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Aussies isolating boat people
12/03/2002 17:17 - (SA)
Canberra - Cementing its policy of barring boat people from the Australian mainland, the government has announced it is building a new migrant detention centre on a remote Indian Ocean island.
Immigration minister Philip Ruddock said the new centre on
Christmas Island would hold about 1 200 people and be used
when the camps Australia had built on two neighbouring Pacific islands filled up with asylum-seeker.
Located 1 565km northwest of the Australian
mainland and only a few hundred kilometres from Indonesia's main island of Java, Christmas Island is a favoured destination for illegal gangs trying to smuggle asylum seekers into Australia.
"This will provide a disincentive for people to put their lives at risk by boarding unseaworthy boats to come to Australia," said Ruddock.
Until last year, Australia detained all boat people in camps,
some in remote locations, surrounded by razor wire and patrolled by armed guards.
Last August, the government began turning away all boat people, who come mostly from the Middle East and central Asia and were ferried there by Indonesian gangs.
Policies popular 'back home'
Those attempting the journey now are ferried by the Australian
navy to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, whose impoverished governments agreed to house refugees in return for aid.
Australia has been condemned by the United Nations, human rights groups and churches for its treatment of asylum-seekers. But, the policies were popular at home and helped Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government win a third term in elections last November.
Ruddock said on Monday the government was likely to close down some of the old detention camps in Australia and transfer refugees to new centres.
Some people have been held for more than three years in the
camps, which were often hit by hunger strikes and protests. One camp, Woomera, in the remote outback, has been plagued by violence, arson and self-mutilation by inmates. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA
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