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Mr Dutton continued his attack on Labor last week, claiming in parliament: “It is unprecedented … that our government would allow people from a war zone controlled by a listed terrorist organisation, Hamas … (to enter) our country – frankly, in the current circumstances, even as refugees and people in the humanitarian programme – let alone on tourist visas without proper checks.”
The comments cast doubt on whether Dutton supports any humanitarian plan for people fleeing Gaza, but when asked on Friday whether the coalition was calling for a ban on all refugees, opposition home affairs spokesman James Patterson said that was not the case.
During the two weeks Parliament was sitting, the Coalition stepped up its attacks on Australian government security checks. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
However, Mr Rizvi said the comments “demonstrated how little Mr Dutton knew about history”.
“It is completely untrue that we are jeopardizing national security by issuing visitor visas. Here’s why: no category of immigrants in our history has ever been subject to more scrutiny than this group of immigrants that I can recall,” he said, noting People have passed through Israeli and Egyptian checkpoints You will be subject to Australian Border Force inspection upon arrival.
The Palestinian Authority’s mission to Australia also issued a statement this weekend seeking to “set the facts straight and refute misinformation … including claims that individuals from Gaza pose a threat to national security, which is without any credible evidence”.
The report noted that only 1,300 visa holders successfully arrived in Australia, and said “it is worth noting that visa refusals were mainly due to the Australian government’s restrictive visa policies rather than security concerns.”
The agency’s survey of 230 adults seeking consular services showed that 80% had a high school education or above, 75% were Muslims and 25% were Christians.
The Home Office confirmed that between October 7 and August 19 last year, 2,935 visas were granted to Palestinians, while 7,150 were refused – an increase of 13 visas granted and 39 visas refused since the last round of data released on August 12. Of the visas granted, 892 were to children.
A spokesman said 43 Palestinians had their visas cancelled outside Australia “because new information came to the department’s attention after the visa was granted” – a number that remained unchanged in the week ending August 19.
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The spokesman confirmed that all Palestinians granted visas had links to Australia and said the country had a “tiered approach” to border security.
They said: “All persons are subject to numerous routine checks during their journey to Australia and upon entry… The Government’s security screening process draws on information from a number of sources including, but not limited to, information provided on the application form, departmental alerts, alerts from other agencies and intelligence provided by other countries.”
“It would be inappropriate to set out the full details of the security screening process as this could jeopardise the effectiveness of the process and our ability to access information in the future.”
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the federal government had once again “failed to provide clarity on what is happening”.
Rizvi said the Home Office figures “sound like the rejection rate is high, but other than that it’s business as usual”.
Israel’s war in Gaza, sparked by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 250, has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
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