Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton claimed on Tuesday that “illiterate and innumerate” refugees would take local jobs.

“They won’t be numerate or literate in their own language, let alone English. These people would be taking Australian jobs, there’s no question about that,” he told Sky News when asked about the proposed increase in the humanitarian intake quota.

“For many of them that would be unemployed, they would languish in unemployment queues … and the rest of it so there would be huge cost and there’s no sense in sugar-coating that, that’s the scenario,” he said.

The comments drew intense reactions from Labor and the small left-wing opposition Greens Party, which is arguing for the intake quota to be increased to 50,000 people, as Reuters reports.

Border security and immigration in recent years have been major political issues in Australia and have influenced elections.

The number of refugees attempting to reach Australia is relatively low compared to the numbers in Europe and the United Nations has criticized Australia’s detention camps, where two refugees set themselves on fire to protest leading to the death of one man.