Greens Want Australia To Live Up To Its Obligations On Asylum-Seekers
Media Release | Spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young
Sunday 1st August 2010, 8:24pm
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The Australian Greens will continue to push for the Federal Government to live up to its international obligations to vulnerable asylum-seekers, according to Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on Immigration and Human Rights, said that the Greens were concerned that because the Labor Government had never amended the Migration Act to remove the Howard government clauses that had allowed the original Pacific Solution, there was nothing stopping the Government from extending offshore processing to anywhere in the region.
“The reality is that Australia already has offshore processing – it’s called Christmas Island,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Because of the Government’s excision policy, asylum-seekers on Christmas Island are treated differently to and have less rights than those who arrive by plane, in direct contravention of our international obligations.
“The Greens know there is a simple way to deal with this issue – scrap the excision policy, close Christmas Island, and reject offshore processing, whether in East Timor, Nauru or elsewhere.
“This leaves the best option of bringing vulnerable asylum-seekers to the mainland, where they can be processed quickly, fairly and humanely and save the Australian taxpayer the cost of setting up remote island detention centres or desert prisons, or the even bigger cost of setting up regional centres that will dump Australia’s responsibilities onto the poorest countries in our region.
“The Greens will oppose any attempt to push Australia’s obligations offshore.”
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