People Await Lifting Of Australian Visa Ban

By Author: Newton Steven
Total Articles: 13
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With the tightening of immigration rules, Australian visa application has been quite a hard process to go by. However, there are in fact even harder problems to encounter for those wishing to enter Australia. And one of these potential problems is not being issued a visa outright.
Indeed, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has been plagued with concerns about the visa bans that it has issued on certain countries this year. These concerns came not only from the countries affected, but also other groups who are worried about the repercussion of the bans. They are urging the Australian government to reconsider this bans and change their minds about this.

One of the most notable of these bans was the one imposed on Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers that was implemented last April. According to immigration officials, the said ban would last for six months and would cover only those people arriving without proper documentations. Authorities said that the main reason behind the move was because conditions on Afghanistan are already improving and that many people from oversees have already started to return ...
... there.

However, the Afghan government protested on the move and said that it is in violation of international human rights laws. According to Abdul Rahim, then the acting minister for Afghanistan's refugee and repatriation department, people have the right to choose a place where they can claim asylum. He further added that Australia, as a signatory to several international treaties with regards to the treatment of asylum seekers, has the obligations to abide with these.

Some observers have also seen the ban as a move to appease the Australian public's concerns with the growing number of immigrants in the country. This one has in fact, been a major topic for debate in the country's policy making arena, as various groups contend that there is a need to clamp down on illegal immigrants, while others say that this must be closely studied first in order to separate legitimate asylum seekers from those who are only seeking a quick entry.

Other groups go on further and argued that the move was a political one, intended by the ruling Labor Party to attract votes during the elections. However, immigration officials are quick to allay these claims, saying that the ban is necessary in order for them to have time to assess the asylum claims that have already piled up in the immigration department.
As it is, the ban is yet to be lifted, and those wishing to enter Australia will have to wait until that time.

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