Originally Posted by
SteveFarmer
Hi
I certainly am reading this thread and your post illustrates my point perfectly "a fair go for all except if you are [insert what you like here]"
I am unemployed. I would like to immigrate to Japan for a better life. Sadly, they will only ship me back home. If I did manage to become a citizen, I would never be allowed to own my own home. There are many, many countries in this world who would not accept me as an economic migrant. Why should Australia be any different?
It is my feeling that the economic migrants are a small minority, but of course there is no way we can verify this. Can you provide any evidence reading the numbers of "economic migrants", a rough percentage perhaps?
Sadly, your feelings are not facts. What I have been told third hand is also not fact but my mate who worked on Christmas Island told me genuine refugees there were processed reasonably quickly and were resettled in Australia. Those who are determined to not be refugees (economic migrants) and those whose identities are not confirmed ( the uncooperative trouble makers who are very probably not refugees) are the ones still in detention, have been for some time and will probably continue to be for some time. As to the percentage, I think it is a moot point as genuine refugees are processed in a timely manner.
A few standard gems came up in this discussion such as "send them back where they came or to the nearest refugee camp". Like the afghan who was sent back to Afghanistan and and killed by the Taliban. This was a documented case but we can be sure there are many more cases we don't know about. Fair go? Not in my view.
Where exactly is the Sri Lankan refugee camp?
The UNHCR convention of which we are signatories have rules and procedures we follow. One of these rules (Article 31) is we cannot expel a refugee if they acted in good faith. "The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence. (Article 31, (1))"
The Afghani refugees, in order to get to Indonesia, have passed through other states that are signatories to the convention and have not presented themselves without delay to the authorities of those states. If they had, those states would be dealing with them as refugees. They (the alleged refugees) have not shown good faith by avoiding those authorities and paying lots of money to Indonesian smugglers to get them into Australia. In my opinion, these people are not as described in article 31 so therefore they should be deported immediately. Luckily for them, I'm not in charge so they get processed off shore and a lot are let into the country
The odd anomaly is not representative of the whole. A copper made a mistake one day and booked me for driving an unregistered vehicle when it was. Does that make all coppers nasty belligerent arse holes who don't know their job? I think not.
Or separating a mother from her newborn baby, how is that a fair go?
Locking people like cattle up in circumstances where large numbers of them are driven to self harm and attempt suicide, how is that a fair go?
True refugees aren't locked up for long. Refer my earlier comment.
If they don't like it, they can alwasy go back as many have done.
Sending women and children to a country with one of the highest rates of rape and violence against women.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
I get the idea. You have not been exposed to the same people relating their experiences I have.
I was drawing a parallel with convicts because in many ways the situation is the same. Desperate people do things even though they know the potential penalties, such as transportation. The vast majority of convicts knew what would happen to them if they were caught, but they committed the crime anyway, out of desperation.
The situation is completely different in different times with different moral values.
Oh and by the way, no one got transportation for life for stealing a loaf of bread, seven years was the standard sentence for that level of crime.
So, everyone went back home after seven years then?
Steve
