Australia on Friday further tightened its immigration laws, introducing controversial temporary visas for refugees that offer no rights to permanent settlement.

The amendments to the Migration Act were narrowly passed in the lower house on Friday after a stormy late-night debate in the upper house Senate.

The "temporary protection visas" grant refugees admission for up to three years but do not give them the right to settle in Australia for good. They could be returned to their home country at the end of that period.