The Federal Government has unveiled a new “refugee exchange program” where asylum seekers detained on Nauru will be settled in the Unites States, while Cuban refugees held at Guantanamo bay will be brought to Australia.
Announced by Federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews on 17 April 2007, the agreement is the first of its kind between Australia and another country.
“Under this arrangement the US will consider people who arrive in excised offshore places and have been taken to Nauru for further processing,” Mr Andrews told the Australian. “In turn, Australia will consider for resettlement asylum-seekers intercepted by the United States.”
News Ltd reported on 18 April 2007 that the first refugees who could be deported under the new scheme would be 83 Sri Lankans and eight Burmese, who are currently detained in Nauru having their claims processed.
The deal allows for a maximum of 200 asylum seekers to be resettled in both countries each year.
Howard welcomes decision as deterring illegal immigrants, Opposition disagrees
Prime Minister John Howard has welcomed the exchange program as deterring those seeking to reach the Australian mainland illegally.
According to AAP on 18 April 2007, Mr Howard said:
“I think people who set out for this country with the full knowledge that they’ll be prevented from coming to the Australian mainland will be additionally deterred by this understanding”.
But Federal Shadow Immigration Minister Tony Burke disagreed.
In an interview with Sky News on 18 April 2007, Mr Burke said the biggest problem with the plan is that it “encourages people smuggling”.
“These is no bigger incentive to provide to those operators than to say if you get here, we will make sure you get to the United States of America,” he said. “I mean, that is giving them the greatest incentive and improving their market.”
Mr Burke said the scheme was the most “extraordinary change” in refugee policy and was like giving refugees the green card to the US.
“What John Howard is doing is sending a message to the world that says if you can get a people smuggler to get you as far as Christmas Island then John Howard will pick up the fare to New York,” he said at a doorstop interview on 18 April 2007. “Five years ago you would have never, never seen John Howard put forward a policy like this.”
According to Mr Burke, the scheme would act more as a deterrent for Cuban refugees seeking asylum in the United States, “because the message works very differently for them than it works from the Australian perspective”.
“The truth is the United States is the country that is viewed as the best place for resettlement if you can get there,” he said.
No logic in “playing swapsies”, says Rudd
Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said he is struggling with the idea that we now “will be playing swapsies”.
“I’m struggling with where all that goes in terms of logic,” he said at a doorstop interview on 18 April 2007.
Mr Rudd also expressed concern that Australia could become a “halfway house” to the United States.
“It just strikes me as a little passing strange from the report that I’ve seen,” he said.