Government News Index
Ruddock strengthens asylum Bill
AAP
13mar02
ASYLUM seekers brought to Australia from Pacific solution nations for emergency hospital treatment will be barred from launching refugee applications under a new Federal Government Bill.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has unveiled changes which would further strengthen the Government's legal barriers to unauthorised arrivals.
The latest raft of measures allow the Government to bring asylum seekers from third nations such as Nauru and Papua New Guinea in what Mr Ruddock called exceptional circumstances.
Those would include hospital treatment when the person could not be properly treated elsewhere.
They would also include asylum seekers passing through Australia to return home or for refugee resettlement elsewhere, or those testifying in criminal trials involving alleged people smugglers.
"In order to maintain the integrity of Australia's border controls it is necessary to ensure that the transitory person's presence in Australia is as short as possible, and that action cannot be taken to delay that person's removal from Australia," Mr Ruddock told Parliament.
With Parliament only set to meet for one more week before breaking for seven weeks, Mr Ruddock said the changes required urgent Opposition approval.
"There may be circumstances, particularly of illness or in relation to other unforseen emergencies that do require transit, and with the Parliament likely to rise in the next fortnight, it would be preferable that the Bill receive passage during this session," he said.