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Illegal Immigrants warned not to travel to Australia

PESHAWAR: Australian Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Philip Ruddock on Saturday warned the illegal immigrants not to travel to Australia without valid visa and documents as tough penalties have been introduced against illegal immigrants.

"Don't believe what the people smugglers say", said, the Australian Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs while addressing a press conference here at a local hotel.

The Australian minister for immigration said, he was on a five-nation tour to hold discussion with his counterparts over the issue of smuggling.

"Very few people from Pakistan", he agreed who travelled to Australia without proper documents while the major bulk come from Iraq and Afghanistan, most probably because of economic reasons.

He also dwelt upon the difficulties faced by the illegal immigrants while travelling to Australia through boats which he said, also involved life risk besides other financial losses.

He recalled that nine Afghan nationals and a Chinese who were travelling with forged documents, died on their way to Australia when their boat capsized due to heavy cyclone.

The Immigration Minister contended that Pakistan is used as a transit route by the illegal immigrants belonging to Afghanistan.

He said, he came here to address these issues with the Pakistani authorities and added that he would hold further talks with the Pakistan officials on coming Monday and Tuesday as well on the issues of peoples smuggling.

To a question, Philip Ruddock told that the government was very active on this issue and making all out efforts to combat this illegal practice with full might.

He said, Australia is one of the few countries who take immigrants and it (Australia) had a comprehensive immigration programme and added that "we preferably take younger people with specialised skills."

The immigration policy, he said, is consisted of three categories namely humanitarian programme, close family relations and skilled immigration programme. APP