Australia’s Federal Parliament are debating whether to change the Migration Act – allowing asylum seekers to be sent offshore to Malaysia or Nauru for processing.
Refugee advocates are nervously awaiting Parliament’s decision to change the Migration Act, which will allow asylum seekers to be processed offshore.
If an election were held now, most recent polls show the Government are set to lose power, so refugee groups are concerned at how changing the Act will affect both the Government and the Opposition’s refugee strategies.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is pushing to amend the act, in an effort to resuscitate her troubled Malaysian Solution.
The Opposition want to restore their offshore detention strategies – in place prior to 2007.
Opposition spokesman Andrew Robb says the Nauru Detention Centre would be immediately reinstated if his party were re-elected.
“We would pick up the phone to the president of Nauru and reopen that facility,” Mr Robb said.
Refugee groups do not approve this outcome, despite Nauru, unlike Malaysia – being signatories to the Refugee Convention.
Melbourne Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Campaign Manager Pamela Curr wants the government to process all asylum claimants inside Australia, describing Nauru as a barren island with prison-camp conditions.
“We are trying to export this problem to our impoverished neighbours,” Ms Curr said.
According to Ms Curr, with uprisings against totalitarian regimes flaring up across the Middle East, the number of refugee arrivals to Australia will continue to swell.
