Greens demand moratorium but minister says it would be ‘strange’ to stop people going back of their own free will

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has refused to rule out sending asylum seekers back to Iraq as the Greens attempt to move a motion demanding a moratorium on returning them while violence in the country escalates.



Morrison says the government will judge each case on its merits but said it would be “strange” to stop Iraqi asylum seekers returning of their own volition.

The Greens immigration spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, will move a motion in the Senate on Wednesday to put a moratorium on returning Iraqi asylum seekers and to allow those in offshore detention centres to apply for protection in Australia.

Under current policy no asylum seeker in offshore detention will be settled in Australia. Hanson-Young estimates there are 500 Iraqi asylum seekers on Manus Island and in Nauru and thousands more in the community on bridging visas.

Morrison said the situation in Iraq was “obviously very concerning” but the overwhelming majority of returned Iraqi asylum seekers did so by choice.

“We will continue to judge every single case on the merits and on the information available to us,” he told ABC Radio National. “...They themselves are the ones who say they wish to return to their own country and I think it would be a strange situation to detain them when they want to go home.”

Morrison dismissed the possibility that escalating violence in Iraq could “push” more people to head for Australia in illegal boats.

“Those people who seek to illegally enter Australia will face the same set of policies that have been in place for the past nine months … the reason I’m confident we’ll be able to do more in this situation is [because of the policies] we’ve freed up 4,000 places on the refugee humanitarian program,” he said.

Hanson-Young questioned whether people were really returning voluntarily or were doing so under coercion after being held in “terrible” conditions in indefinite detention.

“The government is on this chest thumping exercising and boasting about how many people they’re deporting, how many are opting to go home rather than sitting in terrible conditions on Manus, let’s be a little bit humane, a little bit more practical on Iraq,” she told ABC Radio National.

Hanson-Young said asylum seekers were in “limbo” and their processing needed to be quickened.

“There’s all these [Iraqi] people we have here in Australia already, clearly anxious about what’s going on at home, at the very least Australia could be offering sanctuary to those who are already here,” she said.

Figures are not available on how many Iraqi people have returned to the country after attempting to seek asylum in Australia.

