Costs of offshore processing

Letter to the Editor - The Canberra Times
17 June 2005

Dear Sir/Madam

Dr Sue Wareham (Offshore detention bill paid for out of aid budget, 17/6) is wrong.

The costs of administering offshore processing and the separate costs of running the offshore processing centres on Nauru are met by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) not the Aid Program.

The costs associated with the administration of offshore processing is in fact separate from the Australian Government’s bilateral aid program with Nauru.

This program is administered by AusAID not DIMIA. This program is focussed on key infrastructure projects which help the Nauruan community and supports the OPCs. These include the areas of health, education, policing, power, water and communications.

Dr Wareham seems to have misunderstood this separation.

Kym Charlton
Acting Director
Public Affairs
DIMIA