Australian senate backs migrant reforms

(BBC) The Australian senate has narrowly approved changes to migration laws that include reintroducing controversial temporary visas for refugees.

The bill will allow refugees to live and work in Australia for three to five years.

It was passed by 34 votes to 32 after intense and sometimes emotional debate in a late-night sitting.

Australia currently detains refugees caught arriving by boat and puts them in camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

The bill is expected to become law later on Friday when it is passed by the House of Representatives where the government has a majority.

Some 30,000 asylum seekers have tried to reach Australia by boat since August 2012, but they have yet to have their claims assessed because the government does not want them to stay permanently.

They live in detention camps or in the community under bridging visas that do not allow them to work.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30340579


-- BBC 2014-12-05

You have to be joking .. right ?

So all the hard work and billions of dollars spent to keep those border runners out of Australia

was for nothing? should we expect a flotillas of those so called "refuges" to head to Australia

shores again therefor rewarding those economic illegal immigrants and their people smugglers?

What a cock up Australia....

Live and work?...Live and collect benefits more likely.

Bet the Tax payer is going to love this one...(i.e. we have to raise taxes to make sure everybody lives to a standard) ...

Keep detaining them!

So all the hard work and billions of dollars spent to keep those border runners out of Australia

was for nothing? should we expect a flotillas of those so called "refuges" to head to Australia

shores again therefor rewarding those economic illegal immigrants and their people smugglers?

What a cock up Australia....

Not at all. it gives Oz the right to boot them out (read the 3-5 year Temporary Protection Visa bit ) and any new "refugees" will never have the right to stay in Oz.

it is a real deterrent for the so called refugees (and the people smugglers who prey on them) that was in place seven years ago that a previous Government did away with and opened the floodgate to 50,000 illegals, some of whom are now proudly flying the ISIS flag in Iraq/Syria (and by some reports also getting paid the dole for their efforts)