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News Release

8/68

FROM THE MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION

PRESS STATEIV NT BY THE IriIiIIST ,R FOR IN111'IIGRATION THE HON B ,fl._ Sr?EDiM 7, Q.C., M2.P.

Following the announcement of Australian Government

financial assistance for Sicilian earthquake victims, the Minister

for Immigration, Mr. Snedden, said today that he had made special

arrangements for speedy consideration of all applications for

migration to Australia from people in the stricken area.

"I have instructed the Australian Migration Office in Rome

to send teams of migration officers, medical officers and inter-preters to Sicily to handle applications for migration," Mr. Snedden said.

"A number of people in the area had already applied before the earthquake.

"Others had been thinking about migration and this dislocation

to their lives will have advanced their plans.

"With the concurrence of the Italian G overnment eligible people will be offered assisted passages.

"Applicants will be considered on their individual merits

but naturally full emphasis will be given to humanitarian factors

and the reality of their plight.

"The immediate dispatch of our immigration teams to the

area will be a practical way of assisting these people with the

prospect of a new future in Australia, as quickly as possible, after the disaster which has left them at a crossroads in their lives,"

Mr. Snedden said.

It could not be known yet how many applications would be

handled in the earthquake area.

Department of Immigration, CANBr EA. A.C.T.

18 January 1968.

