Australia will reopen a controversial detention centre for asylum seekers, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday after an embarrassing defeat in parliament that allows migrants in offshore camps to receive medical care in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opposition Labor party and independents voted to amend hardline immigration laws to give doctors the right to transfer some 1,000 men and woman from two Pacific detention centres if they need medical treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amendment, approved by the Senate on Wednesday, dealt a blow to the ruling conservative coalition which is trailing heavily in polls ahead of an election due in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morrison, offering a preview of a campaign pitch likely to focus on immigration, said the change would bring a new wave of asylum seekers and forced the government to reopen a detention centre on Christmas Island, a territory some 1,550 km north-west of the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have approved putting in place the reopening of the Christmas Island detention facilities, both to deal with the prospect of arrivals as well as dealing with the prospect of transfers,\u201d Morrison told reporters in Canberra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immigration Minister David Coleman said on Sunday the change would bring a return of the days when thousands of asylum-seekers travelled to Indonesia and then paid smugglers to take them on to Australia by boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents accused the government of fear mongering, saying the amendment concerned only those already detained in the Pacific camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis legislation is confined to the current cohort of people on Manus Island and Nauru,\u201d said Kerryn Phelps, an independent lawmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt does not provide any kind of attraction to people to leave where they are and to try to make the journey to Australia because they will not be considered as part of this legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Christmas Island detention facilities shuttered last year after 10 years in operation has been a central scene in the outcome of previous national elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2001, Australia\u2019s then conservative Prime Minister John Howard refused permission for a Norwegian ship carrying 433 rescued refugees to enter Australian waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Howard, who was trailing in the polls at the time, won re-election and held onto power until 2007. After he left office, the centre-left Labor government began holding refugees on Christmas Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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