On Sunday, Australia announced plans [Aljazeera report] to further strengthen its already strict refugee and asylum seeker policies. In particular, legislation will be brought before Parliament next week which would disallow asylum seekers who have returned to their homelands from ever coming back to Australia – even for business, as tourists, or to follow a spouse. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said this legislation is to combat the “battle of will between the Australian people…and these criminal gangs of people smugglers.” However, human rights advocates are not convinced of Turnbull’s policy or his justifications. One human rights attorney said the law would be “a lifelong sentence on victims of persecution and another dangerous precedent.” In addition, some believe Turnbull will have a difficult road getting this legislation passed without obtaining support from minor parties or the labor organization.

Australian refugees and their treatment have been a topic of discussion among international human rights organizations as of late, prompting Amnesty International to report that Australia is using the island of Nauru as an “open-air prison” [JURIST report] as a means to prevent immigration. In August Australia announced [JURIST report] that Australia and Papua New Guinea intend on closing the controversial Manus Island detention center. That same month AI and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued reports [JURIST report] stating that Australia is ignoring inhumane treatment of detainees in Nauru. Papua New Guinea officials claimed in May that Australian refugees are not being detained [JURIST report] on Manus Island, as they are given access to mainland Australia. The statement by officials followed a ruling by the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court that the Australian off-shore detention facility was illegal, in direct opposition to a ruling [JURIST report] by the Australian Supreme Court earlier this year that the off-shore detention was legal.