How does the rest of
the world perceive Australia’s response to asylum seekers (if the rest of the
world notices at all)? Our current ‘liberal’ (for which read ‘ultra-conservative’
and ‘right wing’) government won the election based (or so they claim) on their
determination to ‘stop the boats’. There seem to be only three elements to this
government’s policy towards asylum seekers: (1) stop the boats; (2) process
these ‘illegal’ asylum seekers off shore (in another country); and (3) never
permit them to settle in Australia.
Let’s assume that
stopping the boats was the best way to put an end to people smuggling (which I
don’t concede—there were and are numerous other approaches); let’s assume,
also, that the policy of turning back boats and off-shore processing has
actually put an end to this illegal trade (both of which are contentious issues,
if for no other reason than the secrecy in which the government shrouds all of
this) ... Assuming both of these things for the sake of argument, surely this
should only ever have been the starting point for developing a positive and
constructive policy for dealing with the vast and catastrophic wave of
migration that the current refugee crisis represents.
We in Australia,
together with other western nations, have contributed significantly to the destabilisation
of the Middle East which has resulted in this growing catastrophe. Surely as a
nation we have a responsibility to do more to address this disaster than to
demonise these refugees, make this someone else’s problem and add more bombs to
the mix in the Middle East.
Do we really think
that this government’s policies have ‘saved lives’ (or were ever intended to)? Even
if this were the case, it is only a (very poor) beginning.
It’s time that this
government stepped up to the plate and did much more to help address this
worldwide crisis. I fear that it lacks both the capacity and the will to do so.
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