Prime Minister Tony Abbott is saying Australia would win any test of wills with human smugglers. He made this comment despite being forced to back down in a stand-off with Indonesia regarding the entry and acceptance of a boat load of asylum seekers.
Nearly sixty people crammed in a boat was discovered by an Australian ship last Thursday nearly 43 nautical miles south of Java. The area is considered as Indonesia's search and rescue zone but now was headed towards Christmas Island after the Jakarta government refused to take the boat and its passengers back to Indonesian territory.
After a diplomatic stand-off, Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison had made a statement ordering the asylum seeking boat people to be taken to Christmas Island, thus ending the political eye to eye between the two countries.
In a statement, Morrison said, "In the best interests of the safety of the passengers and crew... earlier this morning I requested (the) transfer (of) persons rescued to Christmas Islad for rapid onward transfer to Manus Island or Nauru. They will not be resettled in Australia."
Furthermore, Australian and Indonesian authorities would be reviewing the request from Canberra for the passengers to be taken to the territories under the Jakarta government.
According to a Red Cross estimate, the cost of supporting the over 40,000 asylum seekers expected to come into the country next year would be AUD70,000 each person. Overall, Australian taxpayers have spent AUD1.5 billion to maintain the detention network to handle the influx of asylum seekers, estimated to reach 22,500 for 2013. This cost includes the financial payouts under the country's Bridging Visa program, which gives welfare payments each fortnight to visa recipients. Another cost wouldbe renting homes and providing furnishings reached AUD18 million. There is also the cost of processing these asylum seekers, which topped AUD265 million for the past ten months.
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