Australia gives 9,500 asylum seekers chance to stay

Australia's government relaxed rules on immigrants yesterday, allowing thousands of asylum seekers given temporary refuge after arriving illegally to apply for permanent residence.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said 9,500 asylum seekers who hold three-year "temporary protection visas", which released them from detention and allowed them to seek work, could now apply for permanent visas.

The majority of those on temporary protection visas are Afghan and Iraqi boatpeople.

"(This) will ensure that Australia's border integrity is maintained, our international obligations to refugees are met and that those making a significant contribution to the Australian community are able to remain here," Ms Vanstone said in a statement.

Australia accepts 13,000 people on refugee and humanitarian grounds each year, but asylum seekers entering illegally are held with illegal workers and visa overstayers in detention centres while their cases are handled, which can take years.

In 1999, in response to a surge in illegal immigrants arriving by boat, the conservative government created "temporary protection visas" for those who proved they were eligible for protection under the UN Refugees Convention.

Ms Vanstone said many "temporary protection visa" holders were now working in rural areas in jobs usually hard to fill.

Prime Minister John Howard, criticised for sealing borders to asylum seekers arriving by boat, denied the new plans softened the government's hardline on illegal immigration that helped it retain power at the last election in November 2001.

Only three boatloads of would-be refugees have reached Australian waters since the conservative government began deploying the navy to intercept and divert boats to nearby Pacific islands three years ago.

"I think the overwhelming majority of the Australian people warmly appreciate the tough line we took on border protection and stopped the boats coming," said Mr Howard, who will seek a fourth term at an election widely forecast to be held in October.

A total of 865 asylum seekers remain in detention centres. Howard Glenn, national director of refugee lobby group A Just Australia, welcomed the move on temporary protection visas, but labelled it a government "backdown" on its hardline stance.

"I think they are wiping the slate clear of difficult issues before the election.

It's been a hot issue in marginal electorates across the country," said Mr Glenn.

The opposition centre-left Labour Party, polling neck-and-neck with Mr Howard ahead of the election, accused the government of hypocrisy and of stealing its policy.

"For years the government has been saying that putting people in limbo on ongoing rolling temporary protection visas has acted as a deterrent," Labour's immigration spokesman Stephen Smith told reporters.