The Taoiseach was correct when he stated last night that he never visited a detention centre on his nine-day official visit to Australia. He never said he explicitly favoured detention centres for illegal immigrants at home. But he is being somewhat disingenuous in attempting to blame others for the storm which he engendered by his remark that the Australian model for dealing with immigrants was "the best integrated system in the world".
The controversy arose when Mr Ahern visited the Migrant Resource Centre at Campsie, on the outskirts of Sydney, on March 13th. He was accompanied by Senator Kay Petterson, Parliamentary Secretary (equivalent in Ireland to a Minister of State) at the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
Following his visit, the Taoiseach said he was anxious on his trip to Australia to see how its immigration policy was working, particularly how the processing and access and education was operating. "I think it is now an issue in our country," he added.
One of the big difficulties the Irish authorities were struggling with was that "everyone comes in on top of us from day one. I think you can see here that there is one due principle: that you must go through the full due process before you get access to anything. That is the success of their system."
He was asked a specific question about keeping people in compounds to which he replied: "As you know, we don't have any compounds. We try and put them straight into the system. What we have to do is we have to look very hard at the system. I am very anxious to see looking around that there is no amnesty. That is a very clear message to be given. If people want to apply, they can apply from outside the country and then if they get in, they get in. And if they come in the other way, they are treated very differently."
Mr Ahern concluded his remarks at the Migrant Resource Centre by saying: "Unlike your system here, the asylum-seekers we are dealing with are not through the process. They are totally illegal . . . we allow them through the process to deal with them. The question which has been said to me here is can you do that in the long-run and the advice here this morning is that we can't. It is something to reflect on."
Following these remarks, the Irish journalists travelling with the Taoiseach tried to find out more about the immigration system he was so taken with. An off-the-record briefing with the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs was sought and given. It was learned that there is mandatory detention of "unlawful non-citizens" under the Migration Act. Any such person must go to a detention facility until granted a visa or be removed from the country as soon as practicable.
The next day, Tuesday, March 14th, the Taoiseach, in Canberra, was afforded the opportunity on two occasions to rule out the introduction of detention centres in Ireland and declined to do so.
At a joint press conference with the Prime Minister, John Howard at 11 a.m., Mr Ahern was asked if he was considering detention camps and compounds to deal with illegal immigrants. He replied: "We haven't discussed it yet but I did look over the last number of days at how policy works here. I am conscious that the Australian system is probably the best in the world for dealing with immigration."
He added that there were compounds not only in Australia but in the Netherlands, Denmark and other countries in Europe. The Australian system operated within UN rules. "I think we have to look at what is best practice, what is being done," he said.
His greatest exposition of the immigrant problem in Ireland, however, was given at the National Press Club lunch in Canberra two hours later. Mr Ahern was asked by an Australian journalist to account for the need to change our immigration policy, his view on detention centres and the chemical restraint of people who might prove difficult when held in detention, Mr Ahern immediately ruled out the question of chemical restraint.
He explained there were 1,000 applications from asylum-seekers every month. Whether legal or illegal immigrants, they were all allowed enter Ireland and receive Social Welfare benefits and accommodation "usually better than we would give to our own people seeking affordable housing".
The appeals system in Ireland worked on the basis that nobody really ever got deported, he added. Of the first 12,000, about 27 were deported. And good news travelled fast.
The overall impression given by the Taoiseach in Australia was that the Government had no immigration policy. Mr Ahern's main interest, it seemed, was less in the establishment of detention centres per se but in a means of distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants and removing the illegals from automatic entitlements to benefits in this State.