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Australia defends asylum policy

"What do they think Indonesia is -- a trash bin for these people?"

Ade Dachlan, Indonesian immigration spokesman

Australia denied yesterday it is using Indonesia as a dumping ground for unwanted boat people after Canberra sent 14 Turkish asylum seekers back to Jakarta.

The men, who arrived in Australia on a fishing boat from Indonesia, were questioned by immigration officials before being returned under navy escort over the weekend.

"What do they think Indonesia is -- a trash bin for these people?" Indonesian immigration spokesman Ade Dachlan reportedly told Australian Associated Press on Wednesday. He said Jakarta has launched an investigation to "see if what the Australian government did was wrong."

Dachlan said yesterday he did not make the "trash bin" comment but added that Jakarta and Canberra had an agreement that Australia should accept asylum seekers "and not throw them back to Indonesia."

Dachlan said the men told Indonesian authorities they do not want to return to Turkey and want asylum in Australia. "When we finish the investigation, we will announce our official position," he said.

But Australia's Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Canberra acted properly and with the cooperation of Indonesian authorities.

"Is Australia treating Indonesia as a dumping ground, certainly not," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

The UN refugee agency has also criticized Australia for turning away the men, who claimed to be Turkish Kurds. They arrived at Australia's Melville Island on Nov. 4 and are now at an immigration center in Jakarta.

"Our main concern is that people who are already vulnerable have been made even more vulnerable by Australia's neglect of its international obligations," said Jean Marie Fakhouri, who heads the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.

The Australian government has taken a tough but domestically popular stance against asylum seekers.

Vanstone and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer claimed on Sunday the men did not tell officials they wanted to seek asylum.

However -- after the men told UNHCR officials they had pleaded with Australian authorities for asylum -- Downer ordered an investigation.

When the 14 men arrived, Canberra issued regulations to cut Melville Island from the country's migration zone, preventing them from applying for asylum.

Vanstone said yesterday that even if they had asked for asylum it was "not relevant ... because Melville Island had been excised," from the migration zone.
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