More than 16 weeks since last successful people smuggling venture

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/11/2014 - 01:00

Friday, 11 April 2014

The latest update from Operation Sovereign Borders reveals more than 16 weeks have passed without a successful people smuggling venture reaching Australia, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the Hon Scott Morrison said today.

A total of 113 days, or more than 16 weeks, have now passed since the last successful people smuggling venture made it to Australia back on 19 December 2013.

The Government's border protection policies under Operation Sovereign Borders, now in its third phase, remain strong deterrents to people smugglers.

The past fortnight has seen further progress from the Government on processing and resettlement arrangements in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

A meeting of the Joint Ministerial Forum to oversee implementation of the Nauru regional processing arrangement was held on Thursday.

The Forum restated both nation's commitment to resettlement arrangements in Nauru. The process of Refugee Status Determination is well advanced, with the Nauru Government due to hand down the first tranche of initial refugee assessments to a minimum of 60 transferees within a month.

An ongoing commitment to hand down refugee assessments to a minimum of 60 transferees per month was agreed and updates on the progress of upgrades to the processing centre were provided.

This meeting followed the recent inaugural Joint Ministerial Forum to oversee implementation of the PNG Regional Resettlement Arrangement.

Under Operation Sovereign Borders, the Government is delivering clarity and providing substance around the resettlement arrangements in PNG and Nauru that was missing under the previous government.

Labor left the Coalition Government all the heavy lifting, not just on our borders to stop illegal boat arrivals but on the regional arrangements where Labor left behind a blank sheet of paper.

Through continued close cooperation with our partners, the government is getting on with the job of managing these arrangements effectively.

See: Index of Media Releases

URL:http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/sm/2014/sm213431.htm
Last update: Friday, 11 April 2014 at 16:27 AEST