Why Australia is playing hardball

Asylum seekers on Australia's remote Christmas Island await transport to detention centers on the mainland

By CNN's Grant Holloway

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The decision by the Australian Government to refuse entry to a Norwegian freighter carrying more than 400 asylum seekers has come as a shock to many.

It shouldn't have been. The latest rejection was the inevitable outcome of the increasing dilemma for Australia created by the inexorable growth of the people trade.

As the flood of asylum seekers to Australian shores has been growing, so has the Howard Government's resolve to stick to its guns -- potential immigrants must be discouraged from arriving illegally in Australia, it says.

A policy of mandatory detention for all asylum seekers -- women and children included -- will not changed, no matter how many arrive at Australian shores, nor how many protests, riots, hunger strikes or suicide attempts the unwilling detainees undertake.

Nor will the Howard Government countenance criticism of its policy from rights organizations such as Amnesty International, nor from United Nations committees, nor church groups nor groups representing the rights of the would-be refugees.

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"We simply cannot allow a situation to develop where Australia is seen around the world as a country of easy destination," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.

The circumstance of the Norwegian freighter Tampa rescuing stranded asylum seekers in Indonesian waters, then being blackmailed into traveling to Australian territory, gave the Howard Government a rare opportunity.

The situation was tailor-made for Australia to show it really does play hardball on illegal immigration, and to an international audience.

What's more, Australia may well have international law on its side. The asylum seekers were picked up in Indonesian waters and should have been delivered to the nearest Indonesian port.

What better way to send a message to those who would try to seek refuge in Australia illegally?

Whether the Australian government's tough stance will actually deter future illegal immigrants remains to be seen.

More detention centers planned

Already, Australia is expecting another 900 asylum seekers to make the trip from Indonesia by rickety, leaking boat to the remote islands far off the northwestern coastline of the island continent.

The Immigration Department has fast-tracked plans to establish more detention facilities to take 3000 more illegal immigrants.

Australia takes 12,000 refugees a year, about half of whom arrive illegally.

As Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock points out: "The continued influx of people arriving illegally seeking asylum on our shores is threatening the humanitarian program and ultimately those in greatest need.

"Every time someone who arrives illegally is granted refugee status, it means that a place is denied to someone often in more dire circumstances."

Bipartisan political support

Immigration Minister Ruddock says there are more deserving refugees who don't jump the queue to Australia

While many Australians are uneasy about conditions in the camps as horror stories continue to emerge, support for the policy of mandatory detention is widespread among the general populace.

Prime Minister Howard, who faces a tough election campaign later this year, is adamant Australia must retain the right to decide who does, and who does not, come into Australia.

It is a stance which has bipartisan political support, with the opposition Australian Labor Party also agreeing with the decision to turn away the freighter.

So regardless of the fate of the 434 aboard the Tampa, the future seems clear: the asylum seekers will continue to arrive and Australia will continue to lock them up for as long as it takes for their individual cases have been decided.

Many will be sent back to their homelands.

For a country whose European settlement was pioneered 213 years ago by a fleet of decrepit boats carrying the human cargo of an English penal colony -- and prides itself on its relaxed, multicultural society -- the ironies abound.