Australia to Ban Refugees Who Arrive by Boat From Ever Settling

Australia has shut the door to asylum seekers arriving in the country by boat, banning them for life from settling in the country.

In a move to stop people smugglers, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton announced Sunday that new legislation will be introduced to parliament this week to prevent “irregular maritime arrivals” taken to a regional processing country from making valid applications for an Australian visa. The bill will also apply to asylum seekers in detention centers on Nauru and on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island since July 19, 2013.

“This will send the strongest possible signal to the people smugglers,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney. “They must know that the door to Australia is closed to those who seek to come here by boat with a people smuggler. It is closed."

Australia’s Liberal-National coalition won power in 2013 vowing to stop a surge of refugees, some of whom drowned attempting to arrive in Australia by sea, often ferried in rickety boats by people smugglers from Indonesia. While the policy of sending them to Manus Island and Nauru has halted the flow, and cut the number of refugees drowning at sea, it has been condemned by bodies such as the United Nations for breaching human rights.

In April, Papua New Guinea said it will close the visa-processing center on Manus Island, which held more than 800 refugees, after the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ruled that detaining the refugees was unconstitutional.

Dutton said that the priority now was to get women, children and families off Nauru.

“There are still people, advocates in Australia and elsewhere, who are messaging to people on Nauru and Manus that at some stage you are coming to Australia,” he said. “Those people are living in false hope and it cannot continue.”

Tightening the legislation sent a clear message to people smugglers that “Australia is not an option for you,” and that “the door to Australia is closed to those who come by boat along with the people smugglers,” Dutton said.