Asylum seekers are taken to Christmas Island. Picture: Colin Murty Source: Supplied Paul Toohey - Herald Sun - October 21, 2010
The Opposition says the plan risks creating a regional dumping ground that would serve as a magnet for asylum seekers.
The secretary of the Immigration Department, Andrew Metcalfe, revealed in Senate Estimates that potential refugees who reached countries as far away as the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand could apply to go to the proposed Timor centre.
Mr Metcalfe said Prime Minister Julia Gillard's "overarching concept is that there would be collective responsibility for displaced persons in the region" and they could send them to the centre to determine whether they were refugees.
"Therefore risking your life in getting on a boat would not occur and people smugglers would not be able to offer the automatic destination of Australia in terms of what they are selling," he said.
Mr Metcalfe was unable to say who would pay for the movement of asylum seekers about the region under the scheme, but indicated Australia would bear most of the burden.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said asylum seekers would take the view they had a new spread of countries from where they can access Australia.
"They haven't thought through the magnet effect," he said. "They have comprehended that anybody who crosses the line is eligible for processing in East Timor.
"It creates a magnet and you are effectively extending Australia's migration zone to the borders of this region, wherever the hell this is."
The scheme was unveiled as it was that found 36 guards at three detention centres were unlicensed and lacked training.
Authorities in Darwin yesterday raided the offices of MSS Security, which is paid millions of dollars by taxpayers to manage the key facilities.
The Darwin facilities include the city's main detention centre, which has been forced to accommodate hundreds of crew picked up by Australian patrol boats.
But the unlicensed guards were also employed at the Darwin Airport Lodge, which is being expanded to accommodate up to 400 women and children held under a more humane detention policy.
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration said it was aware of an investigation.
Meanwhile, 85 Sri Lankan asylum seekers heading to Australia have struck tragedy, with three of them dying on board the boat as it ran out of food and petrol off the coast of West Java in Indonesia.
The group, which includes 15 women and 18 children, were last night in Indonesian immigration detention and being questioned.
It was not immediately clear why the three had died, but early indications from officials were that they may have run out of food and water.
- with Steve Lewis and Cindy Wockner
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