Saving Australia from Asylum seekers

Saving Australia from Asylum seekers
by GDL

In a previous post I wrote that if nothing drastic is done to stop the boats and send the asylum seekers back to where they come from, and if the business of people smugglers is not broken, Australia runs the risk of becoming a country of refugees. Australia's refugee intake is around 27,000 per year and now we have around 50,000 boat people in the country. At this rate in ten years' time the number will be nearly a million. This is unacceptable.

The polls show that "the boat people" issue ranks very high in voters' concern. It is a fact that there has been a considerable increase of boats arrivals since Labor took power in 2007. It was the main issue that Kevin Rudd's popularity was at its lowest and his eventual knifing and ousted from office..
Juila Gillard made " the boat people" one of her priorities and accused Kevin of' inability to handle the issue.  She might have thought she had the magic power to stop the boats, but unfortunately she failed abysmally. To compound her problem, her propositions were turned down by the opposition and the Greens. This was a rare agreement between an extreme left party and a right wing one.

When Kevin Rudd came back to power for the second time, the problem was worse than where he left it. There are now some 50,000 illegals, i.e.  those coming by boats, in Australia. Kevin Rudd in an attempt to stop the flow of illegals and queue jumpers was given a life bouy by the Prime Minister of PNG, to save him from oblivion. The PNG solution is still at its inception, it is yet to be tested by people smugglers but apparently, the message has reached those who were paying people smugglers. There is a slight decease of boats arrivals.
Transferring the boats people to  Manus Island and Nauru, is only part of  the solution. There is still the possibility looming that they might end up in Australia, as it was under John Howard. At the moment it is Australian taxpayers who are bearing the cost directly, or indirectly though overseas aid. The real solution is to break the people smugglers business model by tackling the problem at source. This can be done through intelligence cooperation with Indonesia. It is possible to spot those who are transiting through Indonesia and where they will take the boats from. It only demands a bit of goodwill from the Indonesian police but as it is known, they are corrupt and part of the mafia.
The other way to circumvent the issue is to send Australian intelligence to Indonesia to uncover the business and in a way prevent the boats from leaving Indonesia's shores. This is within the realm of possibility and reality.
To deter people smugglers from carry on their lucrative business at the expense of people's desperation, the United Nation should get the support of the international community and set  an International Court just like the one in La Hague for war criminals, to judge people smugglers..

Coming back to Australia the two major parties are in a race to show toughness towards asylum seekers. Labor will sent all the boat people to PNG with no hope of being resettled in Australia. For their part the Coalition goes further by not granting Permanent Protection Visa (PPV) to all those 30,000 or 50,000 who arrived by boats in the past years. On top of this the coalition will deprive the asylum seekers the right to appeal if found not to be a refugee. Those found not to be refugees will be sent back to where they come from. The other way to curb the problem of refugees is for Australia to walk out of the Geneva Convention which is outdated with new circumstances and realities of regional conflicts and civil wars e.g. Syria..

If the asylum seekers/ boat people is so high on the political agenda, it is because many Australians see the refugees as  the paria of our society. Refugees have never brought any good thing to our country. Most of them are on the social security benefits or are long term unemployed as many still cannot adapt to the western democratic values and rule of law of Australia. On the other hand refugees have brought us triads and drug smugglers as well  as a mentality of fraud and corruption.. Just attend a court session in Parramatta or elsewhere and you are sure of seeing some refugees facing justice for indictable offences .

Asylum seekers arriving by plane or those coming by boats boat  should be turned back to where they come from. The refugees are costing the country too much money and are  not helping to build a better Australia. Australia need an orderly immigration policy and skilled people who will be an asset to the country. In this period  where we face economic challenges. Australia cannot afford to be generous or compassionate at the cost of billions of dollars spent on asylum seekers, mainly if they are not genuine and coming by the back door.