[ad_1]
Sydney:
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday introduced measures to help Hong Kong residents begin a brand new life in Australia, together with extending visas by 5 years, after Beijing imposed a brand new safety legislation on the Asian monetary hub.
Morrison additionally suspended an extradition settlement with Hong Kong. Under the safety legislation Hong Kong suspects will be despatched for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts in mainland China.
Morrison stated the brand new nationwide safety legislation launched final week in Hong Kong was a basic change of circumstances and Australia would droop the extradition settlement.
“There will be citizens of Hong Kong who may be looking to move elsewhere, to start a new life somewhere else, to take their skills, their businesses,” Morrison stated.
He introduced visa measures that will help Hong Kong residents already in Australia to remain. Hong Kong college students who graduate in Australia can have the chance to remain for 5 years and apply for everlasting residency after that point.
Hong Kong residents on short-term work visas in Australia would even be eligible to increase these for 5 years, and later apply for everlasting residency.
Morrison stated there are 10,000 Hong Kong residents in Australia on scholar visas or short-term work visas.
Australia additionally made a pitch for worldwide monetary providers, consulting and media companies with regional headquarters in Hong Kong to relocate to Australia, and stated it could supply incentives and visas packages to relocate workers.
“We want them to look to Australia, to come, to set up shop,” stated appearing immigration minister Alan Tudge.
Australia modified its journey advisory for Hong Kong, the place round 100,000 Australians stay and work, to say “reconsider your need to remain in Hong Kong” if they’re involved in regards to the new legislation.
The journey recommendation for Hong Kong warns Australians “may be at increased risk of detention on vaguely defined national security grounds”.
Hong Kong’s new safety legislation punishes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with international forces with as much as life in jail.
The new legislation has pushed China’s freest metropolis onto a extra authoritarian path and drawn condemnation from some Western governments, legal professionals and rights teams.
Canada final week introduced it could droop its extradition treaty with Hong Kong within the wake of the safety laws and will increase immigration from the previous British colony.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne held a teleconference in a single day together with her counterparts within the Five Eyes safety association, which incorporates the UK, U.S., New Zealand and Canada, about Hong Kong and the brand new safety legislation, Payne and UK international secretary Dominic Raab stated on Twitter.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
[ad_2]
Source link