RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: OZschwitz gulag: Labor charged with mistreating boat people  Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:18 am | |
| THE Human Rights Commissioner, Catherine Branson, has criticised conditions on Christmas Island and demanded the Rudd Government stop detaining people there immediately. She also slammed the Government for its failure to overturn laws that excise thousands of islands from the country's migration zone.
The criticisms came as another boatload of 33 suspected asylum seekers was picked up by the navy yesterday. It was the third boat in as many days and the 36th this year. Its arrival will put further pressure on Christmas Island, which already has 1129 detainees, and feed Opposition claims that the Government has lost control of Australia's borders.
Ms Branson said people who arrive by boat have less legal protection than those who arrive by plane.
''Asylum seekers should not be penalised because of their method of arrival,'' she said. ''The excision and offshore processing regime establishes a two-tiered system.''
The Howard-era laws excising the islands should be overturned immediately, the commission's 2009 Immigration Detention and Offshore Processing on Christmas Island said among 22 recommendations.
The penalising of people who arrive by boat violates Australia's international obligations.
However, the Government showed no sign of budging. The Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, said the Christmas Island facilities were ''essential components of strong border control''.
''The Labor Party went to the last election with a commitment to maintain a system of mandatory detention and offshore processing on Christmas Island for all irregular maritime arrivals, and these commitments are being met,'' he said.
Those commitments will be complicated when the island's recently expanded capacity of 1400 is breached. The Government plans to move asylum seekers nearing the end of processing, but not yet granted a visa, to a detention centre in Darwin.
That centre has room for 500 but is near-empty, usually housing only a few illegal fishermen. In the meantime, extra beds have been hurried to Christmas Island, 2650 kilometres northwest of Perth.
Detaining children in closed detention facilities on Christmas Island was ''a concerning regression'' from 2005 laws that said their detention should be a last resort, the commission said.
''An Australian family wouldn't want a child in their family kept in a condition like that,'' Ms Branson said.
''They are not free to come and go, there is very little open space and there is no grassy area for them to play. It's a concrete area that is roofed.''
There are 33 children with family members on the island and 72 unaccompanied minors.
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will meet the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, tomorrow as part of the East Asia Summit in Thailand. People smuggling is expected to be on the agenda.
Meanwhile, the 78 Sri Lankans picked up by the Australians Customs vessel the Oceanic Viking are expected to dock at the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pinang tomorrow.
They were the subject of a diplomatic stand-off after neither country volunteered responsibility for accommodating them while their asylum claims were assessed.
The Opposition immigration spokeswoman, Sharman Stone, said Labor policies had accelerated boat arrivals to Australia.
LNK
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