Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I remind the senator that decisions about whether someone is a refugee or not are determined under the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees by appropriate authorities. Inside Indonesia that appropriate authority is the UNHCR. They will make the assessment as to whether these people are refugees. I will not be making it, you will not be making it and the Sri Lankan representative to the United Nations will not be making it. You may well have a bias or a view, but it is not one based on knowledge. Those persons will be processed according to the same rules that applied under the Howard government and that apply internationally, and the arrangements in Indonesia are processed by the UNHCR. They will make the decision as to whether those persons coming off the ship are refugees or not and in the same way we do, which is why when we found people not to be refugees we returned them, as we did on the weekend, where we returned another six people to Sri Lanka after they were found not to be refugees. (Time expired)