Australia urged to find immediate solution for refugees

Transcript

Protesters gather outside the family compound of the asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru. Photo: Supplied

Australia's offshore detention policy has been branded an unnecessary fear campaign, as Australia has been urged to find an immediate solution.

A week after an Iranian asylum seeker on Nauru burned himself to death, another is now in a critical condition in a Brisbane hospital.

And Australian officials have been in Port Moresby discussing options for the almost 1000 people on Manus Island after the centre there was ruled unconstitutional.

Alex Perrottet reports.

Australia has been adamant that it won't take in anyone arriving by boat, and genuine refugees have paid the price for years, languishing indefinitely on Manus Island and Nauru. The immigration minister Peter Dutton says those in Nauru have all the freedoms and access to services as Nauru citizens and some have been given 10 year visas by the Nauru government. A Nauru opposition MP, Sprent Dabwido, agrees, but says the lack of a definitive solution means frustrations boil over regularly - such as Omid Masoumali, who self-immolated and died from his burns.

SPRENT DABWIDO: "They are frustrated that they probably expect to be here from three to five years, but if you don't tell them that and if you don't give them a way to go then some of them cannot handle it, and they're very demanding now that they should go to Australia."

The coalition government in Australia, both under Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, has repeated that the harsh policy has saved lives - as many drowned at sea in risky attempts to reach Australia, under what it calls the Labor Government's lax policy. But Pamela Curr from the Refugee Action Coalition says that's dishonest, as the Government now has agreements with neighbouring countries to tow back boats that enter its waters.

PAMELA CURR: "They've stopped because the Australian navy is stationed out there in the Indian Ocean and blocks every boat. We have agreements now with Cambodia, with the Vietnamese and with the Sri Lankan Governments, that if we find refugees from those countries then we will return them. So the boats have stopped because of the physical presence of the Australian navy."

Pamela Curr says Peter Dutton may refer to Cambodia as an option but the condition on Cambodia's agreement to take refugees is that they must be voluntary and only four people have taken up the offer. Two of the four then returned to their home countries, and Ms Curr says other countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and East Timor have denied Australia's approaches to accept them.

But many of the boats in the past came from Indonesia, with whom Australia has had a strained relationship. Peter Dutton has warned of people smugglers still operating, ready to exploit the loose ocean border between the two countries.

A lawyer and Jesuit priest, Fr Frank Brennan, says Australia needs to deal more closely to Indonesia to solve that, but says the ongoing punishment of those who have already arrived is inhumane. He says Australia has a moral obligation to take the refugees in, and after the PNG Supreme Court decision, it has a legal obligation as well.

FRANK BRENNAN: "And given that the boats have been stopped, the ethical dividend that Australia has to pay is to look after those people who are here and who have reached Australia seeking asylum, inlcuding those who have been taken to Manus Island and Nauru. They deserve to be processed in Australia and if found to be genuine refugees they deserve to be settled in Australia."

Meanwhile Pamela Curr disagrees that refugees have freedoms in Nauru.

PAMELA CURR: "There are no opportunities, this is nonsense. What has happened is men and women who have taken jobs on Nauru have been threatened, have been bashed, and have been told they'll be killed if they keep those jobs, because the locals resent them taking their employment. That is a fact."

Pamela Curr says Nauru has also made it clear that even those with 10-year visas cannot stay in there in the long term. Sprent Dabwido says Australia at the very least must provide clearer options and sooner.

SPRENT DABWIDO: "I think Australia should do more in trying to convince these people of other options rather than just saying 'you will never come to Australia', 'you will never come to Australia'. They should give these people other options. If we can't come to Australia, where else, where can we go?"

It's clear that refugees don't want to go home, they don't want to go to Cambodia. It's a stand-off that the refugees cannot win - a reality that has driven some to take their own lives.