Australian bishops call for on-shore processing of refugees
Australia’s Catholic Bishops have called for on-shore processing of asylum seekers
who arrive in Australia.
The Australian government has attempted to transfer
refugees arriving illegally in territorial waters to third countries. However, a proposal
to ‘swap’ refugees – returning illegal refugees to Malaysia and accepting already
processed refugees from that country – was rejected last week by the Australian Supreme
Court.
The government’s attempt to resurrect the plan was denounced by the
Australian bishops, who warned that off-shore processing will not solve the underlying
problems.
The Australian Bishops Conference has “protested at the way the
Malaysian solution was enhanced and the fact that the Malaysian solution was not given
any sort of certainties as far as the treatment of asylum seekers, and basically what
the Catholic Church said was that a swapping of human being was ethically unacceptable,”
said Father Maurizio Pettenà, director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee
Office.
“As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, our proposal is that people
be welcomed within the community and their claims for refugee status be processed
within the community,” he said.
Listen to the full interview by
Christopher Wells with Father Pettenà: