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CANBERRA - Refugee advocates have expressed outrage at a plan to swap asylum seekers intercepted en route to Australia with those detained while trying to enter the United States.
The agreement, announced by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, could result in Australia agreeing to resettle Cuban and Haitian refugees detained at Guantanamo Bay, in return for the US accepting asylum seekers held on Nauru.
The program signals further changes to the Pacific solution, after the Nauruan government moved to place time limits on the processing of Australia-bound boat people sent to the remote island.
Up to 200 asylum seekers could be exchanged under the scheme, with the first to go expected to be the 83 Sri Lankans and eight Burmese currently having their asylum claims processed on Nauru.
Prime Minister John Howard said today the refugee exchange would deter asylum seekers from paying people smugglers for passage to Australia.
"The thing that discourages people from people smuggling is the fact that we make it very plain that people will not be allowed to reach the Australian mainland, that they will be processed offshore and that we are not going to have our very generous humanitarian refugee program distorted by people smugglers," Mr Howard told ABC radio.
"It will drive home the point that this country will not compromise in relation to illegal immigration."
Mr Andrews said Australia would only accept refugees from the US for resettlement if their claims had been found to be genuine.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokeswoman Pamela Curr said the scheme was a "dark and murky" political fix that would not deter asylum seekers from seeking refuge in Australia.
"This is not a container load of washing machines that we've decided to reject. This is human beings," Ms Curr said.
"They're our responsibility and this policy is shredding the (UN) Refugee Convention."
Ms Curr said political pressure from Nauru had prompted the island nation to set boundaries on the processing of boat people bound for Australia.
"I think (Australia) is worried that Nauru's going to cut up rough and put pressure on the government to get these young men and boys off Nauru," she said.
Doubts in the US over the future of Guantanamo Bay may also have come into calculation, she said.
Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke warned the policy could encourage more boat arrivals.
"If you are in one of the refugee camps around the world there is no more attractive destination than to think you can get a ticket to the USA," he told ABC radio.
"What John Howard is doing is saying to the people around the world, if you want to get to the US, the way to it is to hop on a boat and go to Christmas Island."
Australian Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett said the program was a pitiful attempt by the government not to appear soft on asylum seekers.
Project SafeCom spokesman Jack Smit said the policy was a desperate attempt by Mr Howard to avoid Australia's responsibilities to refugees.
- AAP
