Fed: Labor says children under threat of returning to detention

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2006
Fed: Labor says children under threat of returning to detention

By Kylie Williams, Rob Pash and Amy Coopes

CANBERRA, April 16 AAP - Labor says children are under threat of being returned to
immigration detention centres under the government's new hardline policy on asylum seekers.

Refugee advocates protesting outside Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney home today
and in Melbourne and Perth called on the federal government to free refugees from detention
and wind back tough new border security measures.

Federal Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou helped force the Howard government to soften
its immigration detention policy last year, including removing children from centres and
placing them in community detention.

The government last week announced it was extending its 2001 Pacific solution following
a rift with Indonesia over the decision last month to grant temporary protection visas
to 42 Papuans.

Under the changes, anyone entering Australia illegally by boat - whether they make
it to the mainland or not - will be sent to one of three offshore immigration detention
centres for processing.

But the opposition says the facilities on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island
are not officially classified as detention centres by the government, paving the way for
children to be put back behind razor wire.

"All of that is contingent upon people being held in what is defined as a detention
centre. Manus Island (and) Nauru are not," Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke told
the Nine Network.

"That means under John Howard's proposal, children in detention can happen again. We
can see indefinite detention back.

"Case managed mental health care can be out the window (and) the oversight of the ombudsman
finishes.

"All of the changes that were heralded last year as a quantum leap by Petro Georgiou
are over - it's a quantum backflip."

Protesters marched through the streets of Kirribilli, on Sydney's north shore today,
calling on the federal government to free refugees from detention and wind back tough
new border security measures.

A group of about 100 were kept from the Prime Minister's Sydney residence Kirribilli
House by a large contingent of police and a 37-year-old man was arrested for abusing a
police officer.

Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) spokesman Ian Rintoul called on the federal opposition
to reverse the "iron curtain" legislation announced by the government this week, which
he said effectively closed Australia's borders to asylum seekers.

"Everybody here is absolutely committed and determined to see the end of the Howard
government," Mr Rintoul said.

"But we are not content to get rid of the Howard government and have a lookalike pale
image take its place.

"Now (Labor) have got the opportunity to put the cards on the table ... by making it
very clear, that there is a policy alternative at the next election."

In Melbourne, RAC Victoria spokesman Tim Petterson denounced the government's immigration
policy, saying Australia had breached its international responsibility by abandoning Papuans
fleeing the troubled Indonesian province.

"Most Australians understand that West Papuans are being brutalised by the Indonesian
military but (Prime Minister) John Howard is so desperate to appease Indonesia that he's
prepared to turn his back on these desperate people and lock them up in these hellholes,"

he said.

"We are absolutely horrified and dismayed by that recent (immigration policy) announcement
and we do believe they put us in contravention of international laws under the International
Refugee Committee."

AAP klw/cjh/de

KEYWORD: DETENTION NIGHTLEAD

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