Get tough on refugees, says Aussie PM – it works for us

EUROPE can learn lessons on handling its migration crisis from Australia’s robust approach to borders, the country’s prime minister has said.

Malcolm Turnbull said Australia had shown the EU a ‘potential solution’ to the influx of migrants.

Getting control of illegal immigration allowed a country to be more generous to genuine refugees and take a more liberal approach to legal migrants, Mr Turnbull said. More than 100,000 migrants have tried to cross the Mediterranean this year already, but Australia hasn’t allowed in a single trafficker boat in nearly three years.

In a speech in London, Mr Turnbull said: ‘The Australian experience offers both a cautionary tale and the seeds of a potential solution. The lesson is very clear – weak borders fragment social cohesion, drain public revenue, raise community concerns about national security, and ultimately undermine the consensus required to sustain high levels of immigration and indeed multiculturalism itself.’

He added: ‘Controlling your borders is absolutely critical.

‘You have to be in a position where whoever comes across your border... the Government must make that decision on the part of whose country it is.

‘It’s a fundamental element of sovereignty, so when you outsource your borders, you outsource your sovereignty.’