Last week the
Australian parliament opened a debate on the changes to the country’s
migration laws. Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced the changes so that it
would be legal to send asylum-seekers to another nation for processing.
The migration issue has dominated
Australian politics since the
High Court rejected the Government’s policy of sending asylum-seekers to
Malaysia for processing. Ms. Gillard hopes that by changing the law her
Government can continue with the
Malaysia plan and stop the High Court from interfering.
Gillard told 2SM radio “People are sick of watching the
politics around all of this, the most humane way to deal with asylum seekers
and refugees is to do everything you can to deter people from getting on leaky
boats where they can lose their lives.”
Opposition leader Tony Abbott says he will only support the legislation
if the government accepts an amendment that would rule out Malaysia because it
is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention. He says he will
only support the changes to the law if the Government sends asylum-seekers to
the Pacific Island of Nauru instead.
Nauru was a part of the Pacific
Solution, the toughest set of asylum-seeker policies Australia has ever had,
and in the 7 years the detention centre was open only 288 asylum-seekers came
to Australia by boat.
Ms. Gillard does not want to send
asylum-seekers to Nauru because when the detention centre was open there, it
was thought to be psychologically damaging for detainees. The party she leads,
the Labor Party closed it in 2008 for humanitarian reasons.
Both political parties agree that
sending asylum-seekers to other countries for processing will discourage
asylum-seekers from paying people smugglers who try to transport them across
the ocean to Australia in unsafe boats. Where they disagree is over which
country to send the asylum-seekers to.
Australia's parliament has delayed a
vote on changes to the migration law until October 11.
However currently, the recent arrival of two boats to Australia has added fire to the politics of
the migration debate. Ms. Gillard blames Mr. Abbott for the arrivals saying
that he is weakening the Government in the face of people smugglers.
One of the boats was found north of
Christmas Island, initially thought to have 60 people onboard but further
investigation revealed a "deck below the main deck" concealing 50
people, 49 asylum seekers and one crew member.
The second boat carrying 66 people
sent out a distress signal after passenger concerns about overcrowding and had
to be rescued by Indonesian and Australian authorities.
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