Government to re-introduce offshore processing

Updated

In a remarkable about-face, aiming to break the standoff over asylum seeker policy, the Federal Government will today introduce measures in Parliament to begin sending asylum seekers arriving by boat to Nauru and Papua New Guinea to process their claims.

Labor insists the policy is not a return to the Howard government's Pacific Solution of offshore processing which it once decried as "costly, unsustainable, and wrong".

The Opposition is expected to back the policy, with immigration spokesman Scott Morrison telling ABC News Breakfast the Coalition is willing to support legislation to open centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

If the Coalition does vote with the Government, it will leave the Greens isolated in their opposition to the policy in the Senate.

The Greens have described the changes recommended by the Government's expert panel as "cruel", but Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says the compromise is necessary to stop people risking death by coming to Australian on boats.

The Federal Government's three-man panel on Monday made 22 recommendations, including an immediate return to offshore processing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Headed by former Defence Force chief Angus Houston, it also backs Labor's Malaysian deal but says it requires more work to ensure human rights protections.

Expert panel: the key points Establish offshore processing facilities in Nauru and PNG as part of a "comprehensive regional network".

Pursue talks on the Malaysian solution but seek more reassurances about the treatment of people who are sent there.

Increase co-operation with Indonesia on joint surveillance, law enforcement, and search and rescue.

Increase Australia's humanitarian intake from 13,000 to 20,000 places a year, rising to 27,000 within five years.

Those who arrive by boat should not be eligible to sponsor family members to join them.

Consider turning back boats in the future but only if operational, safety and legal conditions are met.

Future policy should be driven by a "sense of humanity as well as fairness".

It recommends not letting asylum seekers who come by boat have the right to sponsor their families to join them, but proposes doubling Australia's humanitarian intake over the next five years.

Ms Gillard yesterday said she was prepared to compromise to "get things done".

"If the Opposition cooperate, I want these amendments through Parliament by the end of the sitting week," she told a press conference.

"I am keenly aware that this report is calling on Parliament to compromise.

"Clearly to negotiate agreements now with Nauru and PNG and to further build on the Malaysia arrangement as Minister Bowen's outlined will require intensive dialogues with those governments and we'll do it."

Greens leader Christine Milne says the legislation will see asylum seekers stay in detention centres indefinitely.

"It is cruel and it is not fair and they need the Parliament because they want to strip out of our current law human rights protections," she said.

Greens MP Adam Bandt says some of the panel's recommendations are cruel and the Government should not rush to embrace them.

"Despite a number of sensible recommendations in the panel's report, at the heart of it lies a John Howard and Tony Abbott crafted policy of expelling people from this country to detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island," he said.

The debate over the panel's recommendations will continue while the Government comes to terms with what is politically possible.

The panel says the Malaysia solution needs more work but should be pursued. It also says the Opposition's policy of turning boats back may be possible if regional arrangements are in place to support it.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the panel has endorsed his policies but stopped short of endorsing the Government's.

"What has happened today is the Houston panel has green-lighted Nauru and they have red-lighted Malaysia and the people swap in its current form," he said.

'Stripping our law'

Despite looking likely to break the political impasse the policy has angered refugee advocates, including the lawyer who brought the Malaysia solution undone in the High Court.

David Manne says the findings of the expert panel into asylum policy effectively strip away protections from Australian law, and any benefit such as the increased refugee intake comes at too high a price.

"This proposal would come with stripping our law, or at least the Migration Act, bare of the basic protections in place to ensure that if people are to be transferred that they're to be properly protected wherever they're sent," he said.

Mr Manne says it seems the protections he used in the High Court challenge to the Malaysia solution will be removed.

"It appears that the proposal is to amend the Act to circumvent the High Court ruling," he said.

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre campaign coordinator Pamela Curr disputes the panel's so-called regional solution.

"When Australia talks about regional solutions, read the real lines - they're talking about regional dumping," she said.

Ms Curr says the panel appears to have ignored submissions from human rights advocates.

"It's a comprehensive package of harm. Nauru, Manus Island, Malaysia, turning back the boats. All the things that have harmed people in the past and they're putting the green light on doing this again," she said.

Uniting Church justice campaign director Eleni Poulos says the church is extremely disappointed the panel is recommending asylum seekers be processed in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

"What they're recommending is a short-term, quick-fix policy response that actually punishes one group of vulnerable people in order to send a message to other people," she said.

'Realistic, not idealistic'

Mr Houston says conducting the expert panel has been one of the most challenging tasks in his life.

"We recommend a policy approach that is hard-headed but not hard-hearted, that is realistic, not idealistic, that is driven by a sense of humanity as well as fairness," he said.

We recommend a policy approach that is hard-headed but not hard-hearted. That is realistic, not idealistic. That is driven by a sense of humanity as well as fairness. Panel chairman Angus Houston

Almost 1,000 asylum seekers and crew have lost their lives trying to come to Australia by boat since the end of 2001; 600 since 2009.

Mr Houston says to do nothing is unacceptable.

"We have proposed a new approach, one that is strategic, comprehensive, integrated and equitable," he said.

Fellow panellist Paris Aristotle insists their proposals are different to the policies implemented under the Howard government's Pacific Solution.

He told Lateline there will be independent oversight of asylum seekers processed offshore, and they would not be held in formal detention.

"There would have to be accommodation established for them - they may have to return to that accommodation each evening, but it's not intended that there be a detention centre in any of the proposed transfer arrangements," he said.

Mr Aristotle says the mental health of asylum seekers has been a concern and there needs to be accountability in any new arrangements.

"We've recommended that there be oversight monitoring mechanisms through high-level groups comprising cross-party membership, experts, senior officials who would monitor and oversight the adherence to the conditions of any transfer arrangement and international obligations," he said.

The third panel member Michael L'Estrange says things have changed since the Howard government's policies.

"We have called this as we have seen it and on the basis of circumstances that exist, not as they used to," he said.

"What has changed is that more than 600 people have died trying to seek asylum by boat."

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Paris Aristotle says the panel has not recommended detention centres (Lateline)

Overseas reaction

Overseas, there has been a mixed reaction to the panel's recommendations.

Papua New Guinea says it is ready to help the Federal Government reintroduce offshore processing.

It says it will offer to host a processing centre on Manus Island, off the country's north-east coast.

Prime minister Peter O'Neill says asylum seekers are a regional issue and not just a problem for Australia.

Indonesia has welcomed the Government's move to boost Australia's refugee intake because it will clear the backlog of asylum seekers in the country.

But a senior police officer in the country's Human Trafficking and Asylum Seeker branch says he is concerned about the recommendation to consider turning boats around.

Nauru says it will not comment on the plans until it gets a formal request from the Government.

Topics: refugees, immigration, community-and-society, federal-government, australia, nauru, malaysia

First posted