CATHOLIC bishops in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have demanded resettlement of offshore asylum seekers exactly eight years after Australia passed laws mandating offshore detention for illegal boat arrivals.
On July 19, 2013 the Australian parliament passed legislated for mandatory offshore detention for boat people trying to reach our shores. The legislation also meant they could never settle in Australia.
The PNG and SI Bishops said the people transferred to Manus and Nauru from 2013 and 2014 and some detained offshore or onshore until today, had “served a crucial Australian interest”.
“Their detention has effectively achieved the purpose of stopping the boats, thus allowing Australia to cordon off its maritime borders,” the PNG and SI Bishops general secretary, Fr Giorgio Licini said in a letter to the parliament in Canberra.
“In truth, the Australian policy of indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees (or anybody else not convicted by the courts) sounds totally unjustifiable and unacceptable to us.
“… we strongly urge the Australian parliament to legislate for the freedom and a home in Australia at least for those who have been detained in Manus and Nauru at any stage after 19 July 2013 and have no way, now and in the future, to be resettled to a third country.”
Fr Licini, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, addressed his letter to Senate president, Scott Ryan and House of Representatives speaker, Tony Smith.
He said 127 asylum seekers and refugees remain in Papua New Guinea and enjoy better freedom of movement than those transferred to detention facilities and “alternative places of detention” in Australia.
“But you cannot think of keeping any of them here forever,” Fr Licini said.
“Under the current legislation, they have no right to be resettled in Australia. But they have no duty to live in Papua New Guinea either, unless that is their free choice.
“Australia forcing them to stay indefinitely on PNG soil against the wish of anybody here, contradicts the spirit of PNG self-determination.
“We believe it is time for Australia to erase any trace of past colonial demand and fully implement a new style of compassionate and participative leadership in the Pacific.”
Fr Licini had one final plea for the asylum seekers sent to Manus and Nauru during the last eight years, who have no option for a third country resettlement and fear returning to their home country.
“Please, close the Manus and Nauru chapter as soon as possible by allowing people who have sacrificed so much for your country, and whose acute suffering we see every day, to access a reasonable and acceptable level of freedom and dignity in Australia,” he said.
