Australia's new government, making its second big policy shift in just a week in power, began yesterday to scrap a controversial scheme which sent refugees to remote foreign islands for processing.
The move came exactly a week after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in his first official act after ousting former prime minster John Howard's conservative government in federal elections.
The initial step in dismantling the "Pacific Solution" would be to grant refugee status to seven men from Myanmar held on the island of Nauru for more than a year, Immigration Minister Chris Evans told national radio.
"I'm hopeful that those Burmese will be returned in the next week or two in time for Christmas," he said. "There's no reason why they shouldn't be processed quickly. In fact in my view they should have been processed some time ago, but we're keen to resolve their issues."
The refugees from Myanmar would be settled in Brisbane, Queensland, Evans said.
The government also hoped to quickly resolve the asylum claims of about 80 Sri Lankans held on Nauru, he said.
Nauru, a tiny and impoverished nation paid by Australia to house detainees, became a focus of global attention in 2001 when a boatload of Afghan refugees was offloaded there.
The Nauru detention center hit worldwide headlines again in early 2004 when a number of detainees staged a hunger strike and sewed up their lips in protest at their incarceration.
Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre spokesman David Manne, who represented the Myanmar refugees, said they were delighted by the news that they would be granted asylum.
"They were very happy, extremely relieved about the news and really looking forward to being able to rebuild their lives and to make a real contribution in the future in Australia," he said.
Under the "Pacific Solution," boatpeople arriving in Australian waters were sent to detention centers on Nauru or Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, sometimes languishing there for years.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary