Fed: Rudd immigration policy leaf out of Howard book - Greens

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2010
Fed: Rudd immigration policy leaf out of Howard book - Greens

By Cortlan Bennett

PERTH, April 18 AAP - The Greens have accused the federal government of a discredited
Howard-like approach to asylum seekers by deciding to reopen a West Australian detention
facility.

On Sunday, Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced the government would reopen the
centre at Curtin Air Base in a bid to ease overcrowding and potential conflicts at Christmas
Island.

The decision came just a week after a freeze was put on Afghan and Sri Lankan refugee
applications as a deterrent to new arrivals.

Senator Evans said Curtin would be readied immediately to hold 200-300 Sri Lankan and
Afghan asylum seekers whose refugee applications had been suspended.

"Previously it's been used for this purpose and initially we'll be upgrading the facility
to accommodate that cohort of persons who have had their asylum claims suspended," Senator
Evans told reporters in Perth.

"We need to find an appropriate secure facility to deal with these asylum seekers."

Greens immigration and human rights spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young slammed the move,
saying it was another example of "policy-on-the-run" from the government.

"The immigration policy, the refugee response from the government, is a dog's breakfast
- it's one announcement after another without the real follow-through of any type of practical
long-term or humane approach, from the Australian government," she told reporters in Adelaide.

Senator Hanson-Young said Curtin - 40km southeast of Derby in Western Australia's far
north - had in the past been described as "a living hell hole".

She said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was trying to win votes, but warned "the Australian
public are smarter than that".

"Everything he's announced over the last couple of weeks harks straight back to the
days which were discredited under the Howard government, where we detained vulnerable
people in the middle of the desert, where we detained children behind barbed wire," she
said.

"This is a government who said they would work to dismantle that regime and now we
see them implementing it themselves."

Senator Evans said the first group of single-male asylum seekers - who are subject
to a three-month freeze for Sri Lankans and a six-month freeze for Afghans - would be
moved from Christmas Island to Curtin as soon as upgrades were finished.

In addition, 60 single-male detainees would immediately be moved to the Darwin detention
centre, and a group of about 70 unaccompanied minors moved to Port Augusta, in South Australia.

While that move was planned for Sunday, it was delayed until at least Monday, after
a charter plane suffered mechanical difficulties.

Senator Evans said "a couple of hundred or so" people would be moved off Christmas
Island "in the next week or two" to ease overcrowding.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the new policy was "another example
of failure by the federal government".

"We've seen now people being transferred to Darwin, which the government said it would
do once Christmas Island was overflowing, and we now see a complete end to offshore processing
in this country," he said.

Mr Morrison said the costs of dealing with asylum seekers in Australia were spiralling
out of control.

"How much is it costing them in midnight flights, these charter flights, all around
the country as Christmas Island spills over?," he said.

"How much is it costing to put in place all these new centres and facilities being
reopened at Curtin?

"The cost is mounting and the government's failure continues to increase."

Senator Evans said he did not know the final cost of expanding Curtin, but the government
would "invest considerably" in the centre.

Refugee Council of Australia CEO Paul Power said the use of the Curtin facility to
house asylum seekers was completely inappropriate.

"It is one of the most remote places in Australia and facilities would have to be built,"

Mr Power said.

"This population of asylum seekers will include torture and trauma survivors, and services
for them will be nigh on impossible to deliver.

"It is hard to think of any good policy reason to pick this remote location instead
of locations closer to available services.

AAP csb/it/mn

KEYWORD: BOAT CURTIN WRAP

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