SYDNEY – Australia announced on Wednesday that asylum seekers registered with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Indonesia after July 1 would no longer be eligible for resettlement in Australia.
In defending the decision to stop asylum seekers passing through Indonesia from settling in Australia, the Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, said the new rules were designed to stop the flow of asylum seekers from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan into Indonesia.
“We’re taking the sugar off the table, because people smugglers are smuggling people into Indonesia for the purpose of trying to get resettlement in Australia,” he said.
Morrison said Australia would continue to resettle some refugees who registered earlier, but had cut the number of allocations, making for a much longer waiting period in Indonesia before being resettled.
Meanwhile, Michael Tene, Indonesia’s foreign ministry spokesman, said the only way to halt people smuggling was through a comprehensive approach that included the origin, transit and destination countries.
“What’s clear is that this is Australia’s policy and it will be implemented by them alone,” he said.
“Indonesia will take necessary measures if Australia’s move sparked a rise in asylum-seekers staying in Indonesia,’’ he added.
The UNHCR had recorded 10,623 asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia, awaiting resettlement as of April, when about 100 people were registering at its Jakarta office each week. (Reuters/NAN)
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