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| Down Under |
| Vanstone at odds with PM on asylum |
| 2006-04-14 |
| THE Federal Government has indicated its tough new asylum policy is aimed squarely at appeasing Indonesia, despite the prime minister denying he is pandering to Jakarta. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has admitted a key aim of the hardline decision to turn away boat people to offshore processing is to prevent Australia being used as a protest platform to create unrest in other countries. Australia's decision to grant refugee status to 42 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua, a group which included pro-independence supporters, has sparked one of Canberra's biggest diplomatic crises with its northern neighbour. Senator Vanstone's comments have put her at odds with Prime Minister John Howard, who insisted the policy change was "not done as a concession to Indonesia". "We can make it a great disincentive for people to use Australia, seek to use the Australian mainland, as a protest point to stir up civil unrest in other countries and interfere in the domestic issues of other countries, and use us as a staging facility to do that," Senator Vanstone said on ABC television. Jakarta also appeared certain that the policy was a reaction to its protests. "We appreciate this step from Australia, which is in response to our reaction on 42 Papuans already granted temporary protection visas," Foreign Ministry spokesman Desra Percaya said. Indonesia wanted more details, he said, including whether the policy could change the status of the Papuans granted visas. There also appears to be confusion in Howard government ranks over whether or not, under the new policy, Australia constitutes a third country where those who successfully claim asylum would be resettled. Under the proposed changes, anyone entering Australia illegally - whether they make it to the mainland or not - would be sent to one of three offshore immigration detention centres for processing. Senator Vanstone has said the Government will be looking to resettle asylum seekers in countries other than Australia. "Well, we'll be looking to place them in other countries," she told the ABC. Asked if it would be the Government's first preference to resettle asylum seekers in a third country, or in Australia, she replied: "No, the press release says what it means, they'll be resettled to a third country, that's clearly the first preference." However, the prime minister said Australia would be considered a third country. "People who are found to be refugees will remain offshore until resettlement in a third country is arranged. And in that description Australia, of course, is a third country because the offshore processing will in most cases not occur in Australian territory," Mr Howard told reporters yesterday. Labor has said the announcement will invite other nations to pressure Australia to change domestic policies. Asylum seeker advocates have also lashed out at the policy, with the Refugee and Immigration legal centre saying it would turn Australia into a "dehumanised" zone. The Papuans, who landed on Cape York in January, would have been caught out under the new policy. While Australia had excised thousands of island from its migration zone in 2001 as part of the Pacific Solution, Senator Vanstone said the mainland would not be excised under the new policy. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |