Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not support this motion. If I could reiterate, the Australian government does not believe it is appropriate to deal with complex foreign policy matters via simple Senate resolutions. The Australian government is concerned about the situation of the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq. More than 3,000 members of the Iranian opposition group the People's Mujahedin of Iran reside there. The Iraq government plans to close the camp by the end of 2011. UNHCR has undertaken to conduct voluntary individual refugee assessments of camp residents and the government has asked the government of Iraq to extend its full cooperation to the UNHCR to delay closure of the camp to allow completion of refugee processing and to ensure the human rights of residents are respected.