Australian Associated Press

theguardian.com, Monday 11 November 2013

Minister says Operation Sovereign Borders is succeeding but can see 'no rhyme or reason' for Jakarta's stance

Scott Morrison says the government's opponents are "hyperventilating" on the issue of asylum seekers. Photograph: Scott Barbour/AAP

Immigration minister Scott Morrison says there is "no rhyme or reason" why Indonesian authorities do not take stricken asylum seekers back to their shores.

In recent weeks Indonesia has allowed two boatloads of asylum seekers to be returned after their vessels got into trouble at sea. But in two other cases the passengers were not allowed back and had to be taken by the Australian navy to Christmas Island for processing.

The minister said the government was succeeding in stopping the boats but the situation with rescues and returns was "very frustrating".

"There's no real rhyme or reason to it necessarily," Morrison told Fairfax Radio on Monday. "I think this last instance became very problematic because it became very public."

Labor said the problem was a sign that the Abbott government's border protection policy was not working.

"The border protection policy that Tony Abbott took to the election is in tatters," opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said.

Morrison said he had given the Indonesian government an undertaking that when such incidents occurred "we would do it directly and we would do it discreetly".

An Indonesian MP was reported on the weekend as saying three out of six Australian requests to take back people who'd been rescued had been declined since September. But Morrison said there had only been four such cases.

The Australian Greens say the government has created the problem by not being transparent about its asylum seeker policy, known as Operation Sovereign Borders.

"Mr Abbott's excuses for secrecy are wearing thin and the Greens will use the powers of the parliament to reinforce transparency," Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Opposition frontbencher Penny Wong is calling the situation absurd.

"Australians are looking to the Jakarta Post to get information about what their government is doing," she told the ABC.

"They are a government that does not want to tell Australians what they are doing."

But Morrison says the debate amounts to "hyperventilating" by the government's opponents.

"What they won't acknowledge is we are succeeding – 75% down on arrivals of illegal boats since Operation Sovereign Borders commenced. And our returns overseas have doubled."

The minister says it is also frustrating that Indonesia has no significant search and rescue services based on their southern coastline.

Scott Morrison 'frustrated' by Indonesia's refusal to take back boats | World news | theguardian.com