Australia denies treating RI as dumping ground for refugees
Australia denies treating RI as dumping ground for refugees
Agence France-Presse, Sydney, Australia
Australia rejected on Thursday criticism that it was treating neighboring Indonesia as a dumping ground for refugees after it sent a boatload of would-be asylum seekers back to the country.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said cooperation with Indonesian authorities remained very good, despite Jakarta's decision to launch its own inquiry into Australia's handling of the affair.
"In the context of -- Is Australia treating Indonesia as a dumping ground? -- certainly not," Vanstone told ABC radio. "I mean these are regional cooperation arrangements whereby someone can be returned to Indonesian waters and then go back to Indonesia."
Officials in Jakarta have accused Australia of regarding Indonesia as a rubbish bin for people it did not want to accept.
The 14 Turkish Kurds arrived from Indonesia on an Indonesian boat and are now in the care of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Jakarta. Indonesia is also reluctant to accept them as refugees.
Australia sent the men to Indonesia, saying they had not claimed asylum and drawing international criticism and an accusation it was dumping refugees on its neighbors.
But Vanstone on Thursday retracted her denials of the men's asylum claim after issuing a letter from a people-smuggling task force which showed the men had asked for it.
"Some people did say things referring to human rights and mentioned a refugee," Vanstone said.
"The key point is these people were not in the Australian migration zone they were always going to be sent somewhere else by the Australian government where any claims they might make would be properly processed.
Vanstone also said she was disappointed by criticisms from United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) that Australia was shirking its international obligations under a 1951 convention on refugees.
The UN agency condemned Australia last week after it suddenly excised 4,000 outlying islands from its migration zone in a bid to thwart claims for asylum by the 14 men.
Despite the introduction of the regulations, Vanstone said arrangements had not changed since 2000.
"Firstly these arrangements have been in place as I'm advised since about 2000, they've been used in the past and they're being used now," she said.
"The UNHCR has been involved in those arrangements since that time, therefore it's surprising that toward the end of 2003 a view should be expressed that the arrangements are completely unsatisfactory."
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer this week denied the men claimed asylum, only to backtrack within hours and say the issue was still being studied.
In Indonesia, the men have insisted they did claim asylum. An Australian fisherman who saw them when they landed on northern Melville Island also said he had the clear impression they were asylum-seekers.