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Australia: Gov't to reduce skilled immigration by 14 percent Canberra: Australia will cut its intake of migrants for the first time in a decade, the government said on Monday, amid concern that skilled foreign workers could stoke resentment by taking jobs at a time of rising unemployment. With a recession looming and the centre-left government expecting unemployment to reach 7 per cent by mid-2010, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the intake of skilled migrants would be reduced by about 14 per cent. Australia goes to the polls in late 2010 and immigration has been a charged issue in past polls, particularly following economic downturn. Manoramaonline

Australia: PM's stance on immigration displeases some voters http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25509826-5013871,00.html After 18 months of the Rudd Government, Ken Hill is disappointed by what he has seen. 'I don't think he's done what a Labor person should be doing,' Mr... Australia: Tamils seek humanitarian visas for Sri Lankans with Aussie kin The Sri Lankan high commissioner to Australia has suggested that members of the Tamil Tigers were behind a vicious attack on two students who had acid thrown on their faces... Australia: Imm. Minister expresses regrets over deportation of girl The fact that a young girl was secretly deported to Iran while her father was being held in immigration detention is 'shocking', but it couldn't happen under Labor, Immigration Minister...

More Australia Immigration News

Australia: Business groups say immigration reductions could slow recovery

Cuts to Australia's record-high immigration program will rob the economy of more than half a billion dollars in potential revenue and could slow Australia's eventual recovery from recession. Business groups have criticised the cut to the permanent skilled migration program...
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Australia: Tourist industry laments rise in visa fees

The tourism industry has been dealt a hidden blow in the federal budget, the Tourism and Transport Forum says. Sharp rises in visa application fees could deter travellers to Australia at a time the country needed to do all it...
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Australia: Authorities used ruse to return detainee's daughter to Iran

Six years ago Immigration Department officials asked a 38-year-old Iranian draughtsman locked up in Baxter detention centre for permission to take his seven-year-old daughter to Port Augusta for a shopping trip. The man agreed. 'No problem,' he told staff. 'Yes,...
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Australia: Refugee advocates cheered by changes for asylum seekers

Refugee advocates have broadly supported a series of quiet changes to Australia's refugee regime made in Tuesday's budget, including increased working rights for asylum seekers. Also buried in the budget papers is an announcement formally creating a program to get...
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Australia: Skilled migration intake reduced by 6,900 to protect jobs

The federal Government has cut the skilled migration intake by a further 6900 people to help protect local jobs during the economic crisis. But it will increase the number of people allowed to migrate to Australia for family reunions, the...
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Australia: Surge in arrivals sparks formation of border protection unit

The recent surge in asylum seekers arriving by boat, and the high prospect of more, has led the Rudd Government to quietly set up a special Cabinet committee on border protection. The Prime Minister's Department will spend $2.8 million on...
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Australia: Gov't will spend over $650 million to secure border

The federal government will spend more than $650 million to crack down on people smuggling following the recent spike in unauthorised boat arrivals. Twelve boats carrying suspected asylum seekers have been intercepted in Australian waters this year. In response, the...
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Australia: People smugglers monitor, exploit govt's changes

People smugglers follow Australian politics and are exploiting the Rudd government's changes to border protection laws, former immigration minister Kevin Andrews says. The 12th boat this year carrying suspected asylum seekers was intercepted in northern Australian waters on Monday. Home...
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Australia: Skilled migration slashed while refugee intake increases

Skilled migration will be slashed in the next year, but the Government expects the number of migrants to reach record levels in the long term. Net migration could reach up to 230,000 arrivals a year, well above the 180,000 expected...
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Australia: Medical professionals fret over health of pregnant detainee

' A pregnant woman is among 454 people detained on Christmas Island and medical professionals warn of potential health repercussions for the mother and child. The island in the Indian Ocean is now home to at least 45 children aged...
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Australia: Entrepreneur cashes in on Christmas Island dentention site

For Christmas Island's enterprising quarry worker turned millionaire Tan Sim Kiat, the detention of more than 400 asylum seekers on the remote Australian territory is money in the bank. Since last September, the 60-year-old hotelier, mechanic and hire-car operator has...
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Australia: Gov't steps up crackdown on illegal workers

Two Vietnamese nationals have been sent to a Brisbane detention centre, and a further eight people face being kicked out of Australia after an early-morning crackdown on illegal workers in Bundaberg yesterday. Van-loads of workers were pulled over at roadside...
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Australia: Desperate mother tries to retrieve daughters from Pakistan

Habiba Hosseini has been a refugee for all but six of her 32 years. Her parents fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with their young children in the early 1980s for Iran, where they lived an uneasy existence as refugees...
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Australia: Two Burmese men rescued at sea get refugee status

Two Burmese men who claimed to have survived 25 days at sea in an industrial-sized Esky flew out of Christmas Island yesterday after being granted refugee status. Ko Ko Oo, 23, and Than Thoung Htike, 24, were granted permanent protection...
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Australia: Raid on migration agent office uncovers visa racket

A raid on a city office has uncovered a visa racket that had ensnared at least 30 people, the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, said. A Sydney migration agent was yesterday accused of falsifying documents to support applications for skilled-migrant visas....
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Australia: Nine new vessels to augment border protection fleet

Australia's customs service has upgraded its border protection fleet with nine new vessels amid a surge in asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australian waters. The vessels, launched in Brisbane on Wednesday, will be deployed on the east coast to...
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Australia: Gov't touts new $400m plan to fight people smuggling

The Federal Government will announce a $400 million package to combat people smuggling in next week's budget. The Government plans an aggressive strategy to extradite the leaders of human trafficking networks for prosecution in Australia. As well as significant new...
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Australia: Gov't beset by spike in unauthorized arrivals

Australia is facing the biggest spike in unauthorised boat arrivals since John Howard implemented the Pacific Solution, with the Australian navy intercepting another boatload of asylum seekers northwest of Broome. As immigration officials on Christmas Island last night prepared to...
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Australia: Opposition leader hit for being soft on asylum-seekers

Malcolm Turnbull has been criticised from within his own party as being soft on asylum seekers as another boat carrying 50 people was intercepted off the West Australian coast yesterday. The Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop said people smugglers were capitalising...
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Australia: Some previously rejected asylum seekers turn up again on boats

At least a dozen of the asylum seekers who have arrived in the current wave of boatpeople are return visitors, some having been granted temporary protection visas and others having been rejected after arriving on the now-infamous MV Tampa. Figures...
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Australia: Visa overstayers will no longer be locked up and deported

Illegal immigrants will no longer be locked up and deported when caught by authorities, in a major softening of immigration procedures. Instead, people who overstay their visas will be invited into an immigration office and could even get temporary bridging...
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Australia: Two women arrested in fake passport scheme

A post office clerk and a suburban mother allegedly masterminded a fake passport racket to bring illegal immigrants into Australia. The false passports created at Fairfield Post Office were used by a people-smuggling ring to fly illegal immigrants directly into...
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Australia: Recycled Platitudes Make Poor Debate - Australian

Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes's current obsession is the use of the word illegals by this newspaper and others in describing boatpeople. The Press Council, Holmes scolded, has 'passed on complaints this time around about the use of the...
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Australia: Police apprehend N.Z. man who escaped from detention center

Police have found a 28-year-old man who escaped from the Perth Airport Immigration Detention Facility on Wednesday evening. Dylan Murphy Kasupene was transferred from Hakea Prison to the Immigration Detention Facility at the Perth Domestic Airport in March to await...
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Australia: Gov't to slash 700 Immigration Dept. jobs

One in 10 jobs is expected to be slashed from the Immigration Department in this month's federal budget. Despite the recent surge in boat arrivals, about 700 jobs will be cut from the department, which has 7000 staff in 100...
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Australia: Christmas Island tourism needed as alternative to detention center

Christmas Island must develop a significant tourism industry quickly or face becoming nothing more than an immigration detention island, community leaders said yesterday. They say developing a tourism industry is critical because phosphate mining, the island's main economic driver, may...
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Australia: Closer cooperation with Indonesia key to stemming tide of asylum-seekers

As two more boatloads of asylum seekers were detained this week by Border Protection Command and the federal Opposition called for an inquiry into the sinking of the SIEV 36 off Ashmore Island on April 16, the challenge for Australia...
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Australia: Gov't appoints priest to probe immigration detention concerns

As two more boatloads of asylum seekers were intercepted in Australian waters yesterday, the man appointed by the Rudd Government to investigate a charter of human rights said he will visit Christmas Island after hearing concerns about immigration detention. Jesuit...
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Australia: Christmas Island asylum seekers receive payments

A family of four asylum-seekers living on Christmas Island in community detention receives up to $1000 a fortnight from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). DIAC spokesman Sandi Logan said 33 asylum-seekers who had undergone health and security checks...
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Australia: Tourism council urges gov't not to cut work holiday visas

Taking the axe to working holiday visas to protect local jobs during the economic downturn will backfire, the tourism industry warns. The Australian Tourism Export Council is concerned the government is considering restricting the number of working holiday visas as...
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