FED:Up to 3600 asylum seekers in six months

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-2011
FED:Up to 3600 asylum seekers in six months

CANBERRA, Dec 9 AAP - Immigration department head Andrew Metcalfe concedes that up
to 3600 asylum seekers could arrive in Australian waters during the next six months.

Seven boats have arrived in the past week - the latest, carrying 49 passengers and
three crew, was intercepted on Friday morning.

Mr Metcalfe told a parliamentary inquiry in Canberra that the number of boat arrivals
was expected to remain high.

"In the absence of any effective legislation we could expect to see numbers return
to where they were last year and that's been proven to be correct," he said.

Mr Metcalfe was referring to draft laws, legalising offshore processing arrangements,
including the Malaysia people swap deal that the Gillard government has put on hold.

Labor doesn't have the numbers in either house of parliament to have its legislation approved.

"There's no indication that I see that would show that the current high rate of arrivals
is going to significantly decrease or increase," Mr Metcalfe said.

"We seem to be back at a fairly steady state again."

When asked if as many as 3600 could arrive in the next six months, Mr Metcalfe said:
"That's possible, but there are so many factors that go into this that it's very difficult
to make accurate predictions."

The inquiry also heard that about a quarter of immigration detainees were now being
housed in the community, with 800 approved since August.

Overall there are more than 5500 people in either detention centres or in community detention.

Mr Metcalfe admitted the large numbers of arrivals were continuing to place a strain
on the detention network

"We all understand the potential consequences of a return to an overcrowded and pressured
detention network," he said, referring to disturbances at Christmas Island and Villawood
centres this year.

"You can be assured that the department is doing all we can to avoid that."

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