed instructions.
(The Nauru government has asked that force not be used against any person. But more than 80 Australian Federal Police officers are on the plane ferrying only 40 boat people to forcefully handle the removal if the asylum seekers refuse to disembark at Nauru.)
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked Labor frontbencher Kate Lundy in the Senate on Thursday to explain what type of force was reasonably necessary and whether the government would comply with Nauru's request.
Senator Hanson-Young asked if the use of tasers, guns, batons and drugging was acceptable. Senator Lundy said such speculation was "inflammatory and disappointing". She said under the law, officers can use force if necessary and reasonable.
"Section 198AD refers to the taking of people to a regional processing country - provides for certain actions that may be taken to effect that transfer, including placing the person on a vehicle or vessel and restraining them," she said.
"It also provides in doing these things an officer may use such force as is necessary or reasonable."
AFP riot squad on Christmas Island where the boat people are kept. |
Nauru Island at the Top-Right Corner. |
Christmas Island, Australia |
Frightened by Australian public opinion against the hordes of illegal boat-Muslims Julia Gillard's Labor government has so-far brought back the Pacific Island detention policy last year, but the boats are still arriving with the tacit support of Muslim Indonesia with funding from the OIC and Saudi Arabia.
IMHO the only sure way to stop the Muslim boats illegally entering Australia is to issue these illegal Muslims with short-term Protection Visas instead of the current Labor government's stupid policy of generously issuing them Permanent Resident Visas immediately and later the Australian Citizenship within two years.
John Howard Conservative Government had done it before and stopped the illegal Muslim flow completely till this stupid Labor mob came in and totally flooded Australia with Muslim Illegals - who will eventually vote for Labor once they get their citizenships and voting rights - like Labor's left wing counterparts have been doing in the Europe and rapidly turning the continent into the Islamic Republic of Eurabia.)