Government's Latest Asylum Seeker Solution Absurd

Katrina Lee, Director, Catholic Communications
24 Jan 2011

The Federal Government's plan to deport failed Afghan asylum seekers back to their homeland is more a policy of smoke and mirrors, according to the co-ordinator of the Marist Asylum Seeker Refugee Centre, Fr Jim Carty.

"Claims these people will be protected and safe on their return is an absurdity," he said.

A regular visitor to the detention centres, including Christmas Island, Fr Carty believes involuntary deportation will not deter other Afghans from seeking out people smugglers and risking their lives in a bid to find safety for themselves and their families.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said this week the government's new policy is a result of a "memorandum of understanding" between Australia, the Afghan Refugee Minister and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Sydney.  It means the Australian Government can forcibly return any Afghan asylum seeker once their bids for asylum have failed.

Fr Carty said most of those in the detention centres are the ethnic minority Hazaras who have been threatened and tortured in both Afghanistan and Pakistan by the Taliban. Their safety could not be ensured if they were returned, he said,  especially to a country renowned for its corrupt government.

Along with other refugee organisations like the Refugee Council of Australia, Fr Carty has also expressed concern at the experience, expertise and impartiality of Australian officials who will make the assessments on who is and is not a genuine refugee.

"This is little more than a political quick fix and populist response to the Opposition's 'stop the boats' mantra," he said.  The Government, clearly in dire straits due to the large numbers of asylum seekers now in detention centres, has come up with a policy they hope will trump the Opposition - with little concern for what may happen to these people if they are forcibly returned to Afghanistan."

Fr Carty says for too long boat refugees have been used as "political footballs" by all political parties to either instil fear or score points at the ballot box.

He wants all those working at the coalface of the refugee issue, the various councils and government representatives, to sit down together until a fair and practical solution can be reached on a platform of reason, not emotion.

For further details: http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/news/latest_news/2011/2011118_1642.shtml