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.
PATROL PARTNERS: The ‘Chiayi’ and the ‘Penghu’ departed for a two-day joint patrol of Palau’s exclusive economic zone, the CGA’s second diplomatic visit to the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) set a record for its southernmost deployment of a coast guard vessel as the vessels Chiayi and the Penghu reached Palau’s Pulo Anna Island on Saturday in a cooperative exercise between the two countries. The island, about 217 nautical miles (401km) southwest of Koror in the Palauan state of Sonsorol and 1,220 nautical miles from Taiwan’s southernmost point, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), is the furthest south a CGA vessel has sailed. The two vessels are in Palau for the coast guard’s second diplomatic visit to the country. They docked at Malakal Harbor on Tuesday last week. The coast guard
The government is monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China, and it might enhance quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that rumors had circulated that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease spreading to Taiwan, given the volume of traffic between the two sides, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive
EAST OF GUAM: Tropical Storm Champi is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon, but its effect on Taiwan is uncertain due to the presence of a high-pressure system Tropical Storm Champi formed yesterday and has the potential to increase in strength, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Forecasters are closely monitoring a Pacific high-pressure system that would dictate whether the storm turns north or moves toward Taiwan next week, the CWA said. The most likely scenario is that it turns northward after passing the Ryukyu Islands, CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said. As of 8pm yesterday, Champi was east of Guam moving west-northwest at 20kph, CWA data showed. It had maximum sustained winds near the center of 72kph and gusts of up to 101kph, the data showed. If the Pacific high-pressure system
BATCH 1: The military has plans to assign the weapons to the army to defend Taiwan proper, as well as outlying islands and the navy for the Marine Corps, the official said Taiwan is to receive 500 Stinger missiles and 178 launchers from the US by the end of the year, the first batch under a planned two-stage acquisition totaling 2,621 missiles and 763 launchers, a defense official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The portable missiles would play a vital role in the nation’s air defense capabilities, the source said. The army plans to deploy 2,235 missiles and 657 launchers to defend Taiwan proper and outlying islands, they said, citing military documents. The navy is allotted 295 missiles and 85 launchers to arm the Marine Corps and some surface vessels that lack air defense
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