Australia’s Parliament and Senate have passed a bill which provides for offshore processing camps for asylum seekers to be re-established. The bill was formed following recommendations from an expert panel aimed at tackling people-smuggling issues. Offshore processing camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru had been closed in 2008, but the new bill would see refugees who arrive by boat transferred to the camps as a disincentive to others to attempt the same journey.
The policy has been widely condemned by numerous human rights groups. Graham Thom of Amnesty International said “penalising people based on their mode of arrival is clearly in breach of our obligations...we are only talking about people who come by boat...what we are doing is penalising one particular group and actually taking them to a very remote place where we know they’ve been damaged in the past and holding them hostage to stop other people coming”.
The “Pacific Solution”, as the old operation closed in 2008 was named, saw the Australian navy diverting all boats carrying asylum seekers to the camps and asylum seekers then detained for months or even years while awaiting the processing of their claims.
The new legislation now simply requires royal assent to become law.
Click here to read an article from the Guardian on the issue.