Morrison gets tough on Afghan refugees
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison has warned Afghan refugees who come to Australia by boat will not be given special treatment despite an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The first Australian-led rescue flight from Afghanistan on Wednesday landed back at a military base in the United Arab Emirates after collecting 26 passengers from Kabul.
The passengers included Australian citizens and Afghans with Australian visas, with more rescue flights expected to be undertaken in the coming days. But speaking to the media, Mr Morrison drew a hard line, insisting Australia would not repeat the scenes of a US evacuation flight.
Instead, Australia will only resettle those who come through the “official channels”.
“What I can confirm is this – I have a clear message – we will only be resettling people through our official humanitarian program going through official channels,” he said.
“We will not be offering a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship.
“We will not be allowing people to enter Australia illegally, even at this time. Our policy has not changed.
“We will be supporting Afghans who have legitimate claims through our official and legitimate processes. We will not be providing that pathway to those who would seek to come any other way.
“That is a very important message. The government’s policy has not changed, will not change.”
Mr Morrison ruled out following the path of Canada after it confirmed it would resettle 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan.
Instead, Australia will provide 3000 humanitarian visas to Afghan nationals.
“We will be ensuring this year we believe we’ll be able to provide around 3000 visas. That’s more than double what we’ve been doing and in some cases triple what we’ve been doing in the current year. And we do believe we’ll be able to do more than that,” he said.
“You would have heard other countries talk about figures of 5000, I note that some are talking about … 20,000 but can I tell you there are no clear plans about that. Australia is not going into that territory.”
Since 2013, 8500 Afghan nationals have been resettled in Australia. Since April, more than 433 Afghans with visas under the Afghan Local Engaged Employees program have arrived.