APSN | Australia, Papua New Guinea strike refugee deal

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Australia, Papua New Guinea strike refugee deal

Agence France Presse - August 19, 2011

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Sydney – Australia struck a deal with Papua New Guinea on Friday under which boatpeople detected in its waters can be sent to the Pacific island nation, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said.

The nations signed a memorandum of understanding in Port Moresby under which Australia may transfer asylum seekers to a centre to be established on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

The agreement follows a controversial swap arrangement with Kuala Lumpur under which Malaysia will take up to 800 asylum seekers from Australia in exchange for Canberra agreeing to resettle 4,000 of its refugees.

Bowen said the latest deal formalizes the arrangement between Australia and impoverished Papua New Guinea which is part of Canberra's plan for a regional approach to cracking down on people-smuggling.

"The Manus Island center will complement the Malaysia transfer arrangement and provide further disincentive for people considering risking their lives on dangerous boat journeys," Bowen said in a statement.

Further details on the Manus Island deal were not available, but Bowen said the MOU signed by PNG's minister for foreign affairs and immigration, Ano Pala, and Australia's high commissioner in Port Moresby, Ian Kemish, provided a framework for discussions.

"We are committed to working in partnership with PNG to operationalize the assessment center at the earliest opportunity," Bowen said.

"This MOU sends a clear message that countries in this region are working together towards a lasting regional response in taking action necessary to ensure the integrity of our borders and undermine people smuggling networks."

PNG's new government of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill agreed this month to establish a refugee assessment center on Manus Island.

Manus was at the center of the previous government's so-called "Pacific Solution," under which boatpeople who landed in Australia were locked up on far-flung islands in a harsh policy of deterrence.

Australia has long had a policy of mandatory detention for those asylum seekers arriving by boat, with hundreds detained in remote immigration centers, including on the Indian Ocean outcrop of Christmas Island.

Some 7,000 boatpeople arrived in Australia via the busy people smuggling corridor from Asia last year, crowding immigration centers where rising tensions erupted into hunger strikes and riots. More than 2,000 have arrived so far this year.