Australia's Immigration Policy: the facts

Letter to the Editor - BBC Online News
18 December 2003

Dear Sir/Madam

Your story "Australia aloof to Nauru protest" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3326677.stm), contains a number of factual errors about Australia's immigration policy.

Australia does not detain all asylum seekers - to claim otherwise is patently false. In fact the overwhelming majority of people (upwards of 80 per cent) who claim asylum in Australia arrive with a valid visa and as such remain in the community while their claims are processed.

Immigration detention is the result of arriving in Australia without a valid visa - not seeking asylum.

Furthermore, as at 12 December, over 780 of those people currently in immigration detention are awaiting removal. That is, they have been through the process and have no lawful basis to stay in Australia.

With respect to the protest action on Nauru, the fact is that these people are not refugees and are simply unwilling to go home as so many of their countrymen and women have already done.

The only responsible course of action is to encourage them to stop their protest and turn their minds to returning home and getting on with their lives.

Over 400 Afghans have already returned home from Nauru, all with financial assistance. As recently as 1 December 2003, 19 voluntarily returned.

It should also be noted that over 2.5 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan since March 2002, many with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Finally, the Offshore Processing Centre in Papua New Guinea was wound down in late July when the last remaining Australian cases departarted.

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