Australia: [Immigrant] Detention centres pushed to overflow

[Twoller]

http://www.smh.com.au/national/deten...0401-ri4n.html

Detention centres pushed to overflow

JACOB SAULWICK AND YUKO NARUSHIMA

April 2, 2010

ANOTHER 150 asylum seekers and crew are expected to land at Christmas Island today, exceeding the official capacity of its detention centres and increasing pressure on the Rudd government to accelerate transfers to the mainland.

Yesterday 64 mainly Afghan asylum seekers landed. They were picked up on the 101st boat to arrive since the government was elected. Intercepted on Tuesday night, it was the 16th boat to arrive in March, surpassing the monthly record of 14 set in November 1999.

The opposition jumped on the latest influx, with Tony Abbott picking asylum seekers as the government's achilles heel and accusing Kevin Rudd of being all talk and no action. He chided Mr Rudd for not turning any of the boats around.

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The rising number of boats reaching Australia is also causing anxiety among refugee communities already here, as their hopes of bringing family diminish with each new arrival.

The refusal rate for refugees wishing to sponsor family to join them sits at 90 per cent and is set to grow as more places are filled by applicants who ask for humanitarian visas once they arrive.

The trade-off arises from a 1996 law peculiar to Australia that bundles the two categories of people together and puts a lid on the total. Frederika Steen, a former immigration official in resettlement services, said it was a ''systemic issue''.

''They are taking away the places set aside for recruitment selection from overseas.''

For the 64 asylum seekers who arrived yesterday, a political storm would have been the furthest thing from their minds. Said to be mostly from Afghanistan, they started being brought ashore at Christmas Island's Flying Fish Cove about 8.30am.

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The rest of the article is at the above link. Of course these folks are immigrants with asylum an empty pretext.