Are you 'comfortable' with Australia's handling of Tamil asylum seekers at sea?

[Rallyman]

Harpo, you too can copy and paste !

you still don't give anybody and answers when you get asked what would you YOU do to sort this mess out, the whole of the western world is in a mess in regard to the near 2 million held in refuge camps around the world there has to be a policy to control the situation and not everybody will like what that policy is as you can't please everybody.

 

Maybe more should be done to prevent the people getting on the boats in the first place but where these people are coming from law and order is corrupt at best and where people can make money out of the vulnerable it will continue long after you and I have gone.

[Wellers and Whitehead]

What benefit is indefinitely detaining asylum seekers? Australia is one of the VERY FEW that do this..sad really..it's just costing more money ..and what are the evidential benefits of detaining asylum seekers??

[Parley]

Obviously to protect the community and act as a deterrence.

[Harpodom]

Harpo, you too can copy and paste !

you still don't give anybody and answers when you get asked what would you YOU do to sort this mess out, the whole of the western world is in a mess in regard to the near 2 million held in refuge camps around the world there has to be a policy to control the situation and not everybody will like what that policy is as you can't please everybody.

 

Maybe more should be done to prevent the people getting on the boats in the first place but where these people are coming from law and order is corrupt at best and where people can make money out of the vulnerable it will continue long after you and I have gone.

 

The problem with the policy is its all stick and no carrot. It seeks to punish asylum seekers rather try to understand or address the process that led to them getting on a boat in the first place. Stopping a boat mid ocean is patently not the answer: you have to prevent refugees boarding the boats in the first place.

 

Heres when you and I probably differ though: I think Australia should substantially increase its annual refugee intake rather than reduce it.

 

I also think Australia should be working closely with Indonesia and Malaysia to reach a regional agreement (rather than alienating them), lobbying them to sign up to the UN convention, helping them to identify 'people smugglers' and use more intelligence to identify people wanting to get on boats and offering to take genuine refugees (appropriate checks would take weeks at most) at source rather than the current train crash approach, offering them permanent protection, work rights etc. Non genuine refugees would go home.

 

I would cease any/all dialogue with countries with Sri Lanka, unless to lobby them to act more humanely. No 'donations' of gunboats to help mop up people fleeing the country either.

 

I would close Manus and Nauru immediately: Australia should have no further involvement in palming off their UNHCR responsibilities to tin pot countries who can't even get their own $hit together, let alone 'protecting' vulnerable traumatised men, women and children.

 

I would try to ensure 'best practice' of medicine in any detention centres that remain open. No children should be behind bars. Only people suspected of crimes should be in detention.

 

I summary I would get Australia back to conducting itself in the true spirit of the refugee convention: protecting refugees rather than punishing them.

[Diane]

Obviously to protect the community and act as a deterrence.

 

You're just letting yourself be taken in by the demonising of a whole group of people... please, please don't let this fascist government do this, it's the start of a very slippery slope -see my previous post. Maybe 90% or more of these poor desperate people represent zero threat to your precious community - but to folloow your logic, they should all be punished and guilty until proven innocent. That's not the way for a humane and democratic country to behave. There HAS to be a better way.

[Xenon4017]

you have to prevent refugees boarding the boats in the first place. ...

I think Australia should substantially increase its annual refugee intake rather than reduce it.

 

 

How will that stop people getting on a boat to arrive here? You are indeed offering them the carrot in that if they can just manage to get their feet on shore (or within Australian jurisdiction) then they've made it. Heads and shoulders above the rest of the worlds' refugee population. Why should other refugees miss out?

 

The way I see it, one refugee is as deserving as the next, regardless of where they lodged their asylum claim. Don't you see it so?

[Xenon4017]

You're just letting yourself be taken in by the demonising of a whole group of people... please, please don't let this fascist government do this, it's the start of a very slippery slope -see my previous post. Maybe 90% or more of these poor desperate people represent zero threat to your precious community - but to folloow your logic, they should all be punished and guilty until proven innocent. That's not the way for a humane and democratic country to behave. There HAS to be a better way.

 

Yeah, the "protect the community" is a crock. But the deterrence factor, isn't that worth considering?

[Guest]

Closed thread at OP request. Poll ending today.