News: Sri Lankans on Oceanic Viking offered resettlement in Australia

[merlino]

Ok so when is the boat leaving from UK :idea:

 

The last boat left hundreds of years ago, chock full of convicts

[Guest HEYHEYITSMICHEAL]

i hope most of these sri lankans can speak english or have a skill to offer other than that why let them in and why are we even negotiating with them. surely all the people that went through the proper channels have first rights to enter this country. my job involves talking to many many people and im finding it harder and harder to find someone that i can communicate with that i dont need a translator for, why isnt the government letting people in that can speak english or have something to offer this great country. is this our country that we are letting people enter or just and open border with no restrictions. im sorry if this offends but im a proud aussie and im seeing this country getting worse and worse with immigration, sri lankans holding the government to ransome WTF??? why not just send them home along with the other 1000 detainees instead of building more beds at detention centres at tax payers expense and let the ones that can contribute to society enter through the rights passages.

[Guest wanderer]

Well Marco,

Wanderer...you are full of it. Honestly.

 

"West Bank, Somalia, the Congo Republic, Iraq or Afghanistan".

 

Have you ever considered that the "poor" victims you want so eagerly let enter Australia may actually have responsibility for what happened to their country?

 

Seems to me that you've read a lot more into my post than what is actually there.

 

You are welcome to your views and I can even agree with some of them, for instance it is true that quite a few wars, civil wars and the like have had religion involved, King Richard having Crusades a long time before we were about and the strife in NI was certainly not nonreligious and well before the British had India as the jewell in the crown, it was religion that helped form the boundaries.

 

I get the impression that you have considerable anger within on how the planet as a whole should deal with issues of the 42 million that the UNHCR puts the number at and that quite possibly the tip of the iceberg if we look at the poverty that is all their fault you may say.

And yet could a lot of that poverty be brought about in some cases through centuries of exploitation?

 

Just on a few points you bring up which are hardly relevant to PIO Migration, but nonetheless

. There was a time well before Israel existed as it does that Arabs/Muslims & Christians lived peacefully side by side with Jews and in fact there are quite a few Arabic Israelis and Israel is concerned about what the future holds re numbers.

. I've never said that Saddam was a great guy, nor was it the best ever thing to invade Iraq but the GWB was also far from the best ever guy the planet could wish for and one does need to study the make-up of Iraq to have some appreciation of why without the strongest of leaders, [a physically forceful governmernt if need be] you'll have a mess of a country.

 

And Gill,

People smuggling is a lawful activity in Indonesian law, so I have read recently. I assume that Australia needs to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on Indonesia, perhaps via the United Nations? (George Lombard knows about this area of law so hopefully he might explain what needs to happen?)

 

 

You'll find that Australia has regulasrly made representation to the Indonesians and funded not just refugee facilities for the UNHCR to do their work but even Patrol Boats and not to mention $1B for the Tsunami.

But Indonesia is like a lot of cultures that you can only do so much via representation/diplomatic pressure, it being a nation of some 3000 or so islands being one issue that does not help with consistent lawful practices as we would think of and not at all like the somewhat orderly lives we think of.

 

And with

What never fails to astound me is that the number of "irregular boat arrivals" in Australia is TINY compared to the thousands of people who arrive in the UK every year, claiming to be fleeing from persecution elsewhere

you kind of answer that with

It is a long way by sea, Petals. The weather will be right for a westabout or an eastabout passage from around early January 2010 in a short " weather window" which will be open for about a month. Biscay won't be nice but if the fleet heads South West from Plymouth they might be able to claw their way offshore and into the influence of the Trade Winds fairly fast.

 

 

And John Sydney as for

What I object to this whole situation is these 78 refuges is the amount of money wasted on them

First it was the search by 5 aircraft

Second picking them up and taking them to Indonesia as per agreement

Third The ship hanging about for 25 days until to do it duty whats the running cost per day?

Australia must have spent 3millions dollars so far on this lot

I beleive giving 3 million dollars worth of aid to Si Lanka would have helped far more people

 

In the aftermath of the civil war, it is rather dubious where $3M would go to and it is in fact probably considerably higher.

 

It may be noteworthy to know that when shipping containers of donated survival gear was freighted to Sri Lanka post Tsunami, it was initially not allowed off the wharves unless a 20% import duty was paid!

 

And read Winners and losers in Sri Lanka’s long war | Inside Story linked to the fith ripple posted by George Lombard and you may not be too surprised at who funded the SLs final years fighting - wonder what resources they could have there?

 

Not too bad an article that by Peter, George

I'll get to the end of it yet but the start is really only a recounting of some history though he could have had a few more than five ripples.

. Plenty of Gold Rush Days boats brought people from all corners of the earth, well before passports and immigration - maybe we could learn something from those days and go EU way!

. Then of course there were the 10 quid assisted passages ex WW2

 

And unless it's further down, he for some reason or other does not want to mention that huge number of deaths associated with just one boat.

 

The numbers of boat people is miniscule but policies are needed to control it so it is not allowed to mushroom, if merely for the sake of people not choosing to risk their lives, and then with stand-offs like the OV there does need to be developed with the UNHCR a policy of gentle but forceful persuasion.

 

But Marco, I wasn't aware we had so many chapters of KKK here!

[Guest wanderer]

Hey Hey it's nearly Saturday Mickey,

i hope most of these sri lankans can speak english or have a skill to offer

I wouldn't know about most but some sure do speak english and quite a few ought to have great survival skills they can train us in, not to mention using them as negotiation agents.

 

And then of course we have the lad from Cuckfield who became a minister, but those shifty SLs, they'll be too smart to enter politics and get Golly good head kickings!

 

But it is all a bit tricky Mickey and have you tried adding some strings to your own bow with some language skills and I'd reckon meanwhile a digital translator could be the go for your business.

 

And if business goes a bit flat, how about getting into Marcos truck with him and heading north - new company logo MMM

Mickey and Marco Movers!

[Guest Jamie Smith]

 

However the Brits would need to be able to claim asylum in Oz. What sort of persecution can they claim to be fleeing from?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

Being ignored by one's own Government?

[merlino]

Hey Hey it's nearly Saturday Mickey,

 

I wouldn't know about most but some sure do speak english and quite a few ought to have great survival skills they can train us in, not to mention using them as negotiation agents.

 

And then of course we have the lad from Cuckfield who became a minister, but those shifty SLs, they'll be too smart to enter politics and get Golly good head kickings!

 

But it is all a bit tricky Mickey and have you tried adding some strings to your own bow with some language skills and I'd reckon meanwhile a digital translator could be the go for your business.

 

And if business goes a bit flat, how about getting into Marcos truck with him and heading north - new company logo MMM

Mickey and Marco Movers!

 

 

?????

[Petals]

:biglaugh:It is a long way by sea, Petals. The weather will be right for a westabout or an eastabout passage from around early January 2010 in a short " weather window" which will be open for about a month. Biscay won't be nice but if the fleet heads South West from Plymouth they might be able to claw their way offshore and into the influence of the Trade Winds fairly fast.

 

Suitable routeing charts can be obtained from Her Majesty's Hydrographer to the Royal Navy and they are good. The weather in a given sector does tend to do what the charts predict at the given time of the year - Somali & other pirates permitting, that is.

 

However the Brits would need to be able to claim asylum in Oz. What sort of persecution can they claim to be fleeing from?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

Well there are lots of reasons are there not, congestion on the roads, can't get into the pubs down south in the summer because of all the tourists, it rains a lot, we need to learn to cook instead of buying readymade meals, and the last one we are not getting off this ship:biggrin: until you let us in.

[Guest wanderer]

merlino,

Mickey and Marco Movers!

?????

Off course, how remiss of me when it was Polo on the Silky if not so smooth road.

 

MMM w MTM [nearly sounds like a movie credit] [better stick another M in]

 

Mickey Mouse [was Disney though] Marco Movers w Merlin The Magician

 

And then a bigger M for Motivation it may seem

First Sri Lankans leave Oceanic Viking

Patience is a Virtue though I'd not be queuing for Kebabs off the Home page

ninemsn - Hotmail, Messenger, News, Sport, Celebrity, Finance, Travel, Cars, Movies, Shopping

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Wanderer

 

I understand from the Web today that Ocean Viking is licenced for 25 crew and 50 passengers. I gather that there were already 75 people aboard when another 78 Tamils joined them.

 

Where was Ocean Viking when the Tamils were taken aboard?

 

Why were they taken aboard?

 

It seems that the ship has been stooging around off Tanjung Pinang on Bintan Island, which is close to Singapore? What has an Aussie Customs vessel been doing so far from home?

 

Thanks

 

Gill

[Bod]

Not read the threat in depth.

 

This is my solution The world has a whole need to take responsabilty. These people need to be held in camps and treated with dignity and respect while they are processed. If they are found to be genuine Refs, Then they will be allocated a country or have a choice to go back to their home land. No argument.

If say the land in Australia then they could be allocated refugee status in Argentina for example.

 

Every 1st world country needs to put money in a pot and except their allocation of genuine refugees.

 

This will stop people risking their lifes going accross sea's and will stop in the first safe country they come accross.

[Guest YorkshireLad]

I don't care about Australia one way or the other(I'm going back to the UK in a few weeks).--However as far as many so-called asylum seekers go,they should NOT be let in.It is NOT the western worlds obligation,whether that is the UK,Australia,US etc. to let in third world people who just drain the system and way of life for all.Whether those people are asylum seekers,illegal immigrants or whatever.--In the UK we have had a big problem with asylum seekers and uncontrolled immigration for some time time now.In the UK we don't need them or want them.They(asylum seekers from the third world) lower the quality of life of every British citizen.--Time to stop being politically correct and use bloomin' common sense.

[Guest YorkshireLad]

On the other side of the coin,would Australia be kind enough to take all of the UKs third world asylum seekers.--You Aussies can have them.Put em in the outback--and keep 'em there.lol

[Bod]

On the other side of the coin,would Australia be kind enough to take all of the UKs third world asylum seekers.--You Aussies can have them.Put em in the outback--and keep 'em there.lol

 

 

They most probly will welcome those from hot lands such as the Somalians and Sudanese. They will adapt very well in the outback were they need a population increase. And they won't moan about how hard they work or the weather.

 

Australia needs these sort of people more than Britain does, and the Rudd Govenment know it.

 

As for you Yourkshire lad you don't seem an happy Bunny.

 

What part of Yorkshire are you going back to??

[Petals]

Common sense is need and "the keeping them out this is my country" does not work, we all would like that but its not going to happen, there are so many disadvantaged people in the world and now that pictures of the west are beamed into these countries day in and day out they are going to want to move. Why do we want to move ask ourselves, we want our pereception of a better life.

 

Keeping them out breeds terrorism in my opinion, I know a lot bring their troubles with them but at least we can keep an eye on them here. Most just want to put food on the table buy a car and educate their children just like us.

 

Don't get me wrong I do not like the idea of the UK being taken over by others either but we have to realise that this has been happening for thousands of years you only have to read the history books.

 

I remember as a young child in the little village we lived in Suffolk a Sikh coming into the village and we all went and hid as we had never seen one before, no tele then. Of course those migrants in those times faced a lot of opposition simply because of our ignorance.

 

Australia is another kettle of fish and the Aboriginal people are the ones who should feel overwhelmed by migration. However I am sure they are happy to have a few fellow dark skinned people in the mix.

[Guest guest30038]

 

As for you Yourkshire lad you don't seem an happy Bunny.

 

What part of Yorkshire are you going back to??

 

I'm guessing it's not Leeds :biglaugh:

 

"The five regions with the greatest number of asylum seekers in accommodation provided by the state are Yorkshire & the Humber and the North East both with 21%, the West Midlands with 16%, and Scotland and the North East both with 11%. Within those regions the five local authorities housing the greatest number of asylum applicants were: Glasgow City; Leeds; Birmingham; Newcastle; and, Liverpool. "

 

kev

[Guest wanderer]

Yes Gill,

Wanderer

 

I understand from the Web today that Ocean Viking is licenced for 25 crew and 50 passengers. I gather that there were already 75 people aboard when another 78 Tamils joined them.

 

Where was Ocean Viking when the Tamils were taken aboard?

 

Why were they taken aboard?

 

It seems that the ship has been stooging around off Tanjung Pinang on Bintan Island, which is close to Singapore? What has an Aussie Customs vessel been doing so far from home?

 

Thanks

 

Gill

 

Certainly got the makings for a Suspense Thriller here.

 

I've got no idea where the Tamils boat was when a distress signal apparently went out and according to all political and press reports here it was in waters where the Indonesians would normally have been expected to react but the Indonesians could not respond.

 

You would think if the Tamils boat had sailed all the way from Sri Lanka that it would have been coming across the Indian Ocean or at least down the IO side of the main Indonesian Islands and if they had been anywhere over the Singapore/Borneo side that surely Indonesia or even Singapore would have had rescue vessels handier, but perhaps they have been coastal hopping or even have got hold of an old boat around Malaysia or Indonesia in the Sumatra Straights area, it being one of the planets main shipping lanes and could have been some dodgy older boats about that area.

 

But the OV - http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/FS_OceanicViking.pdf , an interesting vessel on lease by Customs to operate normally in more southern waters.

There is a known sailing season in the tropics to avoid monsoons and we're getting close to when it would not just be brave to put out in rickety boats but damm foolhardy and I've mentioned a couple of times of one tragedy when reportedly about 350 people may have lost their lives, a rickety overloaded boat having gone down off the coast of Indonesia, and hard to get a head count when they are going with people smugglers.

 

The OV does have room for holding illegal fisherman, but how many they'll take on board in a rescue situation would be as many that were to be rescued, the duty of ships at sea etc. and Australia does do rescues well down in to the Southern Ocean, A destroyer dispatched from Fremantle on one occasion to sail some 2000 km. south to get a Tony Bullard was it, a single handed Brit sailor who had capsized - went on to write a book but don't know if he ever offered to pay too much of the cost of his rescue - good practice for the Navy we'll put it down to.

 

Why they were stooging or steaming around up that way, buggered if I know and not too sure how close they actually were to the Tamils and I'd only be adding to the thickening plot to suggest:

. Kruddy and Chris wanted to be able to nip in the bud a mass break out from Tanjung Pinang

. Kruddy didn't want to raise suspicion of the Chinese that we might be spying on them!

. There's a plan afoot to take the Indonesians eye of Bali dope smugglers and there's going to be a midnight raid to break out Corby and the Bali Nine before any executions take place

 

More realistically, because they have to keep getting Indonesian Clearance to stay in their territorial waters, it could be they were outside of the waters to start with and even over in the Indian Ocean when the Tamils sent out a distress signal from wherever.

It was the Indonesians who actually had control of where the Tamils were to be taken, the OV having offered assistance at sea on an Indonesian request and perhaps Bintan Island has been developed so as they are kept more out of the more populous Indonesian areas, there having been some awful bloody actions with huge death counts occuring in some Indonesian provinces.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

HI Wanderer

 

Thanks for the informaton. I was simply curious about how the whole situation arose.

 

I recall the Tony Bulimore saga clearly. I was worried about him. Jim (my late husband) thought Bullimore had asked for trouble by taking a boat with short keel studs instead of long keel bolts down into the Southern Ocean. The problem was that the keel fell off and the boat turned turtle with Bullimore trapped inside the hull in an air pocket. The Aussies did exceptionally well to find the boat - a semi-submerged speck on the ocean - and they did brilliantly to get him to safety with nothing more then a touch of frostbite in one toe.

 

Jim and I reached Perth a week after Bullimore left. Public opinion was split down the middle about whether he should have been left to perish.

 

I was simply curious about how Australia gets dragged into these long distance rescues. Perth happened to be the closest port to where Bullimore was but the area near Singapore is bristling with small harbours - and bristling with pirates.

 

I gathered yesterday that 22 of the Tamils have gone ashore but the rest remain aboard Ocean Viking, insisting on being taken to the Australian mainland by sea. Nothing is being made of the stiry in the UK so it is difficult to get information from here.

 

Thanks again

 

Gill

[Guest wanderer]

It is good to see some good words from the ESSEX TO AUS and Petals

This is my solution The world has a whole need to take responsabilty. These people need to be held in camps and treated with dignity and respect while they are processed. If they are found to be genuine Refs, Then they will be allocated a country or have a choice to go back to their home land. No argument.

If say the land in Australia then they could be allocated refugee status in Argentina for example.

 

Every 1st world country needs to put money in a pot and except their allocation of genuine refugees.

 

This will stop people risking their lifes going accross sea's and will stop in the first safe country they come accross.

Common sense is need and "the keeping them out this is my country" does not work, we all would like that but its not going to happen, there are so many disadvantaged people in the world and now that pictures of the west are beamed into these countries day in and day out they are going to want to move. Why do we want to move ask ourselves, we want our pereception of a better life.

 

Keeping them out breeds terrorism in my opinion, I know a lot bring their troubles with them but at least we can keep an eye on them here. Most just want to put food on the table buy a car and educate their children just like us.

 

Don't get me wrong I do not like the idea of the UK being taken over by others either but we have to realise that this has been happening for thousands of years you only have to read the history books.

 

I remember as a young child in the little village we lived in Suffolk a Sikh coming into the village and we all went and hid as we had never seen one before, no tele then. Of course those migrants in those times faced a lot of opposition simply because of our ignorance.

 

Australia is another kettle of fish and the Aboriginal people are the ones who should feel overwhelmed by migration. However I am sure they are happy to have a few fellow dark skinned people in the mix.

And before commenting on anything in particular, there are no easy answers nor likely will be in the future as the planets population continues to climb and there's a huge demand on resources - saw one population time clock that has on current trends, the planets population getting towards 100B come 2100.

At that rate there'll have been many many more die of famine and more wars I'd suspect.

And coupled with that we have the Nimb[y]ies - Not In My BackYard - more commonly used in Australia with Nuclear Power

 

A Black African female author [may be in hiding I believe] hs written that the west is signing Aficas death warrant with continual aid - she says that peoples getting accustomed to aid availability makes them too reliant on it, and that is probably too easy for someone not starving to say that.

 

I agree ETA, it is a Global dilemma whether Yorkshire Lad wants to think that way or not and different countries do have Refugee programmes, the problem being in how to keep up and the great imbalance between birth rates in undeveloped nations and developed nations will just exacerbate that.

The Pope wasn't exactly too helpful in that regard re condemming use of condomms and the Catholic Church in general against BC.

 

If the Chinese can introduce a 1 child per family birth law, that's a good move long term for in a few generations, China's population could significantly drop.

It's not doing a lot of good for some current Chineses families though with many elderly village people left with little support and apparently baby/toddler abductions are a new crime there.

 

Biut controlling that could be easier than population explosions continuing and so if we could just get India, Africa and a few other countries follow suit, the planet's CO2 explosion may also be controlled.

 

Meanwhile, though the work of the UN is often condemmed and re corrupt people/practices rightly so, some good work does happen and WTO as much as we may not want the consequences of level playing fields does have as a core principle, the evening of wealth distribution but in practical terms there are probably too many wealthy people who are quite happy to stay that way even if they have to continue to use exploitation and corruption to do so.

Of a course a huge driving factor in that will be the expectations of us mere mortals in the developed world and then as Petals says, with what is beamed so easily about the planet nowadays, there'll be the What about Me too!

 

As Petal also states, migrations ain't new but passports and borders are as is China's family planning but I'd think that getting the rest of the populous world to head that way is a very tall order.

 

As for populating the Aussie outback Yorkshire Lad, that could be termed voluntary Genocide or involuntary if it was introduced as a forced move, sort of expand the detention centres would you reckon!

 

And then our own indigenous peoples have not had it too easy at times nor have most found integration an easy task, so Petals:

Australia is another kettle of fish and the Aboriginal people are the ones who should feel overwhelmed by migration. However I am sure they are happy to have a few fellow dark skinned people in the mix.

 

You really think so!

 

So where do we head with it all?

Do walls work?

GWOC!

The Himalayas and Indus Kush have been a natural wall for India's protection well before the Brits and QV's time.

It is more the demaraction line for Pakistan and India that has been a problem.

And then we've had the Iron Curtain

And is there still one in Ulster or is it Belfast [sorry, not good on Irish geography]

And now the Israelis and the Yanks are building them.

 

Something just doesn't seem to be working.

 

It would be ironic if the two most populous nations with the most enduring walls, one manmade, the other natural formed an unholy alliance to become a new one world power!

[Guest wanderer]

That's right Gill, Bullimore

HI Wanderer

 

Thanks for the informaton. I was simply curious about how the whole situation arose.

 

I recall the Tony Bulimore saga clearly. I was worried about him. Jim (my late husband) thought Bullimore had asked for trouble by taking a boat with short keel studs instead of long keel bolts down into the Southern Ocean. The problem was that the keel fell off and the boat turned turtle with Bullimore trapped inside the hull in an air pocket. The Aussies did exceptionally well to find the boat - a semi-submerged speck on the ocean - and they did brilliantly to get him to safety with nothing more then a touch of frostbite in one toe.

 

Jim and I reached Perth a week after Bullimore left. Public opinion was split down the middle about whether he should have been left to perish.

 

I was simply curious about how Australia gets dragged into these long distance rescues. Perth happened to be the closest port to where Bullimore was but the area near Singapore is bristling with small harbours - and bristling with pirates.

 

I gathered yesterday that 22 of the Tamils have gone ashore but the rest remain aboard Ocean Viking, insisting on being taken to the Australian mainland by sea. Nothing is being made of the stiry in the UK so it is difficult to get information from here.

 

Thanks again

 

Gill

 

Without a keel, you certainly haven't got a very good boat at all and interesting that an ocean going sailor would not have a well anchored one.

We've had a few yacht incidences in recent times with keels coming adrift and apparently even whale strikes being noted a possibility or sea debris, a barely floating shipping container for instance would not treat a keel too kindly.

 

I've seen some keel designs where a weighty bit is attached to the bottom of the a keel structure but your Jim had the right idea in that the best in most circumstances would probably be the long bolts embedded into a filled keel shell.

Our latest investigation of a keel failure [happened quite a few years ago] has revealed some sort of dodgy manufacturing transverse welding as though the main structure had been cut through and then a repair made!

 

Tony did pretty well for himself re the survival stakes in at least deciding to stay inside the hull for I'd not have liked his chances sitting outside in the sort of seas he would have been exposed to, not to mention wind chill cold.

I think in his distress signal going out the navy did have a beacon to help find him but still quite a task.

The International agreement is referenced in Search and Rescue Arrangements in Australia and a map there showing Australia's region.

 

And yes, there was media coverage here in Oz on as you can imagine, bloody hell!, how much did this cost kind of thing but I'd suspect you would have to have a pretty hard nosed kind of person to say let him fend for himself.

Personally, I just feel that the RTW sailors ought to have some form of insurance cover for rescue costs but that still doesn't cover personnel risk for those involved in rescue and we see that here in any bad year when the Sydney/Hobart race fleet strikes rough weather and then you've got mainland helicopters going out in humungus seas with guys on ropes being winched down to snatch an injured guy of a rolling deck.

 

And what makes it even more crazy [and I know a race is a race and all that, just like the annual Fastnet] is that a few years back, not just heavy weather but gales were predicted and even though some of the larger yachts can handle that and may even like it if they get through before the onslaught because it'll help towards setting record times, many good boats foundered that year, about six deaths that year and so may smaller boats just fortunately pulled out before crossing Bass Straight.

 

Meant to also add in with

There is a known sailing season in the tropics to avoid monsoons......................

The article on the OV does also mention they'll do other areas and it could even be that with so much time in colder waters, giving the crew some tropical relief would also bolster detection/interception work re the smugglers in north.

And that would work in well enough with the seasons though they'd probably be heading back south for southern oceans fishing duty in our summer[when they are able to!].

 

And on helicopter rescue mishaps, there had been military people asigned to work in Indonesia's Aceh province post Tsunami [the Indos not really doing a lot it seems because of civil war activities there] and on way back there had been a quake and some damage on a smaller island to which a helicopter was flying to from a ship and it went down - something similar in a way to a short keel bolt and in this case an anchoring bolt on the tail rotor had either failed or come out, poor maintenance I think an enquiry found, something as simple as a locking split pin not in place [could have happened anytime I suppose and unfortunate they had about eight people aboard]

 

But Australia has always had a reasonable involvement in the north, PNG for many years and then Timor in recent years along with touchy relationships at times with the Indonesians and a fair bit of involvement re federal police assignements to troubled Pacific Island nations [not Fiji right now, the HC having just been given his marching orders!

 

The ABC.net.au is our BBC you could say, a bit left leaning but good for political stuff, though interesting that the OV is not a headliner.

And then ninemsn - Hotmail, Messenger, News, Sport, Celebrity, Finance, Travel, Cars, Movies, Shopping usually has a bit of everything and Tiger has top billing but between those two you'll always get info along with more newsy driven sites that have been posted by others on various topics, www.news.com.au and www.theage.com.au being a couple.

 

 

 

 

 

There's an international oceans agreement of sorts apparently that has different areas allocated to countries for rescue, and Australia having about the largest

[Guest kyeandgem]

It is good to see some good words from the ESSEX TO AUS and Petals

 

 

And before commenting on anything in particular, there are no easy answers nor likely will be in the future as the planets population continues to climb and there's a huge demand on resources - saw one population time clock that has on current trends, the planets population getting towards 100B come 2100.

At that rate there'll have been many many more die of famine and more wars I'd suspect.

And coupled with that we have the Nimb[y]ies - Not In My BackYard - more commonly used in Australia with Nuclear Power

 

A Black African female author [may be in hiding I believe] hs written that the west is signing Aficas death warrant with continual aid - she says that peoples getting accustomed to aid availability makes them too reliant on it, and that is probably too easy for someone not starving to say that.

 

I agree ETA, it is a Global dilemma whether Yorkshire Lad wants to think that way or not and different countries do have Refugee programmes, the problem being in how to keep up and the great imbalance between birth rates in undeveloped nations and developed nations will just exacerbate that.

The Pope wasn't exactly too helpful in that regard re condemming use of condomms and the Catholic Church in general against BC.

 

 

Wanderer

 

glad to see you actually acknowledge their is a population crisis in the world and are not skirting around it with PC bulls**t like in a few of the other posts.

This may offend and sound harsh but maybe all the wars, poverty and disease in the 3rd world countries is natures way of attacking the growing decay it is facing. So maybe all the western countries should stop getting involved and moving all these people to another part of the planet only to let them breed like rabbits and spread their poison some where else.

 

Kye

[Guest HEYHEYITSMICHEAL]

should we open up our borders to everyone who has been persecuted???

[merlino]

should we open up our borders to everyone who has been persecuted???

 

There are already provisions for that in Australia.

[Guest HEYHEYITSMICHEAL]

Obviously you are of some ethnicity or affiliated with them. Condescending writing is not your speciality. I was born and raised here, this is a english speaking country so why when someone who comes to our shores that doesnt speak english is given entry its not being racist but clearly you have taken it that way ( i never said shifty SL's or anything that way but i read you did so who is the racist here ). Im mearly asking why this is, if we go to there country surely we would have to learn there language. As for these boat people why are they given a free pass over people that have gone through the right channels and why is our government bending over and taking it, why not send them home with the rest of them instead of wasting tax payers money taking care of them, housing them surely we would save millions a year that could go into schools or hospitals instead. Tough decisions need to be made by our government instead of listening to all these civil libertarians or ethnics for australia groups. Harden up mate

[Guest HEYHEYITSMICHEAL]

and what are these provisions? im sick of all these bleeding hearts that say let them in. We open up our borders it affects everything housing, employment, health, education. Time we started looking after this country

[Guest proud2beaussie]

Ok guys,I think this thread is starting to go around in circles and is really getting nowhere,there is room in Australia for refugees as well as skilled migrants,all it takes is a government that knows how to effectively administer both programs.

Time to draw stumps on this thread though.