Cardinal George Pell has spoken in favour of offshore processing of asylum-seekers, urging the government and opposition to work together to avert further deaths of boatpeople at sea, reports the Australian.
In his first public comments in support of processing asylum-seekers outside Australia, Cardinal Pell said that an offshore regime may be the only viable way to prevent refugees from being exploited by human-trafficking syndicates.
"The people-smugglers are evil and irresponsible money-makers prepared to risk the destruction of their passengers. These deaths are a tragedy," Cardinal Pell told the Australian yesterday, reacting to the news that hundreds of people were missing at sea after a ship sank off the coast of Indonesia.
"It's difficult to see any alternative to the government and opposition promptly agreeing on effective offshore deterrents. Australians do not want more tragedies like this."
Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, is known for his sympathy for refugees, condemning prime minister John Howard in 2001 over his "mean and excessively harsh" efforts to deter boat arrivals.
"Many of us consider, for example, that the mandatory detention of asylum-seekers in hot, isolated places, apparently favoured at present by both sides of politics, is not a good or wise policy, especially for women and children," he said at the time.