Another Bad Asylum Seeker Policy by the Australian Government

Last week, the Gillard government, in my opinion, came up with a terrible asylum seeker policy, which is to  reinstate some of the former Liberal government’s ‘Pacific solution’ policies by reopening immigration detention centers on Nauru and Manus Island. Julia Gillard contacted Nauru with a formal request to resume asylum-seeker processing, on the advice from the expert panel on asylum seeker policies. 

I think that opting for a return to offshore detention is not sound policy by the government, but rather very desperate way to curtail to opposition pressure and a need for voting approval by the public. Sending asylum seekers to Nauru and Manus Island, out of view of the media and the public would not necessarily stop asylum seekers paying people smugglers for a passage to Australia. If people are that desperate to come to Australia in search for a better life, a few months or years on Nauru or Manus Island would probably not deter them, as last time an Australian government went to this much expense and effort to stop the boats, around 70 percent of Asylum seekers detained on Nauru and Manus Islands were eventually allowed to settle in Australia and New Zealand any way.         

Former PrimeMinister Malcolm Fraser offered a submission to the expert panel on asylumseeker policies, arguing that reopening centres on Nauru and Manus island in PNG, is a short term way of dealing with such an issue. He further stated in his that sending asylum seekers to these centres is costly in the long run and also no long term evidence that it stops the arrival of boats. He also argued that the Australian government should invest in joint cooperation with Malaysia and Indonesia to open more United Nations (UN) operated centres in these two countries. 

This would be a better solution as most asylum seekers use both Malaysia and Indonesia as a stepping stone to come to Australia. So investing in a joint UN and regional solution could prevent people paying smugglers lots of money to risk their lives and their families to travel to Australia, instead their claims could be processed even before leaving either Malaysia or Indonesia.