Immigration Centre Mooted for Indonesia
March 29, 2007
The Brisbane Times, March 30, 2007
INDONESIA would become part of Australia’s offshore immigration processing regime under a proposal from Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.
Mr Andrews, who will shortly travel to Jakarta to raise the plan, has also pledged to rationalise Australia’s complex visa system as part of an overhaul of the Immigration Department if the coalition is re-elected, The Australian newspaper reports.
He hopes to enlist Indonesia, which is regarded as a regional hub for people-smugglers, for the processing of future unauthorised boat arrivals.
Mr Andrews said the partnership would only go ahead if Indonesia agreed to process future unauthorised boat arrivals in accordance with UN regulations.
‘It will depend on whether Indonesia is able or prepared to do it according to the conditions that we basically subscribe to, which is basically not sending people back to a country where they will be in danger of being persecuted and, secondly, operating according to UN protocols,’ Mr Andrews told the newspaper.
Under the Pacific Solution, Australia currently pays for unauthorised asylum seekers who arrive in Australia to be held and processed on Nauru.
It is understood Jakarta is interested in helping Australia process illegal arrivals to enhance its own border security by sending a blunt message to people-smugglers and their clients that, even after leaving for Australia, they face being returned to Indonesia for processing, the newspaper said.
But critics claim the plan will expand the federal government’s controversial Pacific Solution, dubbing it the ‘Indian Ocean Solution’.
