Fed: Downer says no doubt why asylum boats heading south

AAP General News (Australia)
04-17-2009
Fed: Downer says no doubt why asylum boats heading south

CANBERRA, April 17 AAP - Former coalition government foreign minister Alexander Downer
says there's no doubt the recent surge in asylum seeker boat arrivals stems from Labor's
relaxation of immigration policies.

Mr Downer said people smugglers based in Indonesia followed the Australian immigration
debate very closely.

"Definitely, there is just no question of it. There's no doubt about it," Mr Downer
told ABC Radio.

"The people smugglers in Indonesia, and I know this .... were very interested in the
election campaign in Australia," he said.

Mr Downer said people smugglers made hundreds of thousands from their illegal activities.

"And therefore the survival of their racket and their profitability depends to some
extent on how the Australian government responds," he said.

"These people hope that we run as slack or as lax a policy as possible because that
is how they maximise their profits."

In the latest incident a boat carrying 47 asylum seekers and two crew, exploded after
being intercepted off Ashmore Reef.

Three were killed and 31 badly injured.

Mr Downer said the tragedy was a consequence of the people-smuggling racket starting up again.

He said those aboard such vessels were typically economic migrants trained by people
smugglers about what to say so they would be treated as a refugees.

Mr Downer said many took the risk in the hope it would pay off.

"And they will get somewhere comfortable and the comfortable country will say `well
it is alright, we will call you a refugee and you can stay'," he said.

"The more you do that, the more people will take risks and the more you will have the problem."

Mr Downer said he didn't know about the latest case. But in general terms, those on
the asylum seeker boats often took steps to ensure they weren't turned away from Australia.

"There is the famous so-called children overboard incident," he said, referring to
the controversial 2001 incident involving asylum seekers on a sinking boat.

"But in reality what we subsequently found out was that they had sunk their boat ...

so that they would be picked up by the navy and they would be able to get to Australia."

However, other accounts have said the boat was sinking because it was breaking up under
the strain of having been towed by an Australian navy vessel.

AAP mb/kms/jl

KEYWORD: BOAT DOWNER

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