BY SARAH STEPHEN
The government released its mid-year budget review on October 17. A
key feature of the review was the allocation of large sums on top of existing
funding for coastal surveillance and detention of asylum seekers arriving
in Australia without authorisation:
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$45 million for building detention centres in foreign countries and buying
demountables and taking them to Christmas Island;
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$86.1 million for the immigration department, on top of its normal operating
budget;
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$175 million for extra border protection measures;
The government has already spent an extra $103 million so far this year
in shipping asylum seekers to Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The cost of the
massive naval operation to intercept boats of asylum seekers is apparently
nil, having been absorbed into the defence budget.
Despite the refugee crisis unfolding in Afghanistan — a consequence
of the war Australia has given its full support to — the government has
ruled out accepting any refugees from Afghanistan. Immigration minister
Philip Ruddock was quoted by the October 23 Age as saying it would
be “better and cheaper for them to go to neighbouring countries”.
According to Ruddock, settling 1000 Afghan refugees would cost $30 million,
whereas giving them support in refugee camps in Pakistan would be far more
cost-effective. The government has only committed an extra $14.3 million
to assist displaced Afghans in Pakistan and Iran.
If you add $326 million in projected increases to the cost of detaining
asylum seekers on Australian soil ($110 million) plus the $103 million
spent on stopping over 1500 people from making it to Australia since August,
it totals a whopping $540 million.
If this money was used for a humane response to the current humanitarian
crisis in Afghanistan, how far would it go? On top of the 12,000 places
set aside for refugee and humanitarian intake each year, Australia could
offer to resettle a further 17,000 Afghan refugees.
