Australia hails 600 days of no asylum seeker boat arrivals

Australia on Thursday hailed its controversial regime of turning back asylum seeker boats as a success after 600 days with no vessels arriving, and almost 700 people being repelled since the policy was launched.

Under the hardline measures, asylum seekers trying to reach Australia by boat are turned back to their country of departure or sent to remote Pacific island camps, where conditions have been criticised with allegations of rape and other abuse.

They are blocked from resettling in Australia even if they are found to be refugees in a policy the conservative government has defended as stopping deaths at sea.

“Tomorrow [Friday] marks 600 days since the last successful people-smuggling venture to our country and the government’s absolutely determined to make sure that it stays that way,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in Canberra.

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Since the start of “Operation Sovereign Borders” in September 2013 when the government came to power, 25 boats carrying 698 people had been turned back and “safely returned to their country of departure”, Dutton added.

Rights groups have criticised camp conditions while doctors and whistle-blowers have said the detention of asylum seekers, particularly children, has left some struggling with mental health problems.