AUSTRALIA risks being swamped by a new wave of boat people if it lets a Tamil asylum seeker family remain in the country, the prime minister says.
Scott Morrison says people smugglers will again hit high gear if the government responds to “a public reaction” in support of a family that had been found not to be refugees.
“Now – at a time when there are increasing push factors come out of Sri Lanka – the worst possible thing you can do is to … send a message which says: ‘You know what, if you come illegally to Australia and the courts say you don’t have a claim and the government say you don’t have a claim, then the government just might make an exception because there’s been a public reaction,” he said on Monday.
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“I know what happens when you send those messages back into those communities whether it’s in Sri Lanka or the more than 10,000 people sitting in Indonesia right now who would get on a boat tomorrow if they thought this government was changing its position.”
Mr Morrison said he could not understand why Australians might be cynical about the government’s decision on the weekend to release details about the interception of a sixth asylum-seeker vessel from Sri Lanka since May.
“It’s just a simple fact. It’s a fact,” he said, saying it was the government’s habit of announcing turn-backs only after the fact.
He said he would never allow a return to the tragic scenes of people dying at sea while trying to reach Australia illegally.
“That’s not something that I, in good conscience, can allow to happen and nor can my ministers.
“I need to be very clear to those who might be sitting in Indonesia or Sri Lanka, or anywhere else, my government’s policy has not changed.”