End 'Christmas Island Community Jailing'

Chris Evans Should End 'Christmas Island Community Jailing' After Health And ID Checks

Media Release

Wednesday May 6, 2009 8:30am WST

For immediate Release

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"Chris Evans should stop being a whimp and make good on the promises he has made at a lecture last year at ANU where he declared and end to asylum seeker jailing after initial health and security checks, and he should institute a new bridging visa where asylum seekers after this first phase can fly off Christmas Island, find a home and become part of the Australian community," WA Human Rights group Project SafeCom said this morning.

"If anybody in the Immigration Department complains that the Christmas Island facilities are becoming overstretched (reported below), then it's a problem of their own making and an entrenched attitude in DIAC's organisational culture - one that seeks ongoing detention - and Chris Evans is not helping by his failure to come good on his promises made at Australian National University last year," spokesman Jack H Smit said.

"Instead of releasing asylum seekers after these initial health and security checks, they are 'let loose on Australia's Prison Island', and the Department and the Minister are fooling themselves that this constitutes a release from detention."

Chris Evans needs to start being honest to himself, he needs to start saving millions of dollars by implementing the promises made at ANU, combined with Labor's promise, given unconditionally since 2004, to 'process 90% of asylum cases within 90 days' and free up Christmas Island."

"Not only that, he could reduce the gross expenditure of jailing asylum seekers on Christmas Island by 70% by processing asylum seekers on the mainland instead," Mr Smit said.

"It is gross that our government keeps squandering millions of dollars each year just by keeping asylum seekers jailed remotely, just because it has decided that this keeps the asylum seeker issue out of sight and out of mind, thinking that this policy actually helps them politically."

By starting a fuller compliance with Australia's International Law and International Convention obligations and processing people on the mainland we can massively slash our out-of-proportion asylum processing budget and become a little more humane."

ENDS

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