Australia amends Migration Act

The Australian mainland will now be excised from the migration zone and all asylum-seekers who arrive anywhere in Australia will be eligible to be sent offshore, after a controversial amendment to the Migration Act passed the Senate, stated The Australian in an article published recently.

The legislation passed the upper house 28 to 10, with labour and the coalition, voting to allow the Australian Government to send all asylum-seekers to Manus Island or Nauru for ‘regional processing’, regardless of whether they reach Christmas Island or the mainland. Speaking on behalf of the Australian Government, Senator Matt Thistlethwaite said the asylum-seeker issue was the most “Difficult public policy issue our nation has dealt with in the last 25 years.”