Australia rejects call to reopen Nauru refugee centre

Dec 19, 2010, 4:52 GMT

Sydney - The Australian government rejected a call Sunday to reopen a controversial refugee detention centre on the remote Pacific island of Nauru.

The move came as refugees in detention centres on the Australian territory of Christmas Island held a memorial service for at least 30 others who were killed Wednesday when their boat was wrecked against the island in a storm.

Some people already in the camps lost family in the boat tragedy, and there have been two protests by detainees.

The 42 survivors of the disaster, mostly Iraqis and Iranians, will be asked to identify the 30 bodies recovered from the water.

Australian Navy ships were still searching for an estimated 30 missing people.

Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott said the tragedy showed the need to return to the previous Howard government's strong asylum seeker policies, which he said had discouraged refugee boats from trying to reach Australia.

That policy included transporting all boat refugees to a detention centre on Nauru island until they were processed.

Abbott described the boat disaster as an 'unspeakable horror' which could have been prevented if boats didn't set out from Indonesia on the dangerous voyage. He said boats should be turned back if it was safe to do so.

'We stopped the boats before. We can stop the boats again if we put the right policies in place,' he told reporters Sunday.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the Nauru centre had been dismantled and would be too costly to reestablish.

The government has been negotiating to establish a new regional processing centre in East Timor.

Read more about Australia Migration