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The Australian government is to stop automatically locking up asylum seekers, but reserve the right to detain people applying for refugee status who may be a security threat.

The changes further relax rules imposed by the previous government, which made detention mandatory for people who arrived illegally in Australia — a policy that drew heavy criticism from human rights activists and gruesome protests by asylum seekers.

The immigration minister, Chris Evans, said a policy that locks away asylum seekers indefinitely while they go through the often complicated and time-consuming process of applying for refugee status had caused "enormous damage" to Australia's international reputation and was no longer acceptable.

The new government of prime minister Kevin Rudd "rejects the notion that dehumanising and punishing unauthorised arrivals with long-term detention is an effective or civilised response," Evans said.

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Evans said the government would retain a detention facility at the Australian territory of Christmas Island, near Indonesia, and will lock up asylum seekers who may be a danger to the community. - (article in the O.P.)

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The Labour government has till now steadfastly refused to budge on the perpetuation of the cruel and racist policies of its predecessor:

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The Rudd government has been rejecting asylum seeker claims at an extraordinary rate. A report by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), released on May 4, revealed that out of 42 ministerial decisions over five weeks, 41 appeals had been rejected — a 97.6% rejection rate.

The ASRC’s Kon Karapanagiotidis said that this was the highest rate of case rejection since the refugee advocacy centre started taking records in 2001.

In the last two weeks, four asylum seekers have been deported. A Chinese woman was deported on April 28, two Indian men — one of whom had been detained for more than six years — were deported on May 1, and a Chinese man, who had been in detention for more than three years, was deported on May 6. As of May 9, a Syrian man was also due to be deported from the Villawood Detention Centre.

Immigration and citizenship minister Chris Evans criticised the ASRC report saying, “A small sample of outcomes all originating from a particular organisation do not capture the full picture”. He asserts that out of 730 claims for ministerial intervention, 170 have been successful. The rest, he says, are from individuals who “have already been found not to be owed Australia’s protection”.

However, ASRC points to 10 people whose cases involve persecution, slavery and torture and yet who were refused asylum by Evans. At least half these people will be separated from close family in Australia if they are deported.

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