Boat People Returned to China
Media Release - DPS 3/96
Australia has returned another 59 boat people, taking the total number returned to China to almost 1 000 in the past five years.
They include almost 760 people returned in the past 12 months under an agreement between the governments of Australia and the Peoples Republic of China.
The latest flight carried people who had sailed by boat to Darwin in November 1994 and then claimed to be refugees. They had been held in immigration detention for the past 18 months.
They were unable to make a valid application for refugee status, a position upheld by Australian courts, and were returned on board a charter flight at the weekend.
Further removals of boat people who sailed from China are expected.
Most of those being returned have no right to claim refugee status, and Australian legislation now prevents them from lodging such an application.
Australian authorities have now returned a total of 955 boat people to China; another 300 boat people have been sent to other countries.
An Australian official said today that under Australian law, people seeking to enter the country without legal travel documents are detained.
Boat people, who arrive without the proper authority, are not welcome, he said.
Canberra, 14 May 1996