I am a migrant. I have close friends that are refugees.
I see the following debates
- The Cause of the Refugees
- The Processing of Refugees
- The Intake of Refugees
- Our Response to Illegal Migration
This is my policy.
1. The Cause of the Refugees
I firmly believe that we as Australians and as a global community need to firstly look at the root of this problem. This problem is caused by oppressive regimes, cruel leaders and civil unrest. This is where our first response should be.
Countries in this situation should be calling on the world to assist them and we should be on the look out to assist them. Regimes like Zimbabwe should NEVER have been allowed to continue by the world community and it is a disgrace that any developed nation just sits by watching.
The first response has to be the prevention of displaced peoples and that occurs by intervention or assistance.
2. The Processing of Refugees
At the end of the day most political leaders are to weak to take a stand on the cause and the UN has also not been the best example of how to act in these situations. As a result we have to deal with the current reality of refugees and it is unlikely that this will disappear in the future because there will always be evil individuals harming others.
So what do we do. We need to pour money into the UNHCR to ensure that claims are processed quickly, and transparently. But we also need to acknowledge that this is not an easy job. These people often don't have evidence of who they are and country in chaos does not have a priority on these issues. You can never assume that anyone applying for refugee status is actually a refugee.
3. The Intake of Refugees
This is simple we need to increase the number of refugees that we intake on an annual basis and in addition we should have "Emergency Intake Plans" if there is a disaster like what has happened in Sri Lanka.
4. Illegal Immigration
I think that sometimes people forget that what these people are doing is illegal. There is no if buts or maybes. They may be genuine refugees or they may not be but they are not going through the right channels (and as I said these channels need to be improved).
It is a privilege to live in Australia not a right and this is true of any country and as such they should be detained.
I think the solution of housing them in a facility that is better than most low socio-economic families live in Australia is not inhuman. Is detaining them for long periods of time desirable? NO. Again this process should be transparent and quick.
These are my unarticulated thoughts.
Interesting thoughts Chris. I'm not sure that pouring money into a toothless tiger is the best bet.
ReplyDeleteI think we should, as a nation full of people with "illegal immigrant" ancestory (because lets face it - the early settlers were essentially illegal immigrants), be erring on the side of compassion.
Besides, it shows a degree of entrepreneurial boldness to arrive on our shores in a boat. Most boat people have had to raise significant capital in order to travel via the blackmarket.
While it is a privilege to live in Australia this doesn't by necessity mean that it's only for the privileged (as decided by government).
Maybe we should be encouraging boat people to bring proper documentation so that they can be processed quickly... the problem is that genuine refugees are likely not to have this paperwork.
It's interesting that the tide is turning on Rudd because he hasn't been compassionate enough - Howard's hardline approach seems to be on the nose second time round...
I think it's important to differentiate between asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. I think the media has done the entire issue a disservice by branding illegal asylum seekers as illegal immigrants, because 90% of illegal immigrants in Australia are from the US and UK, overstaying visas. (Well, that was the stat back in 2003). For the majority, they're not "boat people".
ReplyDeleteIt might be a disgrace to sit by and watch what happens in Zimbabwe, but some would say the same about sitting by and watching Saddam Hussein in Iraq. And look what invading Iraq did for George W Bush and John Howard's popularity. I agree that something needs to be done about Mugabe, but it's a bit of societal hypocrisy that we (as a society) demand something be done about these outrageous dictators, then decry the invasion of another country.
In response to Nathan's comment, I don't think the tide is turning on Rudd due to his "lack of compassion". The tide is turning on him due to his indecision. He's dancing around the issue, not game to allow them into Australia (because then his supposed hard line stance against illegal immigration will fall flat on its face) but also not willing to send them to Indonesia because they (they Tamils onboard the Oceanic Viking, at any rate) have virtually hijacked the ship and are blackmailing the Australian government by threatening suicide if they are not brought to Australia. I don't think those people deserve any compassion. Most asylum seekers do, but what genuine asylum seeker would threaten suicide rather than being diverted to Indonesia? It's not like they're being sent home (yet). Isn't the whole idea of fleeing to Australia to avoid death?? They're blackmailing the Australian government and that's just not on.
Illegal asylum seekers annoy me at the best of times but I do understand they often feel they have no other choice, and often they are conned into believing the people smugglers have actually organised for them to legitimately migrate to Australia. (I tend to think you're a bit stupid if you think a country is going to allow you in without legitimate identification, but then also think ignorance is probably not a good reason to condemn someone to possible death by being stuck in somewhere like Sri Lanka or Afghanistan or wherever). But these Tamils on the Oceanic Viking don't seem quite that naive.
Processing of all sorts of migration visas, not just refugees, needs to be sped up. It took them two years to process the visas for Andre's family to come to Australia, and that was just to come here, not their applications for permanent residency or citizenship. His grandparents have also been granted a bridging visa, a visa that lets them stay here for ten years while their application for a permanent visa is processed. The very idea that such a "bridging" visa needs to last ten years is a suggestion of the terrible delays in processing visa applications in Australia. Granted they rarely take ten years, but one woud think that period of time has been selected for a reason.