Australia unwinds tough Pacific immigration policy

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia on Monday accepted seven asylum seekers from Myanmar as refugees as the country's new Labor government began unwinding tough immigration laws which force boatpeople into detention on Pacific island nations.

New Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard also signaled Labor was likely to scrap a deal to swap refugees that the former conservative government struck with close ally the United States in April.

"We have consistently said that we think Australia should deal with its own caseload, that is people who make application for asylum here and are granted refugee status," Gillard told reporters in Canberra.

Labor has promised to dump the conservative government's policy, introduced in 2001, of sending people trying to reach the mainland to Papua New Guinea and Nauru for refugee assessment.

The policy, widely criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups, became known as the "Pacific Solution".

Former Prime Minister John Howard introduced the policy after a surge of 5,000 illegals arrivals by sea in 2000, compared with the 95,000 who arrived in Britain that year. Howard's tough stance helped him win re-election in 2001.

Many people sent to Nauru were held for more than three years behind razor wire while their claims were assessed and were later found to be genuine refugees.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the seven from Myamar, who arrived in Australia in August last year, would be brought from detention in remote Nauru and settled in the tropical Australian city of Brisbane.