The Federal Government says a fifth Tamil refugee has been refused a visa to live in Australia, leaving him, his wife and their children in detention limbo on Christmas Island.
There is pressure now on the Immigration Department to resettle the refugees in another country, prompting outspoken Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey to label Christmas Island as "potentially Australia's Guantanamo Bay".
The department earlier today confirmed that three Sri Lankan men and a woman who were on board the Oceanic Viking had been denied visas because ASIO decided they pose a security risk.
The woman has two young children and all three are being detained on Christmas Island.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the woman's husband has now also been refused a visa.
"There is an additional person who around the same time was found by our security agencies to have not met the public interest criteria in terms of his security assessment," Senator Evans said.
"It is the case that this man is the spouse of the mother of the two children who was onboard the Oceanic Viking."
Senator Evans will not say why the five have been refused visas.
"I don't know the nature of ASIO's finding, so I couldn't help you if I wanted to. But as you know, I wouldn't anyway," he said.
The Federal Government had promised 78 Sri Lankans quick processing to coax them off the Oceanic Viking and into an Indonesian detention centre.
Some of them have been resettled in Australia or Canada.
A spokeswoman for the Immigration Department has said Australia is continuing to search for another country to resettle them.
She said they could also choose to leave Australia voluntarily.
Mr Tuckey, who last year said he was worried terrorists could be on board boats of asylum seekers, says the Government will have difficulty resettling the visa-less refugees in another country.
"Christmas Island is now potentially Australia's Guantanamo Bay," he said.
"We could end up holding that facility in operation for years as luxury accommodation for people whom we won't let come to Australia, and yet at the same time will not be wanted by anyone else."
Opposition treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, says Mr Tuckey has been vindicated for raising security concerns.
"More fool Kevin Rudd for coming out and saying that Wilson Tuckey should apologise," Mr Hockey said.
"I think Wilson's had a win there. He deserves recognition for the fact that of course there are going to be risks with unsolicited arrivals in Australia."
Final say
The Greens Leader, Bob Brown, says ASIO should not have the final say on whether the Tamil refugees are fit to live in Australia.
Senator Brown says the system needs to be changed.
"The last thing the Rudd Government should do is leave ASIO to be the arbiter of who comes into this country and who doesn't, to quote John Howard who gave such extraordinary powers to ASIO to determine the lives of Australians generally," Senator Brown said.
He says major determinations made by the spy agency should be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.
"That scrutiny must be there. We must never in a democracy leave ASIO to be making decisions in such matters without there being careful scrutiny by the parliament itself," he said.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Mr Rudd has created the problem "by caving in to the would-be unauthorised arrivals on the Oceanic Viking".
-ABC
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1 comment:
Security is one of the major and important concerns when issuing visa to an individual. If the government thinks that a person poses threat to the country then it can deny him or her Visa citing security reasons.
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