FED: Kosovo refugee decision tomorrow

AAP General News (Australia)
04-08-1999
FED: Kosovo refugee decision tomorrow

By Stephen Spencer, Diplomatic Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 8 AAP - Australia will reveal tomorrow how it plans to house 4,000
temporary refugees from Kosovo, as army barracks and former migrant hostels across the country
are put on standby.

The first refugees are now expected within days, but Prime Minister John Howard denied the
government planned to dump the refugees in isolated military or detention camps in outback
Australia.

"I would just counsel people who are conjuring up visions of refugees being dumped in the
desert," he told Perth radio 6PR. "They should just slow down and give us a few days."

However, Mr Howard said the refugees would have to be first brought to a central location
in Australia before being dispersed throughout the country.

"It is obviously going to be necessary for people to be received in a particular area," he
said.

"There will need to be health checks made and so forth. And then there will be a process of
people going to different parts of the country."

The East Hills army barracks in Sydney is expected to provide the initial housing for the
refugees before they are sent to more permanent accommodation.

Staff at the barracks say they've been ordered to move out this weekend to make way for the
refugees.

Australia's small Albanian community has already offered to billet the refugees, and today
premiers and leaders of local communities around the nation were virtually queuing up to offer
locations for housing the refugees.

South Australian Premier John Olsen offered to house up to 1,000 refugees at Fort Largs in
Adelaide's north-west and the remote outback town of Woomera.

Victoria's Jeff Kennett offered the Point Cook RAAF base, south-west of Melbourne, and a
former World War II migrant hostel at Bonegilla, near the Victorian-New South Wales border.

Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon also proposed army barracks in Hobart.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said he would make an announcement on where the
refugees will be housed tomorrow.

The announcement is expected to follow final negotiations with state and territory leaders
at tomorrow's premiers conference.

Mr Howard today rejected criticism his government had been too slow to act on the crisis.

"You can't just overnight with the snap of the fingers find 4,000 pieces of accommodation
evenly spread throughout the entire Australian community," Mr Howard said.

"It is really the height of unreasonableness to say to a government, in response to a
likely need for refugees that only emerged a few days ago and took a decision within 36 hours,
it's meant to have every answer 24 hours later."

Opposition veterans' affairs spokesman Chris Schacht is travelling to Macedonia to visit
refugee camps.

He is due to arrive in Skopje later tonight and will spend two days speaking to government
officials, inspecting refugee camps and meeting agencies such as CARE Australia.

Senator Schacht said he had been asked by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley to report on the
plight of the refugees to next week's shadow ministry meeting in Sydney.

AAP ss/was

KEYWORD: KOSOVO AUST NIGHTLEAD

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