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

I thank Senator Back for the question. It is, of course, similar to questions I received all last week and this week, which are based on an assertion that there is a special deal in relation to those who disembarked the Oceanic Viking. As I have been at pains to report to the Senate the disembarkation of the Oceanic Viking passengers in Indonesia was agreed between the Australian and Indonesian governments as a way of dealing with those persons who were rescued at sea in the Indonesian search and rescue zone.

Under those arrangements, we agreed with the Indonesians as to what would happen when those people disembarked. We did not suggest they be processed on the ship, as suggested by Dr Stone, the opposition spokesperson. We did not agree to bring them directly to Australia, as suggested by Colin Barnett, the Western Australian premier. We said they needed to disembark in Indonesia. Finally, they agreed to disembark in Indonesia and have gone into Indonesian detention, where they will be processed.

They will be processed in accordance with the agreements between the two governments. Those processes have commenced; UNHCR is conducting those processes in the normal way, and those processes will find that those who are found to be refugees will be resettled in accordance with UNHCR processes. Those who are found not to be refugees will be returned by the Indonesian government to their country of origin. That is what they have stated publicly and that is the position that the Australian government adopts as well, and I expect that to occur.

All those processes are normal processes that are applied in Indonesia, and the treatment of those off the Oceanic Viking is part of the arrangements made with the Indonesian government. The processes for those currently found not to be refugees are not dissimilar to those standard ones.