Asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka

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Created on Thursday, 08 November 2012 17:07

Written by Editorial staff

Minister for immigration and citizenship Chris Bowen has announced that a group of Sri Lankans have been returned to their homeland.

The 30 single males arrived on a number of boats without immigration visas and were involuntarily flown back on a chartered flight as a result.

Bowen has reiterated that people smugglers are stealing money from would be asylum seekers, and that they are risking their lives by travelling overseas in dangerous boats where upon arrival,there are no special treatments awaiting them.

Since August, when the government recommitted to offshore processing, 156 Sri Lankans have been returned to their home country, with some opting to return while others have had to be forcibly taken back.

Shadow minister for immigration and citizenship Scott Morrison has taken a less optimistic view on reducing the number of arrivals. He said that the Labor government has taken a fairly laid back approach and that the Australian people are paying the price for their inability to stem the massive arrivals which never seem to stop.

"Labor's failure to introduce the full suite of Howard government measures and their failure of resolve have ensured that people smugglers continue to win big under Julia Gillard.

"Every new day under this failed government brings more boats, more profits for people smugglers and more cost and chaos for taxpayers," Mr Morrison said.

Michael Keenan, the shadow minister for justice, customs and border protection, comma made note of the fact that only four months into the financial year more than 9,000 people have already arrived illegally in Australia.

In the last six years of the Howard government, 16 boats made their way to Australia while in the last week; the Labour party has presided over 14 boat arrivals.

The Howard government, in response to a litany of boat arrivals in the early 2000s, introduced a comprehensive border policy which included turning around boats where it was safe to do so, issuing Temporary Protection Visas and offshore processing. The Rudd government dismantled these successful policies in 2008 which saw the number of illegal arrivals grow.

In August of this year, the federal government took on the recommendations of the Houston panel,which was convened after illegal arrivals drowned after their vessels sank.