'No advantage' for asylum seekers

The federal govt has been accused of inflicting a 'crisis of cruelty' on asylum seekers detained on Nauru.

There is no room on Manus Island and Nauru for the thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived since August 13. Picture: Clint Deidenang Source: Supplied

THE government yesterday admitted Nauru, Manus Island and Australia's detention centres are full, as it abandoned threats to send asylum seekers offshore.

Instead, thousands will be released on bridging visas and given effective welfare payments of around $440 a fortnight to live in the community while their claims are processed.

The backdown was announced by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen just hours before the government suffered a defeat in the Senate on asylum policy.

Coalition and Greens MPs banded together to defeat legislation which would have meant asylum seekers already in the community would have their bridging visas automatically renewed.

The government also yesterday announced the reopening of Pontville detention centre in Tasmania and a 300 bed expansion of Melbourne's Immigration transit centre as it sent the first 19 men, women and children to Manus Island and flew 100 home to Sri Lanka on an RAAF jet.

However, on the same day it announced almost 120 asylum seekers had left Australia, the government revealed almost 140 people had arrived on two boats at Christmas Island and Cocos Island.

The Australian Greens, refugee advocates and rights groups say the government has effectively resurrected the Howard government's much-maligned Temporary Protection Visas.

Asylum seekers on these visas will live with the threat of being transferred to Nauru or Manus at any time but, unlike those given TPVs, they will not face the threat of being transferred home.

Almost 7700 asylum seekers have arrived since the government announced a return to Manus Island and Nauru, which was the scene of protests yesterday.

Fourteen out of 20 detention centres are over capacity.

Since Labor came to power in 2007, 30,194 asylum seekers have arrived on Australia's shores aboard 517 boats.

Mr Bowen said the government would apply a "no advantage" test so that asylum seekers released into the community would have their claims assessed in the same time as they would if they had waited in Indonesia or a refugee camp.

He also threatened to send some of the thousands set for release to Nauru and Manus Island as it expands capacity in future to a maximum of 2100 places across both centres.

Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison claimed the asylum seekers released on bridging visas would be on "hard wired welfare."

They will receive 89 per cent of the applicable Centrelink benefit and will not have work rights as they wait for their refugee claims to be finalised.

"They won't be able to support themselves and make a contribution to the community," he said.

"They will be put on the taxpayer's dollar.

"Today was an admission of failure. And a major concession that the problem has already overwhelmed their solution. The likelihood of being sent to Nauru was already in the single digits."

More than 16,600 asylum seekers have arrived since the government announced its first expansion of bridging visa releases last November.

"No one should doubt this government's resolve to break the people smugglers' business model and save lives at sea,'' Mr Bowen said.

He said asylum seekers could wait years either in the community or in offshore camps for their claims to be assessed to reflect waiting times in refugee camps.

"The no-advantage test will mean that people will wait for a a very substantial period," he said.

"Could it be five years? Yes it could."

He said the government would not react to claims from Amnesty International and refugee groups that conditions in Nauru were "appalling," saying hard decisions were needed to stop boats.

Greens Leader Christine Milne claimed the government was attempting to be "more extreme than John Howard" while Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs also expressed concern.

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