Editing Ashmore and Cartier Islands (section)

==Migration==
As Ashmore Reef is the closest point of Australian territory to Indonesia, it was a popular target for [[people smuggling|people smugglers]] transporting [[asylum seekers]] en route to Australia.<ref>Anita Roberts [https://web.archive.org/web/20080830045428/http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit66/anita4.htm "Don't let them drown"] ''Inside Indonesia'' Apr–Jun 2001, vol. 64</ref> Once they had landed on Ashmore Island, asylum seekers could claim to have entered Australian migration zone and request to be processed as refugees. The use of Ashmore Island for this purpose created great notoriety during late 2001, when refugee arrivals became a major political issue in Australia. The Australian Government argued that as Australia was not the country of first asylum for these "[[boat people]]", Australia did not have a responsibility to accept them.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

A number of measures were taken to discourage the use of the territory for this purpose, such as attempting to have the people smugglers arrested in Indonesia; the so-called [[Pacific Solution]] of processing them in third countries; the boarding and forced turnaround of the boats by Australian military forces; and finally excising the territory and many other small islands from the [[Australian migration zone]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Migration Amendment (Excision from Migration Zone) Act 2001 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2004A00887 |website=Federal Register of Legislation}}</ref>

In October 2001, the [[Royal Australian Navy]] detained two Indonesian boats carrying asylum seekers for seven days in the Ashmore Island lagoon. These boats were later returned to Indonesian waters through the use of force and deception.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=December 2002 |title="BY INVITATION ONLY:"AUSTRALIAN ASYLUM POLICY |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/australia/australia1202.pdf |journal=Human Rights Watch |volume=14 |issue=10 |pages=41}}</ref>