August 08, 2014
Australia revealed Monday that 770 Iranians unwanted in Australia have accepted cash payments to return to Iran. They represent two-thirds of all the unwanted boat refugees who have taken money to leave Australia.
Almost $3 million of taxpayer money has been spent to encourage 1,146 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat to return to the countries they fled. The average payment was about $2,600.
Iranians were by far the largest nationality group to take the money and run. The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) said 770 Iranian asylum seekers accepted “reintegration assistance.” That was far greater than the 102 Iraqis and 102 Sri Lankans who took the money to go home. A total of 87 Vietnamese and 85 people from other countries also took the payments and left Australia.
Since late last year, Australia has been barring from the country people trying to enter Australia by boat. Instead, they have been sent to island detention centers in the neighboring countries of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The goal has clearly been to make them miserable and encourage them to go home.
But the new figures show that only one-third of all those accepting the payments to go home have come from those detention centers. The ALA said those returning were comprised of 427 on “bridging visas,” which allow them to stay and work in Australia temporarily, 339 who “chose to leave Australia,” a term not further explained, and 375 detained offshore on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea.
ALA spokesman Greg Barns did not like the pay-to-go arrangement, saying, “$3 million have been spent to send these vulnerable asylum seekers back to their country of origin despite the real threat many of them face to their safety…. How many of those people will live to spend the meager assistance provided to them by the Australian government is yet to be seen.”
Australia has not said how many Iranians are eligible for the “reintegration assistance,” so it isn’t known how many have so far rejected the offer. Australia has said that no one arriving by boat since last year will ever be allowed to settle in Australia even if they are judged to be legitimate refugees under international law.
