CPA - The Guardian

Over 1,300 asylum seekers are now being detained on Christmas Island. The prison-like high security facility is reported to be filling fast and still the boats arrive. The Opposition has started to “dog whistle” about toughening up entry requirements for the desperate people setting out for Australian shores onboard aging wooden fishing vessels from Indonesia. The Coalition is keen to keep public sympathy away from the refugees who come from conflicts raging in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to them, people smugglers are responsible for disturbing the peace off our northern coast.

Opposition spokeswoman Sharmane Stone claims that the scrapping of temporary protection visas last year has sent the message that Australia is soft on illegal immigration. Immigration Minister Chris Evans has denied the charge and points to global upheaval as the cause of the upsurge in arrivals.

“This will be one of the great issues of the 21st century: people movement,” he said. “We’ve seen record numbers of asylum seekers, and some sort of naïve belief that Australia is going to be somehow excused from facing those problems is a nonsense.”

The minister is right. All over the world massive numbers of people are scrambling for shelter from the effects of famine and war and, increasingly, population growth and climate change. Last week the world saw images of French authorities breaking up a shanty town in the coastal city of Calais; home to hundreds of immigrants trying to cross the channel to Britain. Italy, Greece and Spain are host to many such populations, mainly from North Africa.

But while the federal government recognises the causes of the deepening crisis, its response would appear to spring from the same thinking as the Coalition. According to UN figures, Australia takes in less than two percent of the world’s refugees. Most are resettled closer to the countries they are fleeing. Quite often these are poor countries with problems similar to those driving the refugees out of their homes. Despite the worsening conditions giving rise to this mass movement of people, the federal government is persisting with the “fortress Australia” approach. The government also carries a good share of the responsibility for one of the major “push” factors in the refugee crisis – the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last week the public was given details of an incident involving a boat carrying asylum seekers that was intercepted near Ashmore Reef in April and ordered back to Indonesia. There has been widespread speculation that the boat was deliberately torched after receiving the order. An explosion onboard killed five and injured more than a dozen people. The Darwin Magistrates Court heard testimony from an Afghan witness Sabzali Salman who felt “happy and safe” in the presence of Australian Navy personnel until a letter presumed to contain the order to return to Indonesia was received onboard the tiny vessel.

Mr Sabzali paid US$6,000 to people smugglers in Pakistan to travel to Australia via Indonesia. He had heard that Australia was “sympathetic to refugees” and was prepared to set off on a frail boat with only one life jacket onboard in order to get here. The events of last April must surely have shaken his faith in the humanitarianism of Australian authorities. An inquest into incident is planned for next year.

The day before the Darwin hearing, another 98 asylum seekers were intercepted by the navy in the waters just northwest of Christmas Island. Australia’s insulation from the effects of the US-led war in Afghanistan is wearing out.

Next article – “G-whiz” Rudd, America’s man

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