Asylum visa plan to ease overcrowding makes a slow start

A PROGRAM to ease the strain on detention centres by placing boatpeople in the community has issued barely 100 bridging visas..

Australian territorial waters

A PROGRAM to ease the strain on overcrowded detention centres by placing boatpeople in the community has issued barely 100 bridging visas, despite more than 2000 asylum-seekers having arrived here by boat since the policy shift was announced.

Despite chronic disorder within the detention centres, as well as an increase in boat arrivals, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's office said 107 bridging visas had been issued in the three months since the scheme was implemented on October 13.

In that same period, 2163 boatpeople have been intercepted in Australian waters and subsequently placed in detention.

The 107 bridging visas issued so far is below the aspirational target of at least 100 a month set by Mr Bowen, although the minister did allow for a lag time as the Immigration Department stood the complex scheme up.

The Christmas break has also been a factor in the rollout of the scheme, a spokesman for the minister's office said yesterday.

However, despite the slow start, those close to the program, such as the Red Cross, said early indications were that the rollout was progressing well.

Head of Australian services Noel Clement said most asylum-seekers appeared to be settling comfortably into the community.

"I'm not hearing any significant concerns about additional urgent assistance for people who've been released," Mr Clement told The Australian.

"That doesn't mean there aren't some individuals out there who may be struggling, but as a general sort of feel . . . I would say it's progressing very well."

Under the arrangements, asylum-seekers are to be released into the community while their refugee claims are finalised.

The system is a sharp break from Australia's system of mandatory detention that saw asylum-seekers held until their refugee claims were finalised and their permanent visas issued.

They will be given work rights and will be eligible for some income support.

The announcement followed the opposition's decision to block government amendments restoring offshore processing, which had been struck down by the High Court.

The pressure on the detention system, which according to the Immigration Department is holding 4433 asylum-seekers, meant the Gillard government had little choice but to soften mandatory detention.

The bridging visa program does not include the 1431 asylum-seekers living in community detention arrangements across Australia.

Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition said guidelines governing the scheme were unclear. He said it was being used as a behavioural management tool, with asylum-seekers apparently being told that if they misbehaved in detention centres, they would be ineligible. "There are still no guidelines for the visas, so no one knows who might and who might not get one," Mr Rintoul said.

The bridging visa program has drawn criticism from the NSW and Victorian governments, which complain they will be forced to shoulder some of the burden that comes with accommodating asylum-seekers who settle in Sydney and Melbourne.

The minister's office would not say how many asylum-seekers were working, saying the scheme was still in its early stages.