Australia is planning to bar the refugees who arrive in the country illegally by boat from ever being able to apply for asylum.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday it was necessary to send an “absolutely, unflinching, unequivocal message” that the irregular refugees will never be allowed in Australia.
The government proposal seeking amendments to the Australian migration act is to be put to a vote in the parliament.
“This is a battle of will between the Australian people, represented by its government, and the criminal gangs of people-smugglers… They have a multi-billion-dollar business. We have to be very determined to say no to their criminal plans,” Turnbull said.
The Australian prime minister claimed that despite the harsh restrictions, the country would remain hospitable to hapless refugees and asylum seekers.
“We have one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world,” he claimed, even as Australia’s practice of detaining refugees on far-off islands has become the subject of intense criticism.
Australia sends all the refugees arriving on boats to offshore “processing camps” on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manusd. They are already blocked from being resettled in Australia and can either return to their country of origin, make a life on Manus or Nauru, or go to a third country.
Rights group have published harrowing reports of widespread abuse and self-harm in the camps.
The newly-proposed amendments can be backdated to mid-2013, when former prime minister Kevin Rudd announced that asylum-seekers who came by boat would never be settled in Australia.
The new ban would affect those sent to offshore processing camps from July 19, 2013, including those who have returned to their home countries, and anyone who arrives by boat in the future.
Many analysts see the root of the world’s refugee crisis in the West’s failed global policies and meddling in the internal affairs of independent countries.
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