Rick Dean
Registered
BBC News, Jul. 13
In a radical policy reversal, Australia is to offer thousands of asylum seekers the chance to apply for permanent residency.
The move follows lobbying from government backbenchers seeking a more compassionate approach to immigration.
Under the old rules, those deemed genuine asylum seekers were only given temporary visas.
Some refugee groups welcomed the move, but others dismissed it as politicking ahead of elections due later this year.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said 9,500 asylum seekers, who currently hold three-year temporary protection visas (TPVs), could now apply to stay in Australia on a permanent basis.
She said that
any people granted these visas were now working in rural areas, in jobs which were usually hard to fill.
She said the new rules would ensure that
In a radical policy reversal, Australia is to offer thousands of asylum seekers the chance to apply for permanent residency.
The move follows lobbying from government backbenchers seeking a more compassionate approach to immigration.
Under the old rules, those deemed genuine asylum seekers were only given temporary visas.
Some refugee groups welcomed the move, but others dismissed it as politicking ahead of elections due later this year.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said 9,500 asylum seekers, who currently hold three-year temporary protection visas (TPVs), could now apply to stay in Australia on a permanent basis.
She said that
any people granted these visas were now working in rural areas, in jobs which were usually hard to fill.
She said the new rules would ensure that