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| A crowded Muslim Boat in Australian waters near Christmas Island (2012). |
Kevin Rudd has sought to slam the door
on asylum seekers, declaring that all boat arrivals will be banished to Papua
New Guinea and denied the opportunity to settle in Australia.
The plan, announced by the Prime
Minister alongside his PNG counterpart Peter O'Neill in Brisbane yesterday, is
likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and is aimed at crushing the
business of people smugglers.
"From now on, any asylum seeker
who arrives in Australia by boat has no chance of being settled here as a
refugee," Mr Rudd said.
On Nauru last night, nearly 60 asylum
seekers were jailed after a riot in which workers were reportedly taken
hostage. Explosions, fire and chants of freedom could be heard from the
detention centre, and up to 200 were said to have escaped.
Hundreds of local men rushed to support
police. The riot, which had reportedly been brewing all week, was quelled after
several tense hours.
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| Kevin Rudd announcing his PNG plan for Boat Muslims. |
Under Mr Rudd's new plan, asylum
seekers will be sent to Manus Island or elsewhere in PNG. If found to be
refugees, they will be offered resettlement in PNG. "If they are found not
to be genuine refugees, they may be repatriated to their country of origin or
be sent to a safe, third country other than Australia," Mr Rudd said.
The plan is a fortnight from being
implemented because the existing Manus Island detention centre is not yet
capable of handling a big influx of asylum seekers. Immigration Minister Tony
Burke said women and children would not be transferred to PNG until the Manus
Island centre became a permanent site.
More than 15,600 people have reached Australia by boat this year and
almost 1000 have died attempting the voyage in the past six years.
PNG is a signatory to the United
Nations Refugees Convention and the Rudd Government is hoping to avoid the
legal problems that cruelled Julia Gillard's attempt to send asylum seekers to
Malaysia in 2011. The PM said his decision may be
"hard line" but was consistent with UN rules requiring the humane
treatment of asylum seekers.
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| Sinking Muslim boat in Australian waters (2012). |
Reports out of Port Moresby suggested
the PNG Government had agreed to take up to 3000 asylum seekers but Mr O'Neill
was coy. "You can't simply estimate a number," he said. In return,
Australia will plough hundreds of millions of dollars into PNG's hospitals,
universities, schools and law enforcement.
The PNG announcement coincided with a
taxpayer-funded nationwide newspaper advertising campaign, indicating that the
policy announcement was critical to Mr Rudd's re-election push. The Prime
Minister's office said similar adverts would run in transit countries to warn
would-be passengers of the hardline regime.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott welcomed PNG's "generous
response" but said it would not work under Mr Rudd.
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| Muslim children from the illegal boats reaching Australia. |
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