Morrison warns high-risk refugees: Don’t come here on medevac, you’ll be locked up

Refugees will be warned today they will be trading sunbaking on a beach for a jail cell on Christmas Island as their disturbing “rap sheets” are revealed in a bid to target Labor’s medevac Bill.

DEPRAVED refugees will be warned today they will be trading sunbaking on a beach for a jail cell on Christmas Island as their disturbing “rap sheets” are revealed.

As a strident Prime Minister Scott Morrison warns asylum seekers not to chance coming to Australia under Labor’s medevac Bill, medical facilities on Manus Island and Nauru are reporting that asylum seekers who have never reported illnesses before are now presenting with chronic conditions.

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They include those who have pulled out of the US pathway resettlement scheme.

Mr Morrison will today tour the North West Point facility – the high-fenced, razor wire section on Christmas Island detention centre – to show asylum seekers, who have triggered a negative security rating, where they will be housed if they try to come to Australia for medical treatment. Under Labor’s Bill, asylum seekers who come for medical treatment only needed to be in “detention”, which includes being able to live on mainland Australia in the community.

The message from Mr Morrison – the first Prime Minister ever to visit the Christmas Island detention centre – comes as a clearer criminal history of those on Manus Island and Nauru can be exposed. At least 57 men have sparked concerns from Australian security agencies.

The North West Point detention centre on Christmas Island.

The high-risk men from Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan have been charged with or accused of engaging in paedophilia in their home country or while on Manus Island or Nauru. Others are facing serious allegations of drug running, money laundering or sympathising with terrorists.

It comes as The Courier-Mail can reveal the US has knocked back 272 asylum seekers on security grounds. A further 95 asylum seekers have pulled out of the US visa pathway.

Mr Morrison’s tour is a direct message to asylum seekers. Security agencies have long warned how attuned refugee advocates and people smugglers are to border security matters. There are no asylum seekers locked up on Manus Island or Nauru. They are all living in the community.

The Government is now expecting a flood of asylum seekers to claim they have medical conditions because under Labor’s Bill, which now has Royal Assent, they cannot be forcibly returned.

Mr Morrison will double down on his rhetoric to warn that the risk to Australians was too great to have some asylum seekers roaming the community.

“Due to Labor’s decision to weaken border protection, the Government has no choice but to reopen Christmas Island detention facilities,’’ Mr Morrison told The Courier-Mail last night.

“Advice from security and intelligence agencies indicate a large number of single male transferees living on Manus Island and Nauru are preparing to use the loopholes in Labor’s Medicvac Bill to come to Australia.

“Our priority remains to protect the integrity of our border protection regime, to ensure the boats do not start up again and that we keep Australians safe.”

He accused “Bill Shorten’s Law” of putting Australians’ safety at risk.

“That is why I have decided that all transferees who we consider a risk will be placed in the high security detention facilities at Christmas Island,” he said.

“We can’t have those suspected of violence, sexual crimes and abuse, including against children, to be walking the streets in Australia, as Bill Shorten would have them do.”

Security in the facility was beefed up when the government housed former prisoners and those accused of crimes – mostly Kiwis – who had breached visas.

Originally published as Morrison warns high-risk refugees: Don’t come here on medevac, you’ll be locked up