Rudd Govt plans to hold asylum-seekers in desert

The Christmas Island detention centre has nearly reached its capacity of 2500. Photo / Kathy Marks

SYDNEY - The federal Government is considering sending asylum-seekers to the middle of the Western Australian desert as it tries to relieve pressure on overflowing detention centres on and off the mainland.

The Immigration Department confirmed that it had inspected an abandoned mining camp at Leonora, a former Gold Rush town 832km northeast of Perth, with a view to using it to house up to 90 people, mainly women and children.

With the detention centre on Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, bursting at the seams, officials are urgently seeking alternative accommodation. On the mainland, more than 200 asylum-seekers awaiting processing of their claims are living in hotels, motels and houses. Churches and other groups have been approached to see whether they can offer suitable facilities.

The proposal to send potentially vulnerable individuals to Leonora, an extremely remote spot 237km north of Kalgoorlie, was criticised by the Western Australian Premier, Colin Barnett. He told ABC radio: "I think it's quite silly of them, charging around country areas of Western Australia, looking for buildings or deserted mining camps. That's not a very professional way of dealing with ... an important humanitarian issue."

Barnett said it would be more sensible to purpose-build a new facility, and the state Government would co-operate with that.

The mining camp at Leonora, which has been empty for 18 months, was one of several spots in Western Australia inspected by the Immigration Department, according to the Australian. Others included a former agricultural college run by the Christian Brothers, the Catholic lay order, at Tardun, east of Geraldton.

The accommodation squeeze follows the interception this year in Australian waters of 60 boats carrying would-be refugees: the same number as during the whole of 2009. Prefabricated huts and air-conditioned tents have boosted the capacity of the Christmas Island centre - originally designed to accommodate a maximum of 800 people - to 2500. But that new limit has almost been reached.

The idea of housing asylum-seekers at Leonora has revived memories of the John Howard era, when "boat people" were sent to, among other places, a grim detention centre at Woomera, in the South Australian desert. That centre, with its razor-wire fence, came to symbolise Howard's hardline refugee policies, some of which were jettisoned when Kevin Rudd came to power in 2007.

Now Rudd's Government is under attack from the Opposition, which claims that current overcrowding problems are a result of its "failed border protection policies".

The Government's policies - which include a temporary freeze on the processing of asylum claims by Afghans and Sri Lankans - has also been criticised by Richard Towle, the regional head of the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee body. Towle said: "We're seeing the inevitable consequences of the pressure inside the whole detention system."

Once thriving Leonora has a population of 1200, one-third of which is indigenous. Gold is still mined in the area, as is nickel, mainly by fly-in, fly-out workers. The town itself, with its broad, deserted streets, has a distinctly abandoned air. A few kilometres away is Gwalia, another historic gold-mining centre, now a virtual ghost town.

The president of Leonora Shire Council, Jeff Carter, said asylum-seekers would be welcome in the town, since they would bring economic benefits. "I've talked to people around town; most people are pretty positive," he told ABC radio. Carter said indigenous leaders were "pretty positive", too.

The mining camp, abandoned during the global financial turmoil, would be refurbished before being used for its new purpose. According to the Australian, a new kitchen is being installed.

LABOR TOOK SOFTER APPROACH

SYDNEY - One of the first actions of Kevin Rudd's Labor Government, when it came to power in 2007, was to discard John Howard's "Pacific Solution", which involved sending asylum-seekers to the remote islands of Manus, part of Papua New Guinea, and Nauru, for processing.

Previously, those who arrived by boat were detained in a collection of bleak mainland centres, including Woomera, in the South Australian desert; Baxter, near Port Augusta, 300km north of Adelaide; Villawood in Sydney; Maribyrnong in Melbourne; Port Hedland, in Western Australia; and Curtin, near Derby, also in WA.

The Pacific Solution was adopted after the 2001 Tampa crisis when Howard's Government refused to allow a Norwegian tanker carrying shipwrecked asylum-seekers to approach Christmas Island, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean.

A detention centre was subsequently built on the island, but only started to be used after a flurry of boat arrivals that began in late 2008. It is that centre that is now overflowing, along with existing facilities on the mainland.