CANBERRA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Australia's border protection policies under former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard should not be reintroduced, the Australian Greens said on Friday.

    Labor scrapped the former government's temporary protection visa regime last year, and eased the strict mandatory detention rules.

    Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the treatment of refugees had been "atrocious" before Labor's changes.

    Australia was the only country with a temporary protection visa regime, that kept genuine refugees in uncertainty, she said.

    "I don't want us to go back ... to the dark days of the Howard regime," she told reporters in Canberra.

    Temporary protection visas were introduced in 1999 to discourage people-smuggling.

    Under the system, refugees had limited access to government financial support and were not allowed to sponsor family members for settlement in Australia. They also needed to reapply for protection visas.

    Labor replaced the visa regime with permanent protection visas.