I’m a White, Christian, Male and PM Ben, I don’t Lie. Ask Peter Costello at Ch9, your paymaster Ben. Besides The Age says their poll also implies Australians think I’m still more trusted than Albo. (Morrison)
Human rights advocates have criticised the prime minister, Scott Morrison, after he wrongly claimed those held in detention in Australia for as long as eight years had not been recognised as refugees
Morrison was asked by presenter Ben Fordham how it was “acceptable” that refugees in the same hotel as Djokovic had been detained for almost nine years with taxpayers spending millions of dollars “to keep them in limbo.” In response, Morrison suggested the detainees were not refugees. “Well, the specific cases, Ben, I mean, it’s not clear that to my information that someone in that case is actually a refugee,” he said. “They may havesought asylum and been found not to be a refugee and have chosen not to return, and … that happens in this country, people aren’t found to be refugees and they won’t return.”
But Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian that most of those held in the Park hotel had been granted refugee status.
“It’s an outright lie to say that these people are not refugees, when most of them have had their refugee status formally recognised for years,” Pearson said.
“They’ve been through that process and it is established that they simply can’t return to their country.”
olddogthoughts 