The Refugee Action Coalition has strongly condemned the Houston panel\u2019s recommendations for offshore processing as made public at their press conference this afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u2018Mr Houston and his colleagues had an opportunity to listen to the experts, escape the major parties\u2019 persecution of refugees and inject reason into the asylum seeker debate,\u2019 said Nick Riemer, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u2018But the panel has made no recommendation that will improve the situation for refugees who have no other choice than to get on boats. All we have seen is a return to the cruelty and inhumanity of the policies of the past.<\/p>\n
\u2018If the panel\u2019s arrangements are implemented, refugees will suffer and languish in Nauru, Manus Island, just as they did under the Howard government. The only people these recommendations will help are the major parties.<\/p>\n
\u2018The panel has claimed to be motivated by humanitarian considerations,\u2019 Riemer continued. \u2018But all its recommendations are about outsourcing Australia\u2019s responsibilities to poorer, less-equipped neighbours. People desperate enough to sacrifice everything to get on a boat deserve our help. But the panel wants to shunt them off to places in our region where they have no hope of living in safety. The only place that can give refugees the security and support they need is Australia. Refugees should be welcomed into the community,\u2019 Reimer said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The panel stressed that its aim was to provide incentives for \u2018regular pathways\u2019. By giving the green light to the Malaysia Agreement, the Panel has not provided any credible regular pathway for refugees to get to Australia. Would Australia really turn away asylum seekers fleeing the desperate circumstances in Syria?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018While the Panel recommended increasing Australia\u2019s overall refugee intake, without guaranteed resettlement to Australia, refugees will still have no alternative but to resort to boats.<\/p>\n
\u2018As the direct arrival of Tamils to Australia shows, war, torture and persecution are not the kinds of situation that allow regular pathways. No one with any knowledge of refugee movements thinks that there is any way to prevent dangerous ocean crossings.<\/p>\n
\u2018The no advantage provisions for boat arrivals are extremely callous. The panel\u2019s real attitude is revealed by the fact that they haven\u2019t excluded turning back the boats.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Refugees quite simply have the right to risk their lives at sea if they think that those journeys are worth that risk. Six hundred people have died at sea, but thousands have successfully reached Australia. Tony Kevin\u2019s authoritative figures show that the overwhelming majority of boat arrivals get here successfully. Howard\u2019s Pacific Solution didn\u2019t save lives either.<\/p>\n
\u2018The only way to save lives at sea is to decriminalize people smuggling, to open Australian processing centres in the region, and to massively increase our humanitarian intake without making vulnerable boat arrivals pay for it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018To add insult to injury, the one positive measure the Panel proposed \u2013 to de-link the onshore and offshore humanitarian programs (recommendation 21) has been left for two years to review.\u2019<\/p>\n
For comment contact Nick Riemer: 0435 533 027, or Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Refugee Action Coalition has strongly condemned the Houston panel\u2019s recommendations for offshore processing as made public at their press conference this afternoon. \u2018Mr Houston and his colleagues had an opportunity to listen to the experts, escape the major parties\u2019 persecution of refugees and inject reason into the asylum seeker debate,\u2019 said Nick Riemer, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. \u2018But the panel has made no recommendation that will improve the situation for refugees who have no other choice than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[208,116,47,215,62,214,217,117,216,92],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-press-releases","tag-expert-panel-on-asylum-seekers","tag-ian-rintoul","tag-malaysia","tag-manus-island","tag-nauru","tag-nick-riemer","tag-pacific-solution","tag-refugee-action-coalition","tag-syria","tag-tamil","post-has-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\n