East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said yesterday he supports in principle an Australian plan to turn his country into a regional center for processing asylum seekers but does not want his tiny, impoverished nation to become an “island prison.”
Ramos-Horta said that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard had raised the proposal with him but that there were few details so far.
He told Australian Broadcasting Corp television he supported the plan in principle, but only if East Timor’s government agrees and if the facility were a temporary stop for people who would be resettled in other countries.
Ramos-Horta, awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for helping end Indonesia’s brutal rule of East Timor, serves in the largely ceremonial role of president, while the government is led by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.
“I would never turn my back on people who flee violence in Afghanistan, or whatever,” Ramos-Horta said. “But on a temporary basis, so that they can be sent to a third country where they can start life with dignity and with promise of a better future.”
“I wouldn’t want Timor-Leste [East Timor] to become an island prison for displaced persons fleeing violence,” Ramos-Horta said, using the country’s official name.
East Timor, with a population of just 1 million, has faced political turmoil and chronic unemployment since gaining independence in 2002 after nearly four centuries of foreign domination.
The half-island nation would need financial help to manage a center. It would also need assistance to feed, house and clothe asylum seekers and give them medical care and jobs in the community.
East Timorese Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres said on Tuesday he doubted his country had the capacity to run such a center.
Gillard on Tuesday proposed that East Timor would become a UN-approved processing hub for asylum seekers as a way to stem a recent influx of boat people trying to reach Australia from Afghanistan and other countries. The asylum seekers have become an issue in elections expected to be held within months.
Yesterday, Gillard announced a A$25 million (US$21 million) package to help Asian countries combat people-smuggling. Indonesia will get patrol boats and planes, while police in Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will get surveillance and other equipment.
The new policy brings Gillard’s government closer into line with the conservative opposition by keeping asylum seekers out of the country while their applications are processed, though it retains humanitarian protections sought by the UN.
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