Repatriation We'll pay says PM
The Age
Thursday 31 January 2002
Afghani asylum seekers in Australia would be offered money to help them resettle if they returned home, Prime Minister John Howard said today.
Mr Howard made the announcement after a meeting with Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai.
He said Australia also offered Mr Karzai top level assistance from the federal Treasury and Reserve Bank of Australia to help the country rebuild after the fall of the Taliban.
Mr Howard said the resettlement assistance would be available to up to 1,100 Afghani asylum seekers who were waiting to have their refugee status finalised in camps in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
He said details were yet to be worked out, and refused to suggest how much would be paid to those who returned home.
The scheme would be similar to the resettlement assistance paid to Kosovar refugees when they returned home from Australia.
"It would be sensible, it would be useful," he said of the amount to be paid.
Mr Karzai had wanted Australia to accept Afghani asylum seekers, although he has said it would now be safe for them to return home after the fall of the Taliban regime.
Mr Howard said he explained Australia's refugee policy and policy of mandatory detention to Mr Karzai, and explained the process of determining refugee status.
He said the meeting was productive, and Mr Karzai had agreed to send a senior minister to the upcoming regional summit on people smuggling, to be held in Bali in late February.
At the same time, a delegation from the Afghani government would visit Australia, and possibly Nauru and PNG, to discuss the future for asylum seekers.
"I think engaging the two governments on the issue is a very welcome development," Mr Howard said.
The issue of asylum seekers has followed Mr Howard on his US trip.
A report on the hunger strike by inmates at the Woomera detention centre featured on page three of today's New York Times newspaper, and Mr Howard was quizzed about mandatory detention by a reporter from CNN at the United Nations.
Mr Howard said he also told Mr Karzai of Australia's concern about the reopening of the heroin trade out of Afghanistan.
Later Mr Howard told Melbourne radio 3AW no amounts had been mentioned in his discussions about the resettlement allowance.
Asked whether some people would consider it a bribe, he said: "People will say that about anything that involves money."
Some people had said that about the resettlement allowance paid to the returning Kosovars, he said.
The allowance would be in addition to the costs of returning the asylum seekers to Afghanistan.
"It will be more than nominal, obviously it will be reasonable," he said.
Mr Howard said Mr Karzai had not sought a change in Australia's policy on asylum seekers.
"Mr Karzai did not seek a change in our policy; I am not saying he supports it or likes it, but he did not seek a change in it."
AAP