Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched a new regulatory that prevents the immigrants and asylum-seekers who travel by boat to settle into the country.
This declaration was made three years after the Turnbull guaranteed to disallow the access and settlement of the refugees to Australia who travelled by the sea. Turnbull's announcement has been tagged as a "severe and entirely unnecessary step" by a humanitarian group.
Turnbull, in his press conference on Sunday, was certain to send an "absolutely unflinching, unequivocal message" through the proposal of a prohibition on settlements of refugees arriving by a boat. Turnbull claimed that the law is a mean to be fairer to those immigrants who undergoes the legal process of visa application.
He said, "A generous humanitarian program, a harmonious multicultural society, depends on the Australian government being in control of its borders. And it depends on us sending a united and concerted answer to the people smugglers that if they seek to bring people to Australia, those passengers will never settle in this country."
The Prime Minister claimed that Australia has already accommodated thousands of refugees. He even said that the bill would concern the asylum seekers who are taken to a regional processing facility in Nauru or Papua New Guinea since July 19, 2013.
Minor asylum seekers or those who are under the age of 18 who tried to come to Australia through the sea would not be liable for the regulatory.
To establish that they will not be settling in Australia for long, immigrants who arrive in Australia by the sea were transferred to offshore centers in small Pacific nations including Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea since the year 2012.
Despite several reports of violence in Australia's offshore camps, the former leaders of the country have labeled the law as essential in order to stop people from drowning at the sea.
The head of the opposition and Labor Leader Bill Shorted was advised by Turnbull to support the bill since it is "entirely consistent with his party's public stated position".
According to Amy Lamoin, the head of policy and advocacy for UNICEF Australia, Turnbull's regulatory proposal is "not a reasonable, necessary or proportionate measure" and one that "squarely punishes refugees more than it creates a credible warning to people smugglers."
"It is difficult to see that the lifetime ban has a legitimate aim," Lamoin said.
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