Australia To Deport Asylum Seekers Who Spit Or Swear, Draft Code Reveals

Australia To Deport Asylum Seekers Who Spit Or Swear

Asylum seekers should be deported for "irritating people, disturbing someone or spitting or swearing in public", according to the leaked draft of an Australia's Behaviour Code.

Immigration minister Scott Morrison announced in December that detainees would have to sign a new code of conduct, and a draft of the draconian code has been leaked to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

Australia has seen a growing number of refugees from Iran, Afghanistan and Burma, as well as immigrants from South East Asia, but has come under fire for some of its harsh policies toward asylum seekers.

Iranian asylum seekers who were caught in Indonesian waters while sailing to Australia, sit on a boat, at Benoa port in Bali

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said penalties "could start with just a warning, you may have your Red Cross payments reduced or stopped all together or you may be placed in detention in Australia or offshore on Nauru and Manus Island."

According to the draft code: “To harass another person means to persistently or continually disturb or irritate them.

"To bully another person means to act in an unwanted or aggressive manner towards them, especially if you are in a more powerful position. Bullying includes making threats, spreading rumours, attacking someone physically or verbally, or excluding someone from a group or place on purpose.

"Antisocial means an action that is against the order of society. This may include damaging property, spitting or swearing in public or other actions that other people might find offensive.”

“Disruptive means to cause disorder or to disturb someone or something.”

The Greens senator Sarah-Hanson Young called it "clear discrimination against a specific group of people and it needs to be called out for what it is.”

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