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I attach herewith an article on the issue of asylum seekers in Australia. This issue has been been hotly debated in Australia in particular during the current election campaign.
I hope that you will consider to include it in the Update so that your readers will share the understanding of the issue in the Australian context.
With best wishes,
Richard Wong
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Title: Australia must meet its obligations under international agreements to provide help and refuge to asylum seekers fleeing war and persecution
PART 1:
Australia is having yet another round of its “great refugee/asylum seekers controversy”. Government and Opposition are competing to prove that they are the tougher on “protecting border security” than the other.
Some Australians do have a phobia about the country being overrun by foreigners, refugees, boat people and so on. This negative trend in Australian society winds back through the recent Howard government's ''Pacific Solution'' that involved the incarceration (sorry “processing”) of thousands of asylum seekers on Nauru, then to the upholding of the White Australia Policy into the 1970s and even 1980s, to the endless political dramas over the South Vietnamese refugees who sought a new life in Australia in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, to the Europeans in the 1940s and 1950s fleeing the destruction of World War 2. This ugly, ignorant trend of course goes much further back in Australian history.
Roughly, there are four camps in the current controversy, especially amongst the politicians. They range from the most ugly through to the enlightened and humane.
The most ugly are those who seem to care nothing for those fleeing persecution and torture in the home countries. In a cynical way they don''''t mind stirring and then exploiting these ignorant fears to gather political support around themselves, especially at election time. They often promote false and ridiculous fears about “illegal immigrants”, “boat people and other nasty terms . These people are supposedly massing off-shore seeking to push their way “in”.
Then there are the people themselves who are vulnerable to this manipulation by the ugly. There may be an understanding gap in some about what is happening in many countries and around the world. and amongst the world's peoples. They are overwhelmingly good- hearted people who would put themselves last to help others facing difficulty or adversity. Stories abound of existing Australian communities who welcomed asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants once they came to live down the road. One of the shortcomings of the the current Government, Opposition and some other well established public bodies is that have not yet been able to adequately educate and lead these good people away from the manipulations of the ugly.
There are many important facts asylum-seekers and the refugees and Australia that could be presented much more effectively to the to the Australian public than at present. The well known Melbourne barrister and human rights advocate, Julian Birnside writes in The Age (Tuesday July 6) : “Julia Gillard wants an open debate about refugee policy. Good thing, but let the debate start with the facts. So far this year, just 3500 people seeking asylum have arrived in Australia by boat. This is a very small number. If it keeps up at this rate it would take about 20 years to fill the MCG with boat arrivals.
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