| 13 November, 2009 | ||
| 5:30 pm | to | 6:30 pm |
I know that many people have different opinions on this issue but I thought I’d pass this on anyway:
Instead of bringing refugees picked up by an Australian Customs ship to Australia, the Government has tried for four weeks to force them to get off in Indonesia. Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN Convention and Protocol on Refugees. Its time Australia met our obligation and processed these people efficiently, rather than spending millions locking them up in various places.
This rally calls for action now to treat these people humanely and expeditiously.
The details are as follows:
5:30pm Friday 13 November 2009
Petrie Plaza, Civic (near the Merry Go Round)
Speakers Include:
Will Mudford, Unions ACT
Amanda Besnan, Greens MLA
And an Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations spokesperson
Good on you, Amanda Bresnan, and good on you unions! Glad to see people standing up and speaking out!
Greens jumping on the Bandwagon – how unusual. Send the lot back to Sri Lanka.
Send these undesirables back to Sri Lanka.
It’s time we met our obligations?
You need a geography lesson champion
Wait…
Did you just say these people are our obligation? They’re not. We saved their lives when their boat sank, the fact they’re on our boat doesn’t make them our obligation.
Why are there so many “basic human rights” screams when these people are detained for trying to enter our country in an illegal way? If they want to migrate to Australia they can do it legally. I’m all for basic human rights, but if that’s what they want, they don’t have to come specifically here. According to them, anywhere is better than where they came from.
If they were seriously just trying to leave their own country in fear of persecution they would be happy to stay anywhere. If they don’t want to take another alternative, send them back.
Refugees are not illegal immigrants. This is not rocket science.
Enough is enough already. How long is the PM going to keep them there and how much money is he going to spend just to save a bit of face?
1000 boat people arriving illegally on boats is small stuff compared to the 10s of 1000s that overstay their tourist visas or work here illegally.
These boat people, typically, are sufficiently cashed up to:
a) pay in cash the people smugglers to bring them to Australia; and
b) pay for food and housing (and in some cases entertainment as well) for sometimes several months in Malaysia or Indonesia while waiting for their spot.
Less than 5% of the people who turn up in this way pass the UN for political refugees. Send them on their way, and stop wasting Australian dollars on them.
I make this comment based on professional experience.
The UN test, that is…
Over 90% of people who turn up in this way pass australia’s test for refugee status. Surely we’re not that much more generous than the UN?
Let them in. Sri Lanka is a mess right now. Kids are dying in those camps.
Deckard said :
+1
considering they were rescued in indonesian waters calling them australias problem is a bit rich, although they are our problem now because they won’t get off the bloody boat
I feel sorry for the refugees in the camps around the world who would like to come to Australia and did the right thing stopping in the closest country and claiming refugee status, living in the UN camps, waiting to see if australia will take them but finding out that we have met our humanitarian immigration quota for the year and they miss out due to these queue jumpers.
better luck next year guys
How are the people languishing in refugee camps in Indonesia feeling right now I wonder – being pushed off the queue by the 12-week guarantee afforded to the 78? Complete and utter routing of Rudd by these people. “Tough stance”? What could be more encouraging for asylum seekers and illegal migrants who fancy trying their chances on a boat? And – mwa ha ha – Rudd doesn’t even get to swear at them! : )
Why do they want to be refugees in Australia? Because we have a soft Government. No-one wants these people, not NZ, not India. Lets face it Tamils casued a lot of problems in Sri Lanka and I am sure they will bring their tribal shite fights to our shores too if we are not careful.
Enough is enough already. How long is the PM going to keep them there and how much money is he going to spend just to save a bit of face?
$42K a day, apparently. So we’re just up over the million dollar mark at present.
Yeah, those dirty foreigners coming here, taking our jobs, stealing our women, breathing our air.
They should stay in foreignland, in those lovely holiday camps the kind foreign governments have set up for them, where they get treated to fun free activity’s such as rape, persecution, brutal assaults and genocide.
Freeloading queue jumping terrorists, the lot of them, especially the children, can’t trust them…. they eat weird food too and smell funny.
Send em back, the Sri Lankan government are a lovely sweet hearted bunch of people and they promised they would buy them all cakes and soda pop if they came home.
$42k a day is nothing compared to Howard’s “Pacific (Final) Solution”…. Australia has an obligation because we were closer and able to respond. What were the options – leave them to sink? Are you prepared to have blood on your hands by making that decision?
The reality is that the vast majority of boat people ARE deemed to be genuine refugees under both UNHCR and Australian criteria. The problem needs to be resolved in Sri Lanka, enable human rights there and you wouldn’t get people risking their lives to leave their homes and families. In the mean time, we have the capacity to take 100’s – yes, even 1000’s of people who genuinely need help. Australia welcomes many thousands of economic migrants every year – they’re the ones with the money. If these Sri Lankans were really cashed up they wouldn’t have to take this kind of risky journey, there are much easier ways to get to Australia for some people.
I-filed said :
What queue?
Dude, seriously. There is no queue.
Ralph said :
Any particular reason you state that they are undesireable? First hand knowledge or just the standard Ralph prejudice?
colourful sydney racing identity said :
Anyone with the guts and determination to try to escape a country whose government is labelled as being the “world’s worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances” is clearly undesirable.
Ralph only wants mindless, easily-led sheeple in this country.
If I could keep everyone I viewed as ‘undesireable’ out of the country and if I could remove everyone I viewed as ‘undesireable’ from the country, I would be really, really, really lonely.
Funnily, the vast majority of refos entering Australia (approx 90%) simply fly in! Why does the mode of transport (boat) seem to worry some people so much? What have Australians got against boats? I love my boat.
I think the average Australian is just a bit too average, particularly in IQ anyway. Let the poor buggers come straight in on a time limit basis, so basically they can escape what ever it is that’s threatening them for say 5 years max, then they have to go. Or as John Howard once said “See ya – wouldn’t want to be ya!”
Granny said :
Really? Do you just assume people asking for money on the street are actually homeless ‘coz they say they are? You’d be out of pocket a fair amount right?
georgesgenitals said :
So we’ve got some people saying “less that 5% pass” others saying “the vast majority pass” – any stats to back it up? Would probably be an interesting read (I’m a bit too lazy this morning).
Once they pass the test, let them in. Just because their boat sank and they’re being ungrateful sods by not leaving doesn’t mean they should bypass the system.
They’ve already tried to do it illegally once, why are we supposed to bend the rules for them after they tried to break them?
I urge detractors to read this article.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/90-of-asylum-seekers-win-refugee-status-20090422-af2d.html
this article says 90% of boat people are accepted as refugees.
^ awesome links. Thankyou.
My point still stands, once they pass the test, let them in. More than happy for them to come to safety once given refugee status.
Post #23 – here’s the facts regarding the asylum seekers who were placed on Manus Is and Nauru with 70% ultimately deemed to be genuine refugees:
“A total of 1637 people were detained in the Nauru and Manus facilities, of whom 1153 (or 70 per cent) were ultimately resettled from the OPCs to Australia or other countries. Of those who were resettled, around 61 per cent (705 people) were resettled in Australia”.
Thanks to Senator Chris Evans
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
Media Release dated Friday, 8 February 2008
georgesgenitals said :
87.5% of statistics are made up on the spot.
I make this comment based on professional experience.
Granny said :
Equally, not all unlawful arrivals (all them what you will) are bona fide refugees.
Want to put more stress on the Australian environment. Just let everyone move here!!
The Greens have a conflict of interest that they need to sort out before being a serious alternative, environmentally centred government.
Maybe the Greens should change there name too…….?
Pandy Said
“Why do they want to be refugees in Australia? Because we have a soft Government. No-one wants these people, not NZ, not India. Lets face it Tamils casued a lot of problems in Sri Lanka and I am sure they will bring their tribal shite fights to our shores too if we are not careful.”
“I say”, The Tamils sided with the British rulers of Ceylon for a 150yrs and lived a privileged life. While exploiting the the Sri lankains.
What goes round comes round.
uniqueusername said :
I for one could not read that article without being moved. The reality of this debate is that most people form their opinions in a vaccum, and defend a particular position that has so many alternative views, that it really is indefencible.
Alternative views are great, help the debate, and help people get a clearer perspective. But when we adopt a “I’m right and everyone else is an idiot” stance, conflict reigns supreme.
Respect for a different point of view would help enourmously, and a recognition that those in decision making position are between a rock and a hard place, where every decision could be argued as correct, or totally wrong.
Lets not suppress the debate, but lets bring respect, tolerance, and curiosity to understand others views into our reality.
Coach said :
Perhaps you could re-post this very good comment into the thread about gay marriage.
I worked on multicultural and refugee issues for years. I was also a member of the Indochinese Refugee Association. I sponsored and looked after two Laotian families who I helped bring to Canberra. Both families were in UN Refugee camps for years. Despite Granny’s assertion about there being no queue, both these families would have had to wait a lot longer as a result of people like these Tamils jumping in first after paying people smugglers. My Laotian families would not have been able to afford to pay people smugglers.
Having helped them in to Australia I assisted in getting them jobs and accommodation which meant they were not a drain on Social Security. They worked in the hospital system which badly needs people like them.
I feel this last lot are holding Australia to ransom, have more or less hijacked a customs boat which should be doing its normal duties, and are not that different from Somali pirates.
Like the wishy-washy response to the pirates, which simply resulted in more piracy, giving into the demands of the Tamils will simply increase the flow of those using people smugglers. Saying just let these ones in shows absolutely no thought as to what this could lead to.
I wish the bleeding hearts in this forum, who probably have actually done nothing practical in relation to assisting refugees apart from typing on a computer, would get real.
Incidentally, I am a born and bred Aussie and was not trying to assist family into the country when sponsoring refugee families.
sloppery said :
+1
If these people are really refugees how can they afford the cars and pit crews to go rallying?
pb, having money does not detract from being a refugee – i wish this argument would go away and die somewhere quietly. in fact, many persecuted in the world have been more persecuted than some of their community peers because they were/are seen to be wealthy…
as jim jones points out, there is no queue and, if we think about it, what sort of types do we want coming to australia? go-getters, self-starters, motivated folk with some gumption and verve and some ingenuity and resolve to push through motivation and plans by some means? well, these ‘queue-jumping boat scoundrels’ are your folks, folks.
and +2 to coach…
I think they should have to go home and fix the mess they made in their own country rather than run away from it and create another mess here. “HUMANS ARE NOT AN ENDANGERED SPECIES” you know.
How can we house them when we can’t even house our own people?
“I think they should have to go home and fix the mess they made in their own country rather than run away from it and create another mess here.”
I really don’t understand this concept. It is not like they are wanting to move from O’Connor to Bondi because they want a sea view.
People leave countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka because of war, persecution, famine etc etc.
““HUMANS ARE NOT AN ENDANGERED SPECIES””
What a bizarre comment.
billyboy said :
this is a very naive (i hope not xenophobic and bigoted) comment – the persecuted are hardly the likely suspects to foment political change; perhaps others might foment radical transformation of their government on their behalf, but the ones at risk of persecution do well to flee such troubles, not ‘fix the mess’ – oh, and i don’t think these refugees ‘made’ it.
Is there a Sri Lankan embassy? Let’s just drop them off there.
You see Aussies feel pretty safe on the whole.. Feel their country would or could never persecute/starve the people or have a war, internal or otherwise. Well derr, shit happens!
Wake up.. if it was you escaping the horrors of genocide/war, here’s to hoping your karma doesn’t notice also when you’re at the crossroads of life for those who shun the very thought now.
sloppery said :
Ah, that is sensible. I like the way you think. Perhaps if a child runs away from home alleging sexual abuse by her parents we should make sure she is dropped back home, post haste.
Hells_Bells74 said :
+1
“I’m alright, so screw those untrustworthy foreigners” never struck me as a particularly compelling foundation for debate about refugee intake.
“HUMANS ARE NOT AN ENDANGERED SPECIES” you know.
As an environmentalist (and not a philanthropist) all of us must realize (sooner or later lets hope) that the world as we know it is in a state of rapid decay brought about by overpopulation by one of the most terrifying, destructive, thoughtless and careless species this planet has ever had the misfortune of hosting – sadly I’m one of the that species, and if you’re reading this so are you.
We shouldn’t be using GMOs to support this growing species with food, or provide housing, or cars, or mobile phones, we should in fact be looking at cutting the human population back to 1 billion, and we could easily do this by the end of one and a half generations. If we don’t tackle this problem head on, then all will be lost.
All these refugees are a problem caused by over population, to put it in simple terms for the naive “humanitarians” out there who are driving the destruction of the only place in the universe we can survive, how about thinking a little bit broader than you do now, ok?
If wanting to save our planet from destruction makes me a xenophobe, well then maybe the term xenophobe needs broadening.
billyboy said :
You are travelling in a very, very scary direction Billyboy…dog whistling population control of particular people…very, very scary
billyboy said :
So we let the poor foreign people die while we kick back and live it up.
Nice plan.
colourful sydney racing identity said :
Have these refugees been sexually abused? That’s terrible.
billyboy said :
Adolf? Is that you?