Australian parliament backs migrant reforms
The Australian parliament
has approved changes to immigration laws that include reintroducing
controversial temporary visas for refugees.
The bill will allow refugees to live and work in Australia for three to five years, but denies them permanent protection.
It was passed by 34 votes to 32 in the senate and later backed by MPs.
Australia currently detains all asylum seekers who arrive by boat, holding them in offshore processing camps.
It says that those found to be refugees will not be permanently
resettled in Australia, under tough new policies aimed at ending the
flow of boats.
It also has a backlog of cases - about 30,000 - relating to
asylum seekers who arrived before the current policies were put in
place. Those people live in detention camps or in the community under
bridging visas that do not allow them to work.
To secure enough support in parliament to pass the bill, the
government made concessions. Children will be freed from detention on
Christmas Island, an offshore camp where conditions have been strongly
criticised.
The number of confirmed refugees Australia will agree to
accommodate will rise by 7,500, from the current level of 13,750, by
2018 (reversing an earlier cut). Asylum seekers on bridging visas will
be allowed to work while their claims for refugee status are processed.
The bill was narrowly approved in the senate after intense
debate in a late-night sitting. It was then passed into law by the House
of Representatives, where the government has a majority.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the move as "a win for Australia".
Refugees are kept in detention centres waiting for their claims to be assessed
"We always said that three things were necessary to stop the
boats - offshore processing, turning boats around and temporary
protection visas, and last night the final piece of policy was put in
place," he said.
Temporary visas were originally introduced under former Prime
Minister John Howard but were criticised by rights groups and the UN
for failing to meet Australia's obligations as a signatory to UN Refugee
Conventions.
While refugees can live and work for a temporary period in
Australia, the government can deport them to their country of origin
after this period if it deems conditions there have improved.
Serious concern
The government won the vote in the senate - where it does not
have a majority - with the support of the Palmer United Party (PUP)
which had negotiated several changes, including the provision relating
to children detained on Christmas Island.
Rights advocates and other experts have voiced serious
concern about the effects of life in limbo in cramped detention
conditions on children of all ages.
PUP leader Clive Palmer called the move the best option available.
"It's all very well for people to shake their head, but they're not locked up on Christmas Island," he told reporters.
But refugee advocates said the move was a "shattering blow
for asylum seekers who face the grave risk of being returned to danger".
Unless current migration visa rules were changed, many of
those identified as refugees would find themselves with "no pathway to
permanent protection", said Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee
Council of Australia.
He welcomed the "long overdue" decision to release children
from detention, but condemned their use by the government "as a
bargaining chip for a destructive legislative package to seriously
weaken refugee protection".
Opposition leaders had also accused the government of using asylum seekers as political pawns.
Speaking before the senate vote, senior Labor figure Tony
Burke said Immigration Minister Scott Morrison was "effectively wanting
to use people as hostages".
"He could have started processing [asylum seekers]. He chose
to not do the processing, and is now saying unless we vote for his
measures, then he'll continue to keep people in detention," he told ABC
Radio.
- Asylum seekers - mainly from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Iran - travel to Australia's Christmas Island by boat from Indonesia
- The number of boats rose sharply in 2012 and early 2013. Scores of people have died making the journey
- To stop the influx, the government has adopted hard-line measures intended as a deterrent
- Everyone who arrives is detained. Under a new policy, they are processed in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Those found to be refugees will be resettled in PNG, Nauru or Cambodia
- Tony Abbot's government has also adopted a policy of tow-backs, or turning boats around
- Rights groups and the UN have voiced serious concerns about the policies and conditions in the detention camps. They accuse Australia of shirking international obligations.
.jpg)
