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Caveat emptor: European governments should resist the Howard Government's efforts to sell the 'Pacific Solution'.

Article Excerpt
If your child face this condition what will you act and realise? And how much does it disturb you in your every single step?

For many Australians, the Howard Government's Pacific Solution is a source of great shame, embarrassment and despair. Clearly, this is not the case for the instigators of the policy who have devoted much time to proudly talking up their asylum seeker detention arrangements around the world.

While some European Union states currently debate plans to establish similar offshore processing camps in their own regions, others have expressed concern at the way the Australian Government has pushed (some would say 'marketed') its Pacific Solution policy to the rest of the world. In recent conversations, Australian NGO representatives were told of the discomfort felt by some European countries when faced with the Australian Government's promotional presentations, including being shown videos and brochures 'advertising' Australia's hard line policies.

Unfortunately, this global campaigning seems to have succeeded as a motivating force for some recent harsh policy proposals on the other side of the world. But the European countries supporting the introduction of offshore processing might well benefit from a closer look at the human consequences of the Pacific Solution policy three years from its inception.

As I write, eighty-one people, including sixteen children, remain indefinitely detained after...

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