The Australian prime minister warned on Monday (April 18) that thousands of asylum seekers would try to get into the country by boat if the opposition party wins the election on May 21.


The annual number of asylum seekers arriving in Australian waters rose to more than 20,000 in 2013, the year the Conservative government was elected and military boats began to return with a policy known as Operation Sovereign Borders.

The government is also pushing for a Labor Party policy - introduced two months before the election - to ban ships from arriving in remote immigration camps on the Pacific islands. The arrival of ships is almost zero.


Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated that the success of his coalition government against human trafficking has inspired the British plan to direct some asylum seekers to a single trip to Rwanda. "We have established Operation Sovereign Borders and it is one of the most successful border protection policies in the world. It has been so successful that other countries are successfully leading in Australia, and why? It's a human thing," Morrison said.


Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the Labor government would change its national policy towards asylum seekers by abolishing the so-called temporary protective visa.


Refugees amid formal protection use in Australia are permanently housed. But those who arrived aboard were given three-year visa protection. Visas may be extended if refugees cannot return to their homeland, but critics say uncertainty about their future is preventing the creation of a new life.


Morrison accused the former Labor government of canceling a three-year refugee visa in 2008 due to the increase in ship arrivals that followed. In 2008, there were only 161 asylum seekers. But the following year more than 2700 and in 2010 6500. "I know that when Labor canceled temporary protective visas in 2008, a fleet of people smuggling boats arrived in Australia and that was the starting point," Morrison said.


Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul, a Melbourne refugee lawyer, accused Morrison of "fearing" the need for temporary visas, which do not give refugees the same right to permanent visas.


Australia's tough refugee policy has been criticized by the UN and human rights groups.

Indonesia has condemned the Australian Navy for returning asylum seekers' ships to Indonesian ports as a violation of Indonesian sovereignty.


Some smuggling crews devised tactics to sabotage their overcrowded fishing boats after being detained by patrol boats, forcing Australian crews to save them from sinking. Australian ships resisted by placing these asylum seekers and crews in powered lifeboats, which were then towed off the Indonesian coast and left behind with enough fuel to reach the coast.


The Anglican Church leader this week sharply criticized the British government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying the "closure of our duties" to refugees could not be controlled by God.


The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, took unusual political action in his sermon on Easter Sunday, saying that there were "serious ethical issues regarding the sending of asylum seekers abroad."


Labor has led the government in most opinion polls in recent months. The government is aiming for a remarkable fourth term of three years.