Ruddock coy on 'last resort' plan

THE federal Government has a "last-resort" plan to deal with long-term detainees who have had their visa applications rejected and cannot return home but will not release details or say when it will be activated.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock yesterday revealed for the first time the existence of the contingency plan, but refused to explain the policy.

"There is a last-resort remedy ... but I'm not prepared to go into that or to hold out expectations that it would be used," he said in Adelaide.

Mr Ruddock said the solution would address the problem of people detained for years after being refused refugee status, having exhausted all avenues of appeal and refusing or being denied re-entry to their home country.

"I think we've got about 20 (detainees) that have been there for something of the order of three years or more."

He said the majority of long-term detainees "could go home but refuse to co-operate in relation to their removal" and would not be "rewarded" with release into the community.

"We know which country (of origin) to send them to, but sometimes the countries say if a person won't co-operate that (they) are not prepared (to accept them)."

A spokeswoman for Mr Ruddock later told The Australian the remedy was part of a "staged approach" dealing with unco-operative asylum-seekers and was not unusual.

"It's like any strategy, you don't declare your hand before you go through a process," the spokeswoman said.

Earlier this week, The Australian reported calls by the Immigration Detention Advisory Group for an urgent solution to the management of long-term detainees following a spate of self-harm attempts at Woomera's Oscar compound.

IDAG acting chairman Ray Funnell said he had no knowledge of Mr Ruddock's "last-resort" solution, but said the issue of long-term detention remained a priority.

"In the past few weeks I've raised it again and put forward some suggestions, which will be discussed at our next (IDAG) meeting in two weeks when we will also meet with the minister," he said.

Later today Mr Funnell and IDAG member Paris Aristotle wil return to Woomera to meet long-term detainees and delegates of the hundreds of Afghanis who recently staged a 16-day hunger strike.

A spokeswoman for the Immigration Department said 85 people had been in detention at Woomera for one to two years and at least three had been detained for up to three years.

ABC radio, meanwhile, yesterday reported Nauru has indicated it may consider holding Australia's unwanted asylum seekers beyond the May cut-off point. The report said a statement issued by the Nauru Government said it had no major concerns and knew processing could take time.