WARSAW, Feb 5: Australia will not abandon its policy of detaining immigrants while considering asylum requests because it would encourage people smuggling, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said here on Tuesday.

“We’re not going to change the policy, because we’re not going to give a free kick to people smugglers in Australia,” Downer told journalists during a one-day visit to Poland.

Australia has come under increasing international scrutiny after two asylum seekers tried to hang themselves at the Woomera centre in South Australia. Up to 25 others are threatening suicide, according to a non-governmental organization.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson’s has asked to send an envoy to inspect the centre first-hand.

Downer said the Australian government would consider her request to allow Indian Supreme Court judge S. Rajendra Babu to inspect the camp, but noted that the UN has inspected Australian immigration detention facilities in the past.

“We’ll have a talk about it as a government,” he said, but “whether another inspection on top of dozens of others is something that is going to be productive, that’s something we’ll have to look into.”

More than 200 detainees at the Woomera centre, who had sewn their lips together, abandoned a two-week hunger strike last weekend after promises their asylum claims would be processed more promptly.

Downer said the conditions in the centres only became an issue because of threats by detainees to harm themselves unless they are granted asylum, and that the government was doing all its can to ensure humane conditions inside the facilities.

“But we are humane and caring people and don’t worry we’re looking out for the people as best we can,” said the minister.

Downer said Robinson’s concern about the centers had been prompted by Australian trade unions and non-governmental organizations who have long opposed the government’s mandatory detention policy.—AFP