Refugee claims processing suspended for Sri Lankans and Afghans

Alexandra Kirk reported this story on Friday, April 9, 2010 12:10:00

SHANE MCLEOD: The Federal Government says it's cracking down on asylum seekers. It's announced it's putting a hold the processing of refugee claims by Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers until the United Nations refugee agency finalises its new protection guidelines for those two countries.

The processing freeze applies to new arrivals, not asylum seekers who are already on Christmas Island and having their claims dealt with.

At the same time the Government has announced plans to crack down on people smugglers using the Federal Police and other agencies to stop the flow of funds and to deter and disrupt people smuggling operations.

The moves come as yet another group of asylum seekers heads to the Christmas Island detention centre.

From Canberra, Alexandra Kirk reports.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Exactly a month ago The World Today revealed the United Nations Refugee Agency was looking at relaxing its international protection guidelines for Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers which would pave the way for Australia to deport many more of the detainees on Christmas Island.

Those guidelines are still being finalised but the Government has decided that pending the UNHCR finalising its review of country conditions it's suspending the processing of new refugee applications from Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers.

The Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the suspension, effective immediately, and changing circumstances in those two countries means it's likely in future those asylum claims will be refused.

CHRIS EVANS: Evolving country information from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan is likely to have a significant effect on the outcome of assessments as to whether asylum seekers have a well founded fear of persecution within the meaning of the refugees convention.

The likelihood of people being refused visas and being returned safely to their homelands will increase.

The Government will review the situation in Sri Lanka after a period of three months and in Afghanistan after a period of six months.

The Government has decided to continue processing claims from those asylum seekers who are already on Christmas Island or who are on route to Christmas Island having been intercepted and detained by the Royal Australian Navy.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: He doesn't think it will immediately stop the flood of boats to Australia but hopes over time it will have an effect on people smuggling operations.

CHRIS EVANS: But what we do do I think by this announcement is send a very clear message that people smugglers cannot guarantee people a visa and they cannot therefore sell the sort of product that they have been selling.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Immigration Minister says while the Government is suspending refugee assessments it is acting humanely.

CHRIS EVANS: Well it's humane because people will still have access to a consideration of their refugee status. They will still be treated with dignity and treated as human beings.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has highlighted Sri Lanka's elections - the first parliamentary election in two decades.

STEPHEN SMITH: Sri Lanka is clearly a country in transition and that evolution is the basis of the Government's decision to suspend processing so far as new asylum seekers from Sri Lanka is concerned.

The suspension so far as Sri Lanka is concerned is for three months because we hope that country circumstances would have clarified over that period.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: But the Government has given itself twice as long to see how much things change in Afghanistan.

STEPHEN SMITH: There was a time, indeed until quite recently there was a time when if you were an Afghan Hazara then you almost automatically fell within the provisions of the refugee convention.

With the fall of the Taliban, with better security in parts of Afghanistan, with constitutional and legal change and reform it is clearly the case that whilst it is off a low base and while there are still very difficult circumstances for Hazaras and I underline that, in our view again reflected by the United Nation High Commissioner, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' own review processes, it is not now automatically the case that just because you are an Hazara Afghan that you automatically fall within the provisions of the convention.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: At the same time the Commonwealth is stepping up measures to target people smugglers with Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor outlining a tougher law enforcement regime.

BRENDAN O'CONNOR: We need to ensure we change AUSTRAC's rules that is the Australian Transaction Report and Analysis Centre's rules to ensure that remittance dealers who pose a significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk can be deregistered.

The Government also proposes a more comprehensive regulatory regime for remittance dealers to be implemented following consultation with the financial services sector.

The Government will establish a criminal intelligence fusion centre within the Australian Crime Commission. The new centre will ensure that financial intelligence and other criminal intelligence can come together in real time.

Agencies will include the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink and others and will be co-located so that one agency knows what all agencies know.

SHANE MCLEOD: The Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor ending Alexandra Kirk's report.

Kevin Rudd shuts refugee door

Matthew Franklin and Paige Taylor  From: April 10, 2010 12:00AM

KEVIN Rudd has frozen asylum applications from Afghans and Sri Lankans after receiving advice that people-smugglers were preparing to launch a new wave of vessels for northern Australia.

Sources confirmed yesterday that the decision, announced yesterday, came partly in response to new intelligence that people-smugglers were forming "new ventures" overseas expected to boost the boat traffic.

While the government presented the move as a well-considered response to improving security circumstances in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, the opposition said it was proof the government's previous approach had encouraged people-smugglers.

It also accused the government of making the change so it could put the refugee issue into "suspended animation" rather than debate it during the forthcoming federal election campaign.

The government also faced attack from the Left, with refugee activists rejecting the new approach as "a freeze on fairness".

The government acknowledged its decision could create tension among detainees at Christmas Island, as a team of Australian Federal Police flew to the island yesterday with riot gear to bolster security arrangements.

An AFP spokesman said the officers went immediately to a meeting with senior officials from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

The detainees sat quietly as a departmental official explained the government's new position.

It is understood many spent the day contacting family and friends in Malaysia and Indonesia who had hoped to board asylum boats soon.

Tensions have been rising at the centre, particularly among long-term detainees. About 4.30am yesterday, a Tamil asylum-seeker who arrived last year tried to hang himself inside the Immigration Detention Centre's green compound using a bedsheet and a security camera fixture.

The Weekend Australian has been told a fellow detainee stumbled across the suicide attempt while walking to a communal phone and alerted a guard, who cut the man down.

More than 100 asylum-seeker boats have arrived in Australian waters since the Rudd government took power.

Sources said intelligence suggested that in light of the increased traffic, it was likely that up to six asylum-seeker boats were headed for Australia, with another six being prepared for transit. But they cautioned that the intelligence varied in its reliability.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said yesterday he did not expect the policy change to have an immediate effect on boat traffic.

The arrivals have fuelled opposition charges that Labor's dismantling of the Howard government's Pacific Solution regime has boosted people-smuggling.

Yesterday's announcement - the first major policy Labor has revealed since Tony Abbott began his nine-day Pollie Pedal bike ride from Melbourne to Sydney - came a day after the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Indonesia, Manuel Jordao, warned that people-smuggling was "out of control".

Last night, there were 2161 detainees on Christmas Island, including 67 people and three crew rescued from the sea late on Thursday or early yesterday.

A pregnant woman and a man who suffered a suspected heart attack were among the first brought to the jetty, along with several children aged under five.

Also yesterday, 50 passengers and four crew from a boat intercepted near Ashmore islands last Sunday were brought ashore.

Soon after news of the rescue emerged, Senator Evans said that, effective immediately, new applications for asylum from Sri Lankans would be frozen for three months, and for Afghans for six months. In the interim, the government would review changes in the political situations in the two nations to determine whether some of the applicants should be sent home.

"The combined effect of this suspension and the changing circumstances in these two countries mean that it is likely that, in the future, more asylum claims from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will be refused," Senator Evans said.

He said his department was already accepting fewer asylum-seekers from the two nations than in the past because of changing civil circumstances, with Sri Lanka in transition after years of internal strife and Afghanistan providing new constitutional and legal protection for its citizens after the collapse of the Taliban.

"It's sending a very clear message that people-smugglers cannot guarantee people a visa," Senator Evans said.

The change makes it almost certain the government will have to ship some asylum-seekers to its Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, with the Christmas Island detention facility already over its 2040-person capacity.

The Opposition Leader seized on the policy shift as vindication of the opposition's criticism.

"This is an admission by the government that it was always pull factors - not push factors - that was causing the flow of boats," he said in Wangaratta, Victoria. "I've got to say this is no solution; it is just an election fix."

He speculated that the announcement was timed to affect the government's standing in the fortnightly Newspoll, to be published next week in The Australian based on interviews conducted this weekend.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said that while the government had accepted that its previous approach was flawed, it had admitted that the changed system would not stop the boats, which was the true measure of success in refugee policy.

The Prime Minister, campaigning in Bundaberg, Queensland, dismissed the criticism. "The government's view is simple: if someone's claim for asylum is not legitimate, they'll be sent home," Mr Rudd said.

"This suspension has been made as a result of the changing circumstances in those two countries."

More on the change to Australia's asylum policy...

Labor 'pretending to be tough' on immigration

Asylum seeker policy causing distress

Government suspends processing of Sri Lankan, Afghan asylum claims 

Sri Lankan, Afghan asylum claims halted