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| Down Under |
| Religion factored in to refugee policy: PM |
| 2005-03-21 |
| The Government's immigration policy contains no Christianity-specific clauses but must take religious conversions into account, Prime Minister John Howard says. The cases of 30 of Australia's longest-serving immigration detainees are under review, some of them because they have converted to another religion, including Christianity, since arriving in the country. Mr Howard says the Government's policy is always under review, although there will be no major changes. He says that while the policy is not biased in favour of Christians, concerns about religious persecution are taken into account. "We're not in the business of saying 'well we're going to give a special preference'," Mr Howard said. "We are nonetheless concerned when people can demonstrate that by dint of having embraced a particular belief they may suffer persecution if they go back to a particular country - that's always been there." "The idea that we've introduced something that is peculiar only to people that convert to Christianity, that's not correct," Mr Howard added. More conversions Labor's Laurie Ferguson is sceptical. "To basically have a situation here now where a great possibility is given to those people who convert, I think we're going to find a few more conversions quiet frankly," Mr Ferguson said. Federal Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown says the religious preference of immigration detainees is not relevant to their case to remain in Australia. Senator Brown says religion is only relevant if it is the reason detainees have been persecuted. "If we're going to have people being kept in Australia because of one religious belief, we should have people kept in Australia because of any religious belief," he said. "The rule here is humanity, not the religious belief of some of those poor people who are facing export to countries where they face punishment." The chairman of the Family First Party, Peter Harris, has also questioned the review of immigration detainees who have converted to Christianity. Mr Harris is concerned some detainees may convert just so they can stay in Australia. "Let's not underestimate persecution that occurs in different countries but I think that if the Government makes decisions on the basis of religion as opposed to having a process of compassion and expediency, there are some real dangers in causing people to go down that pathway," he said. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |