Asylum seekers who pay
people smugglers to take them by boat to Australia will no longer be allowed to settle here.
people smugglers to take them by boat to Australia will no longer be allowed to settle here.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's hardline approach means those claiming refugee status will instead be sent to Papua New Guinea for assessment and, if found to be refugees, they will be settled there.
The plan is the key plank of a new regional settlement arrangement signed on Friday by the PNG and Australian governments.
"From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as a refugee," Mr Rudd, who was flanked by his PNG counterpart Peter O'Neill, told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.
"If they are found to be genuine refugees, they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea."
Asylum seekers arriving at Christmas Island will be sent to Australia's Manus Island processing centre and elsewhere in PNG for assessment.
The Manus facility has since been criticised by former staff, refugee advocates and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for its harsh living conditions.
The temporary facility on the island currently houses 215 people in tents and shelters.
A permanent 600-bed facility is due for completion in January.
"I understand that this is a very hard line decision," Mr Rudd said.
"But our responsibility as a government is to ensure that we have a robust system of border security and orderly migration, on the one hand, as well as fulfilling our legal and compassionate obligations under the refugee convention on the other," he added.
The new arrangements would apply for the next 12 months, and be subject to annual review.
The government hasn't specified a limit to the number of asylum seekers who can be transferred.
"Our expectation ... is as this regional resettlement arrangement is implemented, and the message is sent loud and clear back up the pipeline, the number of boats will decline," Mr Rudd said.
In exchange for PNG's agreement, Australia will fund further aid initiatives, including redeveloping a major referral hospital in Lae and supply half the funding to reform PNG's university sector.
It will also support professional management teams in health, education and law and order.
Mr Rudd described PNG as "an emerging economy with a strong future, a robust democracy" and noted it was a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention.
Mr O'Neill said PNG faced its own refugee issues, but he believed the deal would allow orderly processing for those genuinely seeking citizenship.
"We believe strongly that genuine refugees can be able to be resettled in our country and within the region in the years to come," Mr O'Neill said.
Mr Rudd acknowledged the new regional approach would not be smooth and expects the agreement will be attacked through the courts.
While an asylum seeker policy expert believes the plan could remove the incentive for people to take risky boat journeys to Australia, a leading lawyer says it will send refugees to a violent country with ongoing human rights abuses.
Immigration law and asylum seeker policy expert Adrienne Millbank says refuges feeling persecution "should be happier with shelter and safety" in PNG.
But lawyer David Manne, who led the successful High Court challenge to the Labor government's controversial Malaysia Solution, said Mr Rudd's plan was a fundamental repudiation of Australia's commitment to protect refugees.
"All the independent evidence points to PNG being, sadly, very unsafe and also a place where there is widespread and pervasive violence, including against women, and serious and ongoing daily human rights abuse throughout the country," he told ABC TV.
Greens Leader Christine Milne said the resettlement plan was "ruthless and ... repugnant" and Friday was a "day of shame for the nation".
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