The Australian Greens say they are relieved that Chinese nationals in Darwin harbour will not risk trying to reach New Zealand as part of their legal right to seek asylum.<\/p>\n
“Their plight highlights the absurdity of Australia’s two-tiered system that detains people who arrive by boat and lets those who arrive by jet live in the community,” Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.<\/p>\n
“Had these Chinese nationals flown in to Darwin, they would not be talking of their fears of being in Australian detention as they said they experienced in China for practicing their beliefs.<\/p>\n
“We must rebalance the system so that everyone who arrives in Australia and exercises their legal right to seek asylum is treated the same, regardless of how they came here.<\/p>\n
“Where detention occurs, it should be limited to only the duration of their initial health and security check, not indefinitely while their protection claim is assessed, as happens now.<\/p>\n
“No other signatory to the UN Refugee Convention does this, and it’s time Australia stopped this inhumane and expensive practice.<\/p>\n
“The Greens also condemn the irresponsible comments from Scott Morrison, the shadow immigration minister, who bleats that these Chinese are ‘country shopping’.<\/p>\n
“How dare he pass judgement on a group of people who are exercising their legal right to seek protection and not allow the system of due process to take place.”<\/p>\n
MEDIA CONTACT: PARIS LORD 0427 604 760<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Australian Greens say they are relieved that Chinese nationals in Darwin harbour will not risk trying to reach New Zealand as part of their legal right to seek asylum. “Their plight highlights the absurdity of Australia’s two-tiered system that detains people who arrive by boat and lets those who arrive by jet live in the community,” Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said. “Had these Chinese nationals flown in to Darwin, they would not be talking of their fears…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[36,35,17,33,37,34,38],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-press-releases","tag-china","tag-darwin","tag-greens","tag-new-zealand","tag-scott-morrison","tag-senator-sarah-hanson-young","tag-shadow-immigration-minister","post-has-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\n