More asylum seekers alight in Australia

Details

Created on Wednesday, 08 May 2013 07:29

Written by Editorial staff

A total of 40,000 people have now arrived in Australia by boat, despite Labor's attempts to stem the tide of asylum seekers with their border protection regime.

Since July 1 last year, 320 boats have unloaded more than 20,000 refugees with no immigration visas onto our shores. Only 3 boats and 25 refugees, on the other hand, managed to embark in Australia under the previous government's policies.

In March, shadow minister for justice, customs and border protection Michael Keenan stated that "more than three times the amount of people have arrived so far this month than in the entire month of March last year.

"Given that we had more boat arrivals last year than in any other year before it shows that 2013 is shaping up to be yet another shameful record breaking year for arrivals under Labor."

Scott Morrison, shadow minister for immigration and citizenship, has deemed this Labor's "greatest policy failure".

"It is a failure that has cost lives, damaged our country's reputation, cost over $6.6 billion in Budget blowouts and resulted in tens of thousands of people dumped into the community," Mr Morrison explained.

He has indicated that re-introducing Temporary Protection Visas, having stringent offshore processing, and giving new orders to the navy to turn back boats are all ways we could prevent these boats from crossing Australia's borders.