Vol. 75/No. 34      September 26, 2011

Australian Immigration Minister Christopher Bowen signed an agreement with the Malaysian government July 25 to send the next 800 boat-traveling asylum-seekers to Malaysia while their cases are reviewed by UN officials. In return, over the next four years the Australian government would accept 4,000 refugees currently in Malaysia who are approved by the UN.

Most immigrants coming to Australia by boat are asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the purpose of the swap with Malaysia was to deter refugees from coming to Australia by boat and send “the toughest possible message to people smugglers: you can’t ply your evil trade anymore.”

The capitalist parties and media here have waged a campaign against those who help refugees cross by boat from Indonesia to Christmas Island, the closest piece of Australian territory. The island is about 200 miles off the coast of Indonesia and 1,000 miles from the Australian mainland.

Some 500 Indonesian fishermen who work as crews on the boats carrying asylum-seekers are in jails across Australia, accused of smuggling (see accompanying article).

The ruling followed an injunction granted to 41 asylum-seekers who protested their forced transfer from Christmas Island to Malaysia and demanded the right to hearings in Australia.

Only a small number of those who are eventually granted refugee status in Australia come by boat. They are held for long periods at the Christmas Island detention center and other prisons in Australia.

While seeking to stem boat arrivals, the Australian government is encouraging immigrants to come to Australia on temporary work visas to meet the demand for labor in mining and agriculture.

Both Liberal and Labor governments have tightened the border, from the introduction of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers in 1992 to stepped-up naval patrols in 2001.

Under the previous Liberal government’s “Pacific Solution,” refugees picked up in Australian waters were sent to detention centers on Nauru in the South Pacific or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

These centers were closed after Labor’s election in 2007. But Bowen said the government may consider using Nauru again. The government of Papua New Guinea has agreed “in principle” to reopen the detention center on Manus Island.

There is rising discontent at the detention centers over long delays in processing asylum requests. A 17-year-old woman due to be deported attempted suicide at the Christmas Island facility in August.

More than 200 people demonstrated at the Villawood detention center in Sydney July 24 and more than 100 in the city center August 26 in opposition to the government’s “Malaysian solution.” On July 25 during the signing ceremony for the refugee swap, demonstrators in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, protested the treatment of refugees.
 
 
Related articles:
California rally opposes anti-immigrant program
Indonesian workers jailed for ‘people smuggling’  
 
 
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