Australian Opposition Ignores Prime Minister’s Offer on Refugee Claimants

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard is prepared to initiate negotiations with the opposition leader Tony Abbot on offshore processing of asylum seekers’ applications in Malaysia and Nauru.

Ms. Gillard said in an interview with ABC television, “I’m trying to say, we should get further along. We did put a compromise forward out of a set of earlier discussions. That is certainly there for the opposition to agree to, and I’m certainly open to further discussions.”

Ms Gillard urged the opposition to negotiate a solution to deter the continuous influx of boats carrying asylum seekers and avoid the losses of human lives such as in a recent incident in which about 90 refugee seekers died after their boat was capsized.

The Australian Prime Minister defended her government’s decision to ink pact with Malaysia as a deterrent to human smugglers. According to the deal Australia was to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 of that country’s registered refugees in a bid to deter human smugglers.

However, the Ms. Gillard’s minority government received a setback when Australian High Court judges nullified the deal.

The opposition Leader Tony Abbott gave no indication so far to accept the deal with the government to process the applications offshore.

Mr. Abbott said, “I think the prime minister is playing politics with the best of them. The prime minister just wants us to accept a dud deal. She hasn’t moved on at all.”

The Greens party is opposed to any offshore processing of asylum application and suggest that doubling the number of asylum seekers admitted into Australia is an alternative solution. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said that her party does not support people embarking on life threatening voyages to arrive in Australia. If Australian government increased the number of asylums form about 14000 to 25,000 then people will not have to use boats to travel to Australia and risk their lives.

There is no compromise between the two parties to process the refugee claims offshore evident in near future and human smugglers will continue to take advantage of the situation by sending more boat people to Australia.

Tags: Australia, Australian immigration, Australian Prime Minister, boat people, Boatpeople. Asylum Seeker, Human Traficing, Immigration