AUTHORITIES have intercepted another boatload of suspected asylum-seekers in Australian waters -- the eighth this year.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the boat, carrying 48 passengers and three crew, was intercepted by HMAS Launceston just before midnight on Tuesday, 12 nautical miles northeast of Ashmore Reef.
Mr O'Connor said the asylum-seekers had been transferred
to a Customs ship and would be taken to Christmas Island for "security, identity and health checks".
Former federal police commissioner Mick Palmer, who headed the inquiry into the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau for 10 months in 2004 and 2005, called for asylum-seekers to be brought to the mainland.
Mr Palmer said the experience of detention was inherently stressful for refugees, many of whom were victims of war or torture, meaning they required specialist carers and counselling services.
"The current overcrowding on Christmas Island would make that level of care very difficult," Mr Palmer told The Australian.
According to the Immigration Department, there are 1564 people on Christmas Island, 200 of whom are living in tents. The facility was designed for just 400 people but has been reconfigured to hold 1848 following the arrival last year of almost 3000 boatpeople.
Mr Palmer said he fully understood the dilemma governments faced in managing refugee flows.
"But we should never allow the ends to justify the means," he said.
His comments follow those of newly named Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry, who labelled detention centres "factories" for mental illness.
-THE AUSTRALIAN
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