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Australia January 19, 2011 – An agreement between the Australian government, the Afghan government and the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees on migration and humanitarian assistance has been announced few days ago. It was led by the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia, Chris Bowen.

According to Mr. Bowen, the cooperation between the government of two nations and Australia on these issues is vital. It was said that in recent years, around half of boat arrivals for those seeking sanctuary were coming from Afghanistan more than from any single country. He has also explained the difficulties the government is facing in trying to stop people making the journey to Australia.

Irregular migration is the highlight of the agreement signed by the representative of each country. It was about the latest development of the two countries’ joint efforts to deal with the issue of asylum seekers and this includes people smuggling at the source. Another issue is the return of Afghan nationals in which Australia does not consider as genuine refugees. It is a system which has always struggled to work effectively.

There will be systems in place to make sure that those who are not voluntary can still be returned and wherever possible returns will be voluntary. It only means that those people who are not genuine refugees will be returned to Afghanistan with dignity and humanity.

Around 4300 Afghans have arrived in Australia by boat in 2008 wherein they also have claimed the country as their asylum. In a report shown, over half of these are in detention and there were 723 of them have received a negative assessment.

Australia is very particular with immigrants and the agreement is an important step in the fight against people smuggling as the general feeling. The local government also cannot return people to Afghanistan even if they are not genuine refugees or the so-called ‘irregular migration’.

source:
embraceaustralia.com