21 Nov 2009

Australia's Refugee Council sees no reason to restart Pacific solution

11:39 am on 21 November 2009

The President of Australia's Refugee Council, John Gibson, says there are no grounds for the government to revisit the previous administration's so-called Pacific solution to processing asylum seekers.

High level officials in both Papua New Guinea and Nauru this week indicated preparedness to reopen facilities to help solve the Australian government's ongoing boat people problems.

From 2001 until last year, Australia used facilities on PNG's Manus Island and Nauru for offshore detention of asylum seekers.

Canberra is under pressure to resettle up to 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who its customs officers picked up in Indonesian waters and who became the centre of a four-week standoff with Jakarta over which country would process them.

But John Gibson says this latest saga is not a reason to restart the Pacific Solution.

"The focus is now more upon Indonesia. But with that focus has to come a greater awareness of how long people are there, why they're there and, if they have been accepted as refugees by the UNHCR then the need should be to find a country of settlement for them as soon as possible."

John Gibson.