Australia jettisons islands

last updated 8 January 2015

Canberra

Fed up with boat people claiming asylum on outlying Australian territories, the Australian government has declared some 4,000 tiny islands to be no longer under its sovereignty. The government passed an emergency regulation booting the islands out of Australia this week after a boatload of immigrants landed on Melville Island; the decree was retroactive to 12 hours before the immigrants touched shore.“These islands are just a stone’s throw from Indonesia and a convenient dropping-off center for people smugglers to land their cargo,” said Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone. But opposition spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said Parliament would seek to overturn the decree. “We don’t think you have to surrender your territory to adequately handle this issue,” Roxon said.