The Wire

As the government scrambles to set up offshore processing facilities, some observers say that policies to deter asylum seekers from arriving by boat are being fast-tracked at the expense of broader measures to tackle the root of the problem. The Australian Lawyers Association filed a submission to the expert panel on asylum seekers documenting how poor indonesian fisherman have been forced into people smuggling, partly as a result of the Montara oil spill in 2009. The Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea is considered the third largest spill in Australia’s history. Three years on and it is still affecting the livelihood of Indonesian fisherman with a report estimating an economic loss of one point five billion dollars a year.