"Setting out the facts for Australians must occur in the long term and not just in the lead up to the election," said John Menadue AO, Center of Policy Development director and former Department of Immigration and Ethnics Affairs head.

Less than 2 percent of Australia's migration intake comes from asylum seekers. However, Essential Research reports that 38 percent of Australians believe that more than 10 percent are asylum seekers. Only 18 percent of the population were accurate.

"What a story of misinformation. What an opportunity to exploit ignorance.

"Why should a wealthy country such as Australia with plenty of land ask poorer countries to do our dirty work," Menadue said of the country's breach of its international obligations set forth in the UNHCR 1951 Refugee Convention (which Australia has signed).

Article 31 of the convention reads, "No Contracting State shall expel or return *"refouler"* a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion".

"A UNHCR regional processing center, however, may be the price we have to pay in the short term to get the racist and xenophobic monkeys off our back," Menadue said.

Experts in Indonesia are also up in arms one week after Ms. Gillard's announcement of the potential Timor Leste processing center, worried that refugees will enter its territory. "Life is difficult in Timor Leste and hosting refugees would make life even harder. If something unexpected happens in Timor Leste, Indonesia would feel the negative impacts," Indonesian Institute of Sciences researcher Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti recently told The Jakarta Post.

UNHCR Canberra spokesman Ben Farrell said the UNHCR supports closer regional cooperation to manage asylum-seekers and refugee movement in a consistent and coherent way in the region. "We welcome dialogue with Australia and other states on this," he said.

He emphasized, however, this must be done "in line with international protection standards".

Greg Barns, a human rights lawyer disendorsed from former PM John Howard's Liberal Party in Tasmania in 2002 for his criticism of the government's policies on asylum seekers, says Gillard's proposal is out of line. "Both *Howard's Pacific Solution and Gillard's policy* involve Australia as a rich nation abdicating its responsibilities and instead foisting it on poor nations."

Barns says there is no guarantee refugees who are potentially sent to Timor Leste will be processed in a reasonable period of time. "Processing asylum seekers has taken up to three years when they were sent to Nauru and even on the Australian mainland."

In response to fears of the country being burdened by refugees, he says, "Australia is hard to get to, and refugees are enterprising and make a positive material difference to Australian society and its economy. Refugees equal economic growth. The history of Australia is a case study in point.

"Ms. Gillard knows, because she admits it, that the numbers of asylum seekers are tiny. Yet she has taken inhumane measures purely for political gain."

Menadue says that countries in less fortunate positions do a better job than Australia in helping refugees. "Sanctuary is provided by an overwhelming number of developing countries. Pakistan hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide, followed by Syria and Iran. More than 2 million refugees from Iraq live in adjoining Syria and Jordan, so our role needs to be kept in perspective."

In 2009, Australia received 6,170 asylum applications. This is compared to 49,020 in the US, 41,980 in France and 33,250 in Canada.

Additionally, he said, the majority of asylum seekers came to Australia by air and not sea. The Australian Parliamentary Library recently stated that, "it is likely that between 96 and 99 percent of asylum seekers arrived by air originally".

The library also notes that most boat arrivals seeking asylum are refugees, compared to those who come by air. It says past figures show that between 70 to 97 percent of asylum seekers coming on boats were refugees.

Menadue suggested leadership, tempered with political common sense, was important in going about changing the public's reluctant mindset. "What Abraham Lincoln called *appealing to the better angels of our nature'.

"Australians have invariably been sceptical about newcomers but we now look back with pride at the great contribution newcomers have made to Australia's development."

Dr. Sam Pari from the Australian Tamil Congress said if Australia assumed more international responsibility in Sri Lanka, for example, there would not be so many refugees seeking asylum.

"The root cause of the asylum seeker dilemma lies in Sri Lanka. As long as Tamils are being persecuted, they will continue to flee the country," she said. "Australia should review its foreign policy regarding Sri Lanka and put much stronger diplomatic pressure on the island to improve its human rights record."

She said the EU announced last week it would withdraw trade benefits to Sri Lanka due to its human rights record. "The US has voiced support of a UN expert panel enquiry into Sri Lanka's human rights accountability, yet Australia continues to remain silent. Edmund Burke, 18th century British statesman once said, *All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'.

While a recent UNHCR report states security in Sri Lanka has greatly improved, Dr. Pari says the government's refusal to issue visas to a UN panel makes one question what access to information UNHCR officials had when compiling the report.

"For someone to choose to leave behind their family, homeland, all their possessions, jump on a leaky boat and set sail through the rough seas in the slightest chance of a life without fear, they must be fleeing the worst form of persecution."

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