Key facts
- Senator Malcolm Roberts stated One Nation wants to deport 100,000 temporary residents and 100,000 international students.
- Roberts repeatedly used the term 'remigration' in interviews and speeches.
- One Nation's official policy website pledges to deport 75,000 illegal migrants.
- Pauline Hanson expressed enthusiasm for 'mass deportation'.
- Experts describe 'remigration' as a far-right concept linked to forced removal and ethnic cleansing.
Senator Malcolm Roberts of Australia's One Nation party has publicly stated the party's intention to deport a significantly higher number of individuals than its official policy suggests. In recent podcast interviews, Roberts claimed One Nation aims to remove approximately 100,000 temporary residents and 100,000 international students who are in the country illegally. He repeatedly used the term 'remigration' to describe these deportations, a concept that has drawn criticism for its association with far-right and white supremacist ideologies.
Roberts' statements suggest a deportation target of at least 200,000 people, exceeding the party's published policy of deporting 75,000 illegal migrants. He indicated a desire to 'get rid of them straight away' and 'start working on the higher numbers of people we need to get rid of.' These comments follow comments by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who expressed enthusiasm for 'mass deportation' after meeting with the leader of a hard-right British party.
Experts have raised concerns about the feasibility and cost of such large-scale deportations. Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the immigration department, described the operation as 'eyewateringly expensive' and prone to significant errors, noting that Australia deports far fewer people annually. The term 'remigration' itself has been defined by analysts as a white supremacist policy concept advocating for the forced removal of immigrants and their descendants based on race or perceived lack of assimilation, a characterization that Roberts has used in speeches and which has been praised by white supremacist media outlets.