Australia Friday warned of thousands of people ready to jump on asylum-seekers boats in Indonesia as it dismissed concerns in Jakarta over its controversial policy of turning back vessels.
Under Canberra’s hardline immigration policies Australia intercepts boats, often from Indonesia, and forces them back to where they came from.
Those asylum-seekers who do arrive are denied resettlement in Australia, even if found to be genuine refugees, and are instead sent to detention camps in the tiny Pacific state of Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
In the latest boat turnback, an Indonesian official on Thursday revealed six Bangladeshi migrants caught entering Australian waters last week were returned to the eastern Indonesian city of Kupang.
The approach has caused bilateral tensions with Indonesia’s foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir saying Thursday: “We do not support such acts, especially when done on water. It could potentially be dangerous.” Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton insisted ties with Jakarta were good, while defending the policy, which the government says is necessary to prevent deaths at sea.
“We’ve got a good relationship with Indonesia and work closely with them,” he said.
“Australia is very determined to make sure that we continue the success that we’ve had in relation to stopping the boats.” Boat arrivals have been halted since the current government put in place its tough policies, compared to at least 1,200 people dying trying to reach Australia by boat between 2008 and 2013 under the previous Labor administration.
Dutton said people should not be complacent now that the boats have been stopped, warning of thousands ready to make the trip if given the opportunity.
“People who think this problem has gone away need to look no further than what’s going on in Europe at the moment and we know there are about 14,000 people who are in Indonesia ready to hop on boats now,” he said.
“I don’t want our detention centres to refill because we’ve been able to close 13 of the 17 centres and I’ve said continuously that I want to be the minister not only to make sure we keep the boats stopped but that gets kids out of detention and that number is down to less than 50.”
