Ashmore and Cartier Islands
See the article: Birds of Ashmore Reef.
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Economy and migration
There is no economic activity in the Territory.
As Ashmore Reef is the closest point of Australian territory to Indonesia, it was a popular target for people smugglers transporting asylum seekers to Australia.[3] Once they had landed on Ashmore, asylum seekers could claim to have entered Australian territory and request to be processed as refugees. The use of Ashmore for this purpose created great notoriety during late 2001, when refugee arrivals became a major political issue in Australia. As Australia was not the country of first asylum for these "boat people", the Australian Government did not consider it had a responsibility to accept them.
A number of things were done to discourage the practice such as attempting to have the people smugglers arrested in Indonesia; the so-called Pacific Solution of processing them in third countries; the boarding and forced turnaround of the boats by Australian military forces, and finally excising Ashmore and many other small islands from the Australian migration zone. Two boatloads of asylum seekers were each detained for several days in the lagoon at Ashmore after failed attempts by the Royal Australian Navy to turn them back to Indonesia in October 2001.
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References
- ^ First Assistant Secretary, Territories Division (2008-01-30). Territories of Australia. Attorney-General's Department. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. “The Federal Government, through the Attorney-General's Department administers Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Jervis Bay, and Norfolk Island as Territories.”
- ^ Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. Territories of Australia. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. “As part of the Machinery of Government Changes following the Federal Election on 29 November 2007, administrative responsibility for Territories has been transferred to the Attorney General's Department.”
- ^ Inside Indonesia Anita Roberts "Don't let them drown" Inside Indonesia Apr-Jun 2001, vol. 64
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External links
- Ashmore and Cartier Islands entry at The World Factbook
- Geoscience Australia—Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- Department of the Environment and Heritage—Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve
- Department of the Environment and Heritage—Cartier Island Marine Reserve
- First on list of Australian islands
- "Ashmore Reef Belongs to Indonesia," posted on East Timor Action Network. [1]
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See also
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