AUSTRALIA is to introduce a new system to review refugees seeking asylum on July 1, the visiting Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Senator Nick Bolkus, announced yesterday.
In Hongkong on his first overseas trip since taking up the immigration job a month ago, Mr Bolkus said that under the new system of review, refugees who arrived in Australia illegally would be detained until they were sent home.
Citing detention as ''a very important benchmark of our regime'', he said the rules would be strongly enforced after July 1.
The announcement followed a statement from China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wu Jianmin, that the granting of ''so-called political asylum'' was encouraging illegal human smuggling.
At the same time, Australia has increased its migration quota for refugees by 1,000 over the past financial year's 4,000.
''This reflects the worldwide demand, but also recognition by Australia that, though we still accept on a per capita basis more than most countries in the world, we have a continuing obligation to those who are prepared to play the system straight by us,'' said Mr Bolkus.