Australian Politicians Want Tougher Measures for Asylum Seekers Without Passports

As more asylum seekers try to reach Australia by boat, there is increasing debate in Australia about ensuring that only genuine refugees are granted protection visas and allowed to stay.

Recent government statistics showed that, between July 2010 and October 2011 3,237 asylum seekers admitted that they had flown to Indonesia using their passports but only 37 of them had their passports by the time they reached Australia.

The Australian Liberal Party (currently in opposition) says that because the rates are so high, the laws should be made tougher. They want people arriving by boat to be penalized if they have destroyed their identity documents and for it to be harder for them to claim refugee status.

“Our starting point is to say if they've destroyed their documents, then we think there should be a presumption that it's going to be more difficult for them to achieve refugee status,” a Liberal Party politician said. “What we are saying is that people who are genuine refugees ... should be coming with their identity documents because that gives them maximum opportunity to demonstrate their bona fides.”

At the same time the current Australian Government is working with Indonesia to break the people smugglers business model and reduce the number of asylum seekers trying to get to Australia by boat from Indonesia. People smugglers often provide their clients with false passports and visas to get into Indonesia. Asylum seekers then leave Indonesia by boat to try to reach Australia. The two governments will now be working together to make it harder for people to use false passports and false visas to get into Indonesia.