Tony Abbott says 'illegal' arrivals by boat have reached 50,000 under Labor

 
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has described as a "terrible milestone" the 50,000 "illegal" arrivals by boat since Labor won office in 2007. However, Labor has claimed that there is evidence its new offshore settlement policy is working because some asylum seekers in Indonesia have asked people smugglers for their money back. A boat carrying 67 people was picked up off Christmas Island this morning.
Mr Abbott says that has taken the number of asylum seekers entering Australian waters to an "inevitable" total. "Our country has passed a terrible milestone," he told reporters in Launceston. "Now just think of that number - 50,000 (people). "It's bigger than Gladstone, it's bigger than Coffs Harbour. "These are very, very large numbers." Immigration Minister Tony Burke said earlier that there was fresh intelligence that asylum seekers in Indonesia are changing their minds about taking the risky trip to Australia and asking people smugglers for a refund. "We have widespread examples on the ground, in Indonesia, of people asking for their money back from people smugglers," he said. "There is no doubt that the message is getting through."
Under the Federal Government's new policy, announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd nearly three weeks ago, asylum seekers who arrive by boat will be processed in Papua New Guinea and resettled there if found to be refugees. A similar arrangement has since been struck with Nauru. Mr Burke says the policy is already deterring some asylum seekers, but could not say exactly how many had decided not to go ahead with the journey. "For everything that's been attempted in the past, with people smugglers, it's become clear that the only way to affect them is to take their product away and to take their customers away," he said.
"The regional resettlement arrangements take the product away from people smugglers and the information getting out shows that now we're at the beginnings of their customers being taken away from them as well."
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) says 26 boats carrying 1,879 asylum seekers have arrived in Australian waters since Mr Rudd announced the PNG deal. DIAC says 17,710 asylum seekers have arrived by boat so far this year, eclipsing the 17,702 in 2012. Keep up with our live blog for all the developments in the 2013 federal election campaign.


Burke has just returned from another trip to PNG

Mr Burke said a "significant number" of asylum seekers who had already been transferred to PNG's Manus Island processing centre are applying to return to their home countries.

Asylum seekers in Australian waters

  • 2013: 17,710
  • 2012: 17,202
  • 2011: 4,565
  • 2010: 6,535
  • 2009: 2,726
  • 2008: 161

"We now have a significant number of the people who have been transferred to Manus Island in meetings with the International Organisation for Migration, the IOM, organising their transfers back home," he said.
"In each of the instances of those interviews so far, they have been people who do not have papers with them so those returns won't be able to be immediate, but there are a very significant number of people now who are having those meetings with the IOM to organise their return back home."
The Immigration Minister has just returned from PNG where the agreement over offshore settlement was finalised yesterday.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the agreement will not prevent asylum seekers being returned to Australia.
"You will not find any bar on sending anyone back to Australia," he said.
"In particular, you will not find anything in there regarding those found not to be refugees in terms of any restriction of them being sent back to Australia.