Andy Alcock contributes on the QANDA PROGRAM 16.4.09 – REFUGEES, again!
Well, those who wanted to justify the inhumane and callous attitudes of
John Howard were certainly out in force tonight! Last week, The Age
ran an article about an Afghani asylum seeker who managed to get to
Australia and spent a period in detentiion. He was sent back toAfghanistan despite pleading that he was on Taliban death lists. He was
murdered by the Taliban. This has been the fate of at least 11 asylum
seekers.
This is an example of the criminal and inhumane policies of Howard,
Ruddock and Vanstone and as a nation, we should be ashamed that we had a government that did this to refugees.
In most of the discussions I have heard on this topic, I find that some
people fail to understand a few basic steps in logic and seem to be very
lacking in compassion. Are we even allowed to use that word in the
Second Dark Ages of Economic Rationalism?
I think we need to consider the following:
All wars cause huge waves of refugees.
And most Australians are here because they or their forebears were
refugees.
Australia has assisted many wars to promote US interests – Afghanistan &
Iraq being 2 of the places. (And guess where a lot of boat people are
coming from?)
In the case of Afghanistan, it was the US who assisted with the
overthrow of a government in that country which treated its people with
a certain level of respect. There was greater equality for women than
there is under the Taliban, for example.
It is not against international law for refugees to enter other
countries if they are escaping persecution.
Australia is a signatory to this principle.
Asylum seekers are not criminals and should not be thrown into detention
centres
I have spoken to many refugees and despite what many Australians
think, they are not wealthy people who move around waiting for the
opportunity to come to the so-called Lucky Country.
When people are escaping persecution, they take their chances to go to places to avoid being killed. In many cases, their families have sold houses and businesses to help fund family members to escape.
If we want to build a world of peace, we need to be involved in making
the world a fairer and more compassionate place to be and not involving
ourselves in US wars.
Scapegoating and victim blaming does not help resolve the problem nor do
stupid and expensive policies like the Pacific Solution.
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