Australian leader warns of a resurgence in asylum seekers

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s prime minister on Monday warned that thousands of asylum seekers will attempt to reach the country by boat if the opposition party wins elections on May 21.

The annual number of asylum seekers arriving in Australian waters by boat peaked at more than 20,000 in 2013, the year the conservative government was elected and began turning back boats in a military-led policy known as Operation Sovereign Borders.

The government also continued a center-left Labor Party administration’s policy — introduced two months before the election — of banishing boat arrivals to immigration camps on remote Pacific islands. Boat arrivals have since become almost nonexistent.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested his coalition government’s success against the people smuggling trade had inspired Britain’s plan to put some asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda.

“We established Operation Sovereign Borders and it has been one of the most successful border protection policies anywhere in the world. So successful, that other countries are taking their lead from Australia’s successful approach, and why? It’s the humane thing to do,” Morrison said.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has said a Labor government would change the national policy on asylum seekers by getting rid of so-called temporary protection visas.

Refugees among Australia’s formal protection intake are permanently resettled. But those who arrived by boat are given three-year protection visas. The visas can be extended if refugees can’t be returned to their homelands, but critics argue the uncertainty over their futures gets in the way of creating new lives.

Morrison blamed a previous Labor government abolishing three-year refugee visas in 2008 for the surge in boat arrivals that...