Australia is offering Pakistani asylum-seekers in its Pacific immigration camps up to Australian $3,300 if they voluntarily return to their home country, stated a report on Saturday, prompting outrage from refugee campaigners.
It was reported that those returning to Lebanon from detention centres on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the tiny Pacific state of Nauru were offered the highest amount of $10,000 (US$9,400).
Iranians and Sudanese would be given $7,000 if they drop bids for refugee status, Afghans $4,000 and those from Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar $3,300, the report said.
Under the previous Labor administration, in office until September 2013, the payments were much lower, ranging from $1,500 to $2,000.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said “return packages” were standard practice but would not reveal what the maximum payments had been.
“It has been the standard practice for more than a decade for settlement packages to be offered to those who voluntarily return home,” Morrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The packages are tailored individually for every person who decides to voluntarily return home, he said.
Source: pakistantoday.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 