As the Australian economy is buffeted by a shrinking labor market and a fall in the mining activity, the government is trying to curb access to migrants who try to settle illegally in Australia by crossing the Indonesian straits in boats and rafts.
The migrants, who used to be employed temporarily in mines and other low paying jobs, are now unemployable. The prisons in Australia are full of migrants who, unable to find work, resort to petty crime for survival.
The solution: send everyone back. Under a new rule any migrants who come illegally upon the Australian shore will be resettled in Papua New Guinea, if they have just cause. Such agreement signed by Prime Minister Rudd of Australia and Peter o'Neill of PNG, will stay in effect for 12 months, whereupon it will be renewed every year after review.
Australia has put this rule in place for those it considers 'true' refugees, people who otherwise would be persecuted, harassed or killed in their home country. Those who do not fall within that parameter would be repatriated to their home country.
Australia will offer aid to Papua New Guinea to compensate for the resettlement.
Australia is trying to curb its runaway illegal immigration by any means possible. Rudd has reiterated that the measure is more aimed at stopping the lucrative trade of people smuggling, than at trying to stem foreign presence in his country. The other reason Rudd cited is the large number of deaths in the boat migrants, who are packed in unsafe numbers in small vessels by the smugglers only to die when the overloaded boat capsizes. The smugglers lose no money when this happens. They are paid up front.
More than 1,000 people are estimated to have died in the straits in the past decade.
Amnesty International has condemned the plan, claiming that it is unjust and cruel to turn away people who have risked their lives to better their lot.
Source : Al Jazeera/ 7.19.13
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