Bowen defends new temporary visa regime

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has defended his plan to release thousands of asylum seekers into the community on bridging visas, despite criticism from one prominent Labor backbencher who fears the changes will create a poverty-stricken underclass.

The Government has effectively admitted that its offshore processing system has been overwhelmed by the large number of asylum seeker boats that continue to arrive, and many people will now have their refugee claims assessed while living in Australia.
Those granted bridging visas will be prevented from working, will not have family reunion rights and will be given only a limited amount of financial assistance for food and accommodation.
The Greens have described the new arrangements as "more extreme" than the former Howard government's policies and have described the visas as essentially the same as the temporary protection visas (TPVs) that Labor once railed against.
But Mr Bowen has rejected that, saying: "There's similarities, and there's differences."

"They're a temporary visa, that is the case," he told ABC Radio National.
"The Liberal Party way of implementing TPVs, as I understand it, is that after people are taken to Nauru, after they wait that time, then they're given TPVs when they arrive in Australia.
"That's not what we're doing."
Under the Government's plan, asylum seekers will not necessarily have to go via an offshore detention centre to be issued with a bridging visa.
More than 7,500 asylum seekers have arrived by boat since the Government announced it would reopen the detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, prompting the Greens and the Coalition to declare Labor's policies are not working.
Despite that, Mr Bowen insists the Government must do everything it can to try to stop people attempting the dangerous boat journey to Australia.

Underclass

Labor senator Doug Cameron, who has repeatedly criticised the way asylum seekers are treated, has again voiced his concern about the latest moves and declared it is impossible to stop the boats.
"I don't want people to come here and starve, I don't want an underclass to be created in Australia," Senator Cameron told reporters in Canberra this morning.
"If you have a situation where people are thrown into the community, having to rely on charity, you're creating an underclass.
"To put someone into the community and put them in poverty, is an issue.
"With the number of people that are looking to move around the world seeking refuge... you're always going to have a situation that boats will come to Australia," he added.
"I don't think you can stop the boats. I think that's rhetorical nonsense."

Speaking this morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr called the bridging visas a "necessary policy" and said: "Offshore processing and the announcement yesterday are proof positive we are not going to allow people smugglers to rule the roost... we're not going to allow people smugglers to determine Australia's migration arrangements."
"We have a 20,000 per year humanitarian intake and that is the second most generous in the world. It's second only to that of the United States. That increase from 15,000 to 20,000 has edged us above Canada, and I think all Australians can be proud of that."
He said the recent voluntary returns of more than 400 "economic migrants" to Sri Lanka was proof the Government's policy was working.
"Given the large number of displaced people in the world and the instinct of people in Sri Lanka to come here as economic migrants, paying money to people smugglers, imagine how higher the figures would be without offshore processing and without the return of people that's now taking place.
"The important point is this - we've got people coming here, not as refugees, now being returned."

'Depressing'

The Government announced yesterday that it had begun transferring asylum seekers - including women and children as young as 10 - to Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.
It also announced a contract had been signed with a construction firm to begin building a permanent detention centre on Nauru, that will eventually replace the temporary accommodation being used at the moment.
Amnesty International observers have spent the past couple of days on the island inspecting the facilities and have described them as "depressing".
"People wanting to show us where somebody tried to hang themself - those sort of things that show the level of desperation that people are facing here on Nauru," the organisation's Graham Thom told Radio National.
Mr Bowen says he is not surprised by Amnesty's criticism given the organisation has never supported offshore processing of refugee claims.
Late yesterday, another detainee was treated by medical staff after attempting self harm. Asylum seekers inside the detention centre say the Iranian man tried to hang himself using a bed sheet within his tent.

Source:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-22/bowen-defends-bridging-visas/4385930