The PLPRU has made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s Inquiry into the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014. Alex Reilly wrote this submission jointly with Libby Hogarth of Australian Migration Options, a migration agent company based in Adelaide. The Director, Libby Hogarth, has assisted asylum seekers for the past 22 years both in the community and in detention. In this submission, we raised concerns about changes to the Migration Act and Regulations which removed reference to the Refugee Convention from the Migration Act, and incorporated new more restrictive interpretations of Australia’s protection obligations into the Act. The submission also raised concerns about replacing permanent protection visas with temporary protection visas, and new application processes which allowed for the ‘fast-tracking’ of some applications, and the removal or truncating of merits review of initial decisions in the Refugee Review Tribunal.

The submission can be viewed on the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee website (click here).