Plans to warehouse asylum-seekers on boats inhumane

3 August 2006

National refugee advocacy organisation A Just Australia is calling on the federal government to abandon its plans to warehouse refugees on boats off the coast of Australia.

"It is nothing short of outrageous that the government is looking to 18th century penal systems as providing a model policy for dealing with asylum-seekers in the 21st century," said Ms Anna Samson, A Just Australia's Acting National Coordinator.

"The Howard government does not seem content with simply offloading refugees seeking protection in Australia to small Pacific nations for potentially indefinite detention; it is now looking at wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on warehousing these vulnerable people on armed ships far from appropriate legal, welfare and health services.

"This policy announcement flies in the face of the reforms recommended by the Palmer Inquiry. It also ignores the recommendations of numerous welfare organisations, human rights groups, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and legal experts, as well as the advice of health care professionals, that isolated detention of asylum-seekers causes serious physical and mental health problems," Ms Samson added.

"The federal government must withdraw this plan immediately. Our refugee policy should be inspired by the values of compassion, decency and a 'fair go' trumpeted by the Howard government, not the now disgraced prison ships of a bygone era."