Australia will pay third-party countries to accept former immigration detainees who can’t be deported back home under Labor’s response to the High Court ruling that has freed non-citizens with criminal records from electronic monitoring devices and curfews. Source: SMH.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s new laws would also allow the federal Government to re-detain people once they are accepted for resettlement in another country, escalating Labor’s efforts to deal with the political fallout from last year’s NZYQ case, which released 224 former immigration detainees into the community.
Under laws introduced to parliament on Thursday, if a non-citizen is granted entry to a third-party country under an arrangement facilitated by the Government, then their bridging visa will cease to exist. That person then “may be taken into immigration detention … and may be liable to be removed”, according to an explanation of the laws.
The removal powers will be debated in the year’s final fortnight of parliament later this month and loom as a fresh test for the Government, after Labor’s previous attempt to introduce a deportation bill that threatened jail time was blocked by both the Coalition and Greens because of humanitarian concerns and hasty drafting.
However, Mr Burke said imposing ankle bracelets or detention was not the Government’s top concern. “Our first priority is, we don’t want them in Australia at all, and that is why we introduced powers today in the legislation to improve the Government’s capacity to remove people from this country in that situation.”
The Coalition asked for a parliamentary inquiry into the new laws so they could be scrutinised before parliament gets back.
FULL STORY
Labor wants Australia to pay countries to take former detainees (By Natassia Chrysanthos, SMH)
RELATED COVERAGE
‘We don’t want them in Australia at all’: Labor wants more powers to re-detain and remove non-citizens to third countries (Guardian Australia)
