Fed: Aid group urges Pacific solution to be dropped

00-00-0000
Fed: Aid group urges Pacific solution to be dropped

CANBERRA, Aug 15 AAP - The federal government's Pacific solution was a nightmare forasylum seekers and their host communities, an international aid group said today.

Releasing a report entitled Still Drifting, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad said the Pacificsolution - implemented last year to allow asylum seekers to be processed away from theAustralian mainland - was an unsustainable, inhumane and expensive failure.

It follows another report, Adrift in the Pacific - the Implications of Australia'sPacific Refugee Solution, released in February and includes updated information on thosebeing processed in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Oxfam Community Aid Abroad executive director Andrew Hewett said many of the issuesraised in the original report remain valid.

"In terms of cost, delays in processing and resettlement and the damage to Australia'sreputation, the Pacific solution has been nothing more than an expensive and damagingdiversion," he said in a statement.

"The Australian government has repeatedly said that the processing of asylum seekersin Nauru and Papua New Guinea is a temporary measure, but they have budgeted $430 millionfor processing offshore over the next four years."

Oxfam Community Aid Abroad said detaining asylum seekers in Nauru and Papua New Guineacost taxpayers $140 million in 2001-02 plus $26.5 million additional aid to Nauru.

But as this spending has soared, the government had cut funds to the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Refugees.

"Pacific leaders are rightly describing the situation as a nightmare for both the asylumseekers and the host communities," Mr Hewett said.

"Australia should not process applications for asylum in overseas countries, especiallythose that have not signed the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees."

The group called on the government to develop a new policy on processing asylum seekersbased on an end to mandatory detention and humane and sustainable alternatives.

The report recommends against forced repatriation of Afghan asylum seekers, and callsfor unrestricted access to the detention camps by Australian independent monitors.

It also says independent, qualified legal advisers should be allowed to visit the detaineesto advise of their full rights under Australian law.

AAP mb/las/br

KEYWORD: BOAT OXFAM