Sydney--As Europe struggles to deal with a surge in migrants pouring across the Mediterranean, Australia has gone nearly 18 months with virtually no asylum-seeker boat arrivals and no deaths at sea.
But observers warn that Australia's hotly contested policy of turning back boats offers no model for the European Union, arguing it is immoral and probably illegal under both EU and international law.
Pressure on the EU to tackle its mounting crisis has escalated after more than 700 people were feared drowned when an overcrowded boat capsized off Libya at the weekend, with calls for a special summit.
But can it learn any lessons from Australia? Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Monday said he would not be lecturing Europe on what to do.
"That is an issue for those governments, not for us to provide advice on," he said.
But he added: "The lessons we've taken is that the turnbacks (of boats), where safe to do so, has worked."
Soon after it came to power in September 2013, Australia's conservative government launched the military-led Operation Sovereign Borders to halt a flood of boatpeople arriving almost daily under the previous Labor administration.
Under the new policy, navy ships intercept boats carrying asylum-seekers and turn them back to where they transited from, mostly Indonesia, or send those on board to offshore processing centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the Pacific.
Even if proven to be genuine refugees, they are denied resettlement in Australia and left with the option of either returning home or living in PNG, Nauru, or even impoverished Cambodia, under bilateral agreements.
There have been no deaths at sea en route to Australia for 17 months, after some 1,200 perished under the previous Labor policies, Dutton said.
But refugee and rights advocates say the current policy has simply shifted the responsibility to other countries.
AFP
