Swapsies

As we reel at the latest refugee deal, there are signs of the sinister Ruddock legacy appearing from the past. This brief report below illustrates that this is not the first time that George Bush and John Howard talked of playing swapsies with human lives.

The question of the Christmas Island prison complex lurks in the background still unanswered. What is the future for the most expensive, highest security facility ever built in Australia (albeit an excised portion)? Who is destined to suffer there? Does the Christmas Island complex play a role in the swapsie deal? Why did the USA Homeland Security team fly down in a chartered flight from Singapore in Nov 2006 to inspect the High security Christmas Island facility?

The USA MOU follows those with Indonesia and Malaysia - all secret deals between our government and others. Surely we have a right to know what is being plotted in our name.

Pamela Curr ASRC Melbourne

Newspaper Report Wrong on Deal with US
MPS 35/2002

The Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Philip Ruddock said that a newspaper report today on a claimed refugee swap with the United States of America was wrong.

No special deal has been done for Australia to resettle people from Haiti and Cuba in return for the USA taking people from Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Burden sharing is a long established aspect of the refugee system and while Australia will do its part in other regions of the world, it also expects other countries to share the burden in our region.

Australia had agreed to assist the USA in the resettlement of a small group of people from Haiti, but this is not an uncommon occurrence between refugee resettlement nations and it was speculation by the reporter that it was part of a deal.

18 May 2002