Australian Parliament backs migrant reforms
6 Dec BBC
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"."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.
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". |