Published by The Brisbane Times
Doing the right thing can end boats hysteria
01/12/2011
The story said
The media plays an enormous role in shaping reactions to the absurdity and the tragedy of asylum-seeker politics. Misleading, xenophobic and exaggerated terms cloud the issue. People arriving by boat to Australia are not the illegal immigrants. They are quite often genuinely seeking asylum, a right that they legally had. Comparatively, little attention is given to the almost 60,000 people living here without valid visas. The numbers are not comparable, yet the media makes out that it is a “flood” of boat arrivals, when really it is a trickle. The largely unremarked presence of immigrants arriving by plane in to Australia shows how little impact the release of boat arrivals will have, even more so as they undergo more stringent checks than most who overstay visas and asylum seekers who arrive by air. The mandatory detention of arrivals is a huge fiscal issue for the nation and for tax-payers with the Immigration Department’s average cost per detainee was $137,317, compared with $10,400 per person released in the community, not to mention the human costs of almost one suicide a month, 1500 annual hospitalizations and hundreds of cases of self-harm. Minister Chris Bowen’s proposal to raise the figure to 20,000 is long overdue; with a regional approach to resettlement is the fairest and safest way to manage refugees. Moreover, the best way to tackle the issue is to take in more refugees from the camps where people smugglers operate. Despite the High Court’s decision to rethink the Malaysia deal and on offshore processing, government has been hesitant to do so, reluctant to treat air and boat arrivals the same. Embracing a principled, practical and affordable policy will help to end the hysteria.
Did you know
Amnesty International Australia, as well as a number of groups and people are seeking to change the tone of conversations surrounding asylum-seekers in Australia. Knowing the facts is important. It is not illegal to seek asylum in Australia, even if you are arriving by boat. Australia is a signatory to the Refugee Convention, and as such has an obligation to process all asylum seekers that arrive in Australian territory in Australia. In Australia there are 1.1 refugees for every 1000, far from a “flood”. Boat arrivals make up less than 2% of total immigration in Australia. The infinite mandatory detention of people is inhumane, dangerous and a human rights violation, as is an ad-hoc regional Malaysian solution, especially as Malaysia is not signatory to the Refugees Convention. The key to stopping boats is not a policy change, but working towards long term human rights improvements around the world.
