Friday February 8, is to be a historic day as it marks the end of one of the most restrictive asylum policies in the world: The Pacific Solution. The Pacific Solution was enacted in 2001 as pieces of emergency legislation by Australia to deny the Tampa to enter Australian waters, effectively denying some 400 mainly Afghani asylum seekers from protection. It included excision of some of Australian territory, extraterritorial processing of asylum seekers in Nauru and PNG, and mandatory detention. The Australian government justified this act by stating it was preventing queuejumping and giving "real asylum seekers" a chance to seek protection in Australia. However, the 'unspoken' justification was to deny asylum access to the perceived influx of Asian migrants. The point was to send asylum seekers to a place (offshore) where they would have minimal guarantees of judicial review.
So, what does this mean?
With former Prime Minister Howard no longer in power, Australians have a chance to restructure their asylum process in a way that is more humane. See also Reuters
However on a more somber note, Australia still maintains a refugee processing center on Christmas Island, which has been much more invisible from the media.
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