Carr talks tough on boat arrivals Boat arrivals with a genuine fear of persecution shouldn't be burning their passports and reciting identical stories, Foreign Minister Bob Carr says. Senator Carr said asylum seeker numbers had spiked and 20 per cent of Australia's immigrants now arrive courtesy of people smugglers. He said officials were saying recent boat arrivals, particularly those from Iran, were seeking economic advantage and were unable to make a claim for persecution. Senator Carr said those who burned their passports and repeated a well-rehearsed story ought to be put on the defensive. "If you have got an argument about persecution, there is no case for burning your passport," he told ABC television. And there is no case for being rehearsed in a story of persecution so that everyone on a vessel tells the same story word for word, leaving the impression that the people smuggler in charge of the process has put them through this. Senator Carr has pushed for toughening of the assessment process, pointing to the recent wave of Iranian arrivals as economic refugees who were not fleeing political persecution. He said the assessment system allowed 97 per cent of those reaching Australian waters to stay, through a process that seemed weighted in favour of the claimant. Senator Carr said people smugglers were bribing officials in other countries and charging $10,000 per head for wretched people on unseaworthy vessels. "All our officials are telling us that the recent spike has come from Iran and in their impression.....it is overwhelmingly to gain economic advantage," he said. That is what you have a regular migration program for. This is a corruption by people smugglers.