Australia's asylum policy halts seekers

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SYDNEY, Australia -- Visitors arriving by boat at remote northern islands off this island continent who ask whether they have reached Australia might get a noncommittal reply, such as: "That depends."

It depends on whether they plan to seek asylum, in which case their future rests on whether the island has been designated an "excised offshore place." If it has, they are not allowed to apply for visas and must leave the island immediately, unless the immigration minister uses the office's discretionary powers to decide otherwise.

When 14 Kurdish Turks anchored their leaky 40-foot fishing boat on Melville Island, 50 miles north of Darwin on Nov. 3, they were relieved to hear that they had reached Australia. But five hours later, they were being towed out to sea into Indonesian waters by Australian military personnel yelling "go Indonesia."

The 14 Kurds now languish in detention in Jakarta, and it is possible that they may be returned to Turkey.

Indonesian immigration department spokesman Ade Dachlan told the Australian that he would examine assertions by the Kurds that they had been treated roughly by Australian authorities.

"What do they think Indonesia is, a trash bin for these people?" he asked the newspaper.

As Kurds fleeing Turkish rule, it was clear that the men were seeking asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention, human rights activist said.

But hours after hearing of their arrival in Australia, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone instructed Maj. Gen. Michael Jeffery, the governor general, to sign regulations retrospectively to excise Melville Island and more than 3,000 other islands from Australia's "migration zone."

The regulation was overturned by the Senate the following week for a period lasting until June, but the move did not come in time to help the Kurdish asylum seekers, whose fate had been sealed the moment they reached Australia.