Immigration minister Peter Dutton has set a deadline for refugees living in Australia to prove their genuine refugee status or they will be deported.
October 1st is the date set by Dutton, who told reporters that the some 7,500 refugees living in Australia are “fake refugees.”
“We aren’t going to tolerate that any longer,” he said.
This includes anyone who arrived without identity documents on boats run by people smugglers, some as far back as seven years ago.
“We are prepared to support people who are genuine refugees but we aren’t going to support people who are just accessing welfare and taxpayer benefits and then refusing to provide any information in relation to their protection claim,” Dutton said.
“The expectation is, if people can’t make their claim for protection then they need to depart our country as quickly as possible.”
He said that the government would continue to provide Medicare support, schooling for children, and allow people to work until individual claims were finalised, but that they would not receive income support.