A first in the world, Australia has proposed to deny passports to registered sex offenders, prohibiting them from traveling overseas.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan said it would affect about 20,000 offenders who had completed punishments but remained under monitoring by authorities, says a report by the BBC.
However, sex offenders no longer on the register will be allowed to apply for the passport.
"No country has ever taken such decisive and strong action to stop its citizens from going overseas, often to vulnerable countries, to abuse kids," the report has quoted Justce Keenan as saying.
The Australia.com has said that the proposal aims to stop the so called 'child-rape holiday'. The move is a crackdown on sex offenders who travel to 'vulnerable' countries to sexually abuse unsuspecting children.
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Last year, Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis, a 69-year-old Australian citizen was convicted of sexually abusing 16 girls in Indonesia and jailed for 15 years. Ellis allegedly abused street children between the ages of eight and 17 in Bali after giving them cash and gifts, reported the Daily Mail.
