Accepting New Zealand’s offer over refugee resettlement is a no-brainer

The Australian Government's decision to end its regional processing of asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea by the end of the year has been met by mixed reactions.

The international community, more generally, has accused Australia of abandoning refugees in Papua New Guinea as the Morrison government prepares to end offshore processing agreements with the country.

Thedecision has been welcomed by both refugee advocates and those opposed to asylum seekers arriving by boat, the former arguing that the policy should end and that PNG is simply not capable of resettling refugees and that this has been proven over the past eight years.

The program will end on December 31 under an agreement by the Australian and PNG governments.

Australia says it will help people "voluntarily transfer" to Nauru before the PNG government assumes sole responsibility for those who remain in the country from January.

Amnesty International Australia has labelled the end to the offshore processing in PNG a step in the right direction. However, it wants the Australian government to commit to resettling all refugees and asylum seekers detained in PNG and on Nauru by accepting New Zealand's long-standing offer to take them.

The PNG government has said that it will support those refugees awaiting transfer to a third country. This policy position should be welcomed.

Australia's offshore detention policy has come at an enormous cost to the taxpayer; Australia's offshore detention facilities in both Papua New Guinea and Nauru have cost tens of billions of dollars. The Australian Government will spend nearly $812m on its offshore immigration processing system in the next financial year – just under $3.4m for each of the 239 people now held on Nauru or in PNG.

The home affairs portfolio budget papers forecast $811.8 million to be spent on offshore detention in the next financial year, before dropping to a little over $300 million annually the following year.

Canstruct, a Brisbane company whose chief executive is a Liberal party donor, has been paid more than $1.4bn over five years to run the offshore processing regime on Nauru, with seven consecutive amendments increasing its contract from $8million to $1.4 billion.

While Australia is set to end its offshore processing facilities in Papua New Guinea by the end of 2021, Australia's offshore detention facilities in Nauru will remain operational, at a significant cost to the Australian taxpayer.

New Zealand has provided Australia with a longstanding offer to resettle 150 refugees per year from Australia's offshore detention system. Australia has consistently refused this offer, to the detriment of refugees caught up in the offshore processing regime as well as the Australian taxpayer.

New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees from Australia's offshore immigration detention system provides Australia with an ideal third country resettlement solution for those refugees who remain in PNG and Nauru. Australia has repeatedly said it would consider resettling refugees in New Zealand only after its 2016 deal with the United States was extinguished.

The US has so far resettled 936 refugees from Australia, and a further 258 have been provisionally accepted. This will bring the number of refugees resettled in America to 1,194, which is close to the deal's cap. However, Australia's policy to transfer refugees held in its offshore detention facilities to America has been unacceptably slow and cumbersome.

US sources with knowledge of the refugee transfer program say that despite the Biden administration increasing the size of its refugee resettlement program for 2021, there will be no additional places for refugees held by Australia.

In October 2020 the secretary of Australia's home affairs department, Mike Pezzullo, confirmed to a Senate estimates hearing that the Australian Government would consider the New Zealand resettlement offer - to accept 150 refugees from offshore each year- once the US deal was extinguished.

Given the imminent end to Australia's long-running US refugee swap agreement, Australia should urgently consider New Zealand's offer.

Whether Australia should accept New Zealand's offer is a no-brainer. Accepting the offer will bring an end to the suffering for those stranded in limbo in both Nauru and Papua New Guinea and it will save the Australian taxpayer billions of dollars, by allowing Australia's offshore processing facilities in both PNG and Nauru to close.

The Australian Government has previously said it has been reluctant to allow refugees to resettle in New Zealand because, after five years, they could claim citizenship and would be eligible to travel without restriction to Australia; this position is belied by the fact that Australia regularly prevents some New Zealand citizens from entering Australia.

Put simply, the xenophobic claim that refugees resettled in New Zealand will use that country as a 'backdoor' to resettle in Australia is entirely unfounded.

The PNG government should enter direct negotiations with New Zealand to resettle those 124 refugees who remain in PNG in New Zealand. Likewise, the Australian Government should agree to New Zealand's offer for the remaining 107 refugees on Nauru to be resettled in New Zealand.

This will bring to an end the ongoing human suffering of those refugees whose lives remain in limbo in both PNG and Nauru, and it will allow the Australian Government to close all of its offshore processing facilities which will save the Australian taxpayer billions of dollars.