CANBERRA, Australia ? The Australian government on Friday loosened its policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers who arrive by boat, freeing 27 of them from overcrowded, prison-like conditions and estimating it would release more than 100 every month.
The move was welcomed by human-rights groups. They have strongly criticized the 20-year-old policy as inhumane, though it remains popular among many Australians who regard the increasing boat arrivals as a major political issue.
About 3,800 asylum seekers are sitting in detention centers surrounded by razor wire, either waiting for their asylum claims to be assessed or appealing rejections. Children and their mothers are usually accommodated elsewhere.
The 27 men released Friday are Afghans and Sri Lankans who will live on temporary visas with family and friends in Australian cities while their refugee claims are assessed.
“This is the initial batch of bridging visas,” Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told reporters. “We estimate that at least 100 bridging visas will be issued each month.”
Exactly how many people will be freed each month, and how long the releases will continue, will depend on the rate of future arrivals, he said.
Asylum seekers ? mostly from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq ? have been heading to Australia on rickety boats in greater numbers since August, when the High Court ruled that a government plan to deport hundreds of new arrivals to Malaysia was illegal.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard attempted to revive the plan by changing the law. But she shelved that legislation last month when it became clear that Parliament would reject it.
Bowen said his department would choose who would be freed on visas based on how long asylum seekers had been in detention, how well they had behaved and the ability of family and friends to house them.
The opposition, which opinion polls show is likely to win the next elections in 2013, said the government “has flung the door open to illegal boat arrivals on the eve of the monsoon season, the most dangerous time of year to travel.”
“A government who claims to want to provide a deterrent on boat arrivals would never do this,” opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
Amnesty International and the Australian Human Rights Commission, a government-appointed watchdog, were among the groups welcoming the new policy as a more humane way to treat people seeking protection.
“Australia has been alone among industrialized nations in subjecting asylum seekers who arrive without visas to detention for the entire period taken to determine their refugee status,” said Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, a nongovernment advocacy group.
The mandatory detention regime has been widely criticized by rights groups as punitive and has been blamed for suicides and psychiatric problems among detainees.
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