Australia and U.S. in refugees swap

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Australia and U.S. in refugees swap
Published: April 18, 2007 at 8:24 AM

SYDNEY April 18 (UPI) -- Australian government officials released details of a refugee deal with the United States to exchange asylum seekers.
Under the new scheme asylum seekers detained on the Pacific island of Nauru will be taken to the United States and Cuban refugees held at the U.S. military base in Cuba will be resettled in Australia.

The resettlement agreement, worked out in Washington last week, was formalized Tuesday at a meeting of Australian, U.S., Canadian and British ministers near Sydney.

The scheme provides for Australia and the United States to each resettle up to 200 refugees processed in the other country every year.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that the new deal "sends a message."

"People who want to come here will be deterred by anything that sends a message that getting to the Australian mainland illegally is not going to happen," he said.

But the opposition Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd said the plan defies logic.

Rudd said what it seems Howard is saying is "come to Australia as an asylum-seekers processed offshore, possibly then be sent to America for us to receive the same number of asylum seekers back here. ... Australia becomes a halfway house to the United States."

Round and round we go and where it stops no one knows. I can only ask why.

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God, I thought it was a hoax, but I see it is reported in a number of places.

I can't believe it.

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Oh, it's true, alright.

Those refugees wanting to live in the US end up in Oz detention centres.

Those seeking asylum in Oz end up in US detention centres!

Makes legal support for asylum seeking rather difficult, doesn't it?

I wonder if the UN has anything to say about this cozy "arrangement"?

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5451796,00.jpg

Refugees 'not washing machines'
April 18, 2007 - 4:57PM/the AGE

Refugee advocates have expressed outrage at a plan to swap asylum seekers intercepted en route to Australia with those detained while trying to enter the United States, describing the scheme as a "dark and murky" political fix.

Under the new refugee exchange scheme announced by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, asylum seekers detained on Nauru would be taken to the US and Cuban refugees held at Guantanamo Bay would be resettled in Australia.

"This is not a container load of washing machines that we've decided to reject. This is human beings," Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokeswoman Pamela Curr said.

The comment came amid a torrent of opposition to the new scheme, with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd describing it as "strange" while Greens senator Kerry Nettle calls it "bizarre".

The program signals further changes to the Pacific solution, after the Nauruan government moved to place time limits on the processing of Australia-bound boat people sent to the remote island.

Up to 200 asylum seekers could be exchanged under the scheme, with the first to go expected to be the 83 Sri Lankans and eight Burmese currently having their asylum claims processed on Nauru. ... <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/refugees-not-washing-machines/2007/04/18/1176696902281.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

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From Oz newspapers today:

http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5454078,00.jpg

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.... & this:

Two countries that trade inhuman misery
David Corlett
April 20, 2007/the AGE

REFUGEES intercepted by the United States and taken to Guantanamo Bay will be resettled in Australia under a deal signed this week by the US and Australian governments. In return, refugees caught by Australian authorities and taken to the remote Pacific island of Nauru will be resettled in the US.

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... & this.:

Sounds like the US wants to back off a bit ... from publicity about the arrangement, at least.
But it has been widely reported in all "respectable" Oz media outlets, so ..... :

Refugee swap not binding, says US
Cath Hart
April 20, 2007/the AUSTRALIAN

THE US denies it has a legally binding agreement with Australia to swap up to 200 refugees a year between the two countries.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews announced this week that an agreement had been signed with the US to "provide mutual assistance for the resettlement of people in need of international protection".
Under the scheme, Australia would send asylum-seekers held in its offshore processing facilities to the US; in return it would take Cuban refugees held by the US at Guantanamo Bay.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormick yesterday described the scheme struck between Washington and Canberra as a non-binding "informal arrangement for mutual assistance".

"There is an informal arrangement for mutual assistance that provides that each will consider resettlement of people interdicted at sea and found to be in need of international protection," he said.

"The arrangement does not create legal obligations."

The scheme was negotiated by Immigration Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe in Washington last week but the Government has refused to confirm which country initiated the deal.

The Australian Government announced that 83 Sri Lankans and eight Burmese asylum-seekers detained on the Pacific island of Nauru were likely to be the first refugees to be resettled in the US under the scheme.

In return, Australia is likely to resettle Cuban refugees picked up by the US Navy on their way to the US mainland.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said the comments by the US State Department did not diminish the deal. .... <cont>

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21588498-601,00.html

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Australia and U.S. in refugees swap

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