Minasa Bone Passengers Go Home

VPS 021/2004

All of the Minasa Bone passengers have now voluntarily returned to their home.

In the first week of December in 2003, eight of the 14 Turkish passengers voluntarily chose to return to their home instead of having their claims for asylum as refugees assessed by the UNHCR. These are the same men that revealed, according to The Age (27/11/2003) that 'the real reason they wanted to come to Australia was to get higher paying jobs - not to flee persecution by the Turkish Government.'

On 12 January 2004, the remaining six passengers departed voluntarily for home, following the UNHCRs determination that they were not refugees.

The return of the Minasa Bone's passengers is a slap in the face to people smugglers.

The successful return of the Minasa Bone's passengers sends a clear message: Australia will not allow criminals involved in people smuggling activities to make money by exploiting our generous immigration laws.

The operation also highlights the success of the regional cooperation arrangements that Australia has with Indonesia. I would like to thank all parties to the regional cooperation arrangements for their role in finalising this sorry tale.

The Government's policy ensures that we meet our domestic and international legal obligations in relation to the processing of people who wish to apply for protection. But not in a way that gives succour to people smugglers.

Our best interests are served by processing people outside of Australia and away from our legal system, which provides potential for significant delay and abuse.

The message to people smugglers is simple - dropping your customers off on our doorstop does not get entry into Australia.

It is worth noting that without the now disallowed excision regulations, all of the Minasa Bone's passengers would now be in detention in Australia and accessing Australia's legal system even though they have no legitimate case.

The regional cooperation arrangements work. It is about time Labor recognised the success of the current arrangements and plugged its own leaky policy boat on border control.

15 January 2004