Fed: Burmese refugees to be resettled in Australia

AAP General News (Australia)
12-10-2007
Fed: Burmese refugees to be resettled in Australia

MELBOURNE, Dec 10 AAP - A group of seven Burmese asylum-seekers held on the Pacific
island of Nauru for more than a year in immigration detention will be resettled in Australia
as refugees before Christmas.

An Immigration Department taskforce travelled to Nauru yesterday to finalise their
refugee applications and prepare for their resettlement, subject to health and character
checks, a department spokesman said in a statement.

"This group of people has been in Nauru for more than a year and has been assessed
as having a well-founded fear of persecution should they be returned home,"Department
of Immigration and Citizenship secretary Andrew Metcalfe said in a statement.

It is expected the seven will be settled in Brisbane before Christmas, he said.

An eighth Burmese asylum-seekers that landed with the other seven on Ashmore Reef in
August last year accepted voluntary admission to Malaysia and with his family was later
granted a humanitarian visa to enter Australia.

"Further decisions will be made soon about resettlement arrangements for the 74 Sri
Lankans in Nauru who also have been found to be refugees," Mr Metcalfe said.

"Decisions on a further eight Sri Lankans on Nauru are pending.

"One of these people is having a refugee refusal decision reviewed and seven are facing
criminal charges in Nauru."

All were sent to Nauru under the former Howard government's Pacific Solution policy.

AAP jrd/ao

KEYWORD: DETENTION BURMESE

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