As a Christian I think you are more than justified in calling our politicians to live up to the values of the faith they profess.

It always staggers me that when the major story line of the Bible is that God welcomes and saves into his family those who are undeserving, that Christians can have such an unwelcoming attitude to refugees.

It astounds me that Susan and others with a certain ideology can't understand the simple fact that many people waiting to come here legally have just as heart breaking stories if not more than many who come here illegally. She seems blind to the fact that the encouragement of these boat people under Rudd has cost an unknown number of people their lives. I often wonder why the left want to hide behind what they call compassion when their policies lead to such misery.

What a powerful piece of writing! Congratulations and thank you, Susan Metcalfe!

I'm writing from Bangkok where I've been living for most of the last five years. I've been very concerned for some time about the whippping up of hysteria about boat people by Opposition politicians and the media and wondering what we can do to show it up as widely as possible for the vicious and cynical opportunism it is.

Thailand, which claims religion to be one of its three central values, has never signed the UN COnvention on Refugees. There are much larger numbers of undocumented refugees here. Illegal migrant workers from neighboring counties are ruthlessly exploited by employers and the police. Recently, hundreds of Hmong refugees were deported to Laos, including some who had been documented as refugees by the UN and promised visas by third countries. There is currently some publicity being given to the case of Rohingya refugees from Burma who are rotting in the Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok, with the government doing nothing more about them. The UNHCR is not allowed access to them. The laughing Deputy Immigration Commissioner said in an Aljazeera English TV interview yesterday that he wanted NGOs to take them out of Thailand. Two of the Rohingya group, young men, died of neglect of medical conditions in the detention centre in Ranong. Several other disabled boatloads of Rohingya had previously been towed back out to sea by the Thai navy after arriving in Thai waters without food or drinking water. Some of them survived and washed up in Indonesia. Unknown numbers are presumed to have perished.

It is very distressing that Australian politicians and sections of the media want Australia to to descend again to this level of policy and behaviour.

BTW, my family's experience of sectarian bitterness is very similar to Susan's.

runner

Our views have nothing whatever to do with left-wing or any other ideology! The governments of the world need to get together urgently and work out ways of meeting the needs of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing persecution whether they are in refugee camps or not. That is what we need to demand of our own governments.

Good on you Susan. You make some very astute points that the media seem 'aqua minded' when it comes to shock horror reporting of bugger all people arriving by boats.

Its a sign of these post modernist times that the most shrill and strident critics of immigration are anti-populationists and a rainbow coalition of feral bearded gnomes from Sustainable Population Australia.

For example the Greens want refugees treated humanely, they just want less refugees AND immigrants because they see them as rabbits eating our precious food.

These people are not environmentalists, they are instrumentalists and their means are exactly the same as racists. 'Turn immigration back to 1930s levels and push the darkies back with a stick'.

They are doing incredible damage to the environment movement and soon people will turn against them.

Excellent article, Susan Metcalfe. Asylum seekers will certainly be an issue in the forthcoming election. I expect it will be ugly.

Indeed, it already is:

Cheryl: << For example the Greens want refugees treated humanely, they just want less refugees AND immigrants because they see them as rabbits eating our precious food >>

Not that anybody takes you and your "anti-pop" nonsense seriously, but that's an outright lie.

This is what Bob Brown actually said, a week or so ago:

<< Australia’s population should be determined by the capacity of our environment and our infrastructure,” said Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown.

Australia cannot support an increase in population to 35 million by 2050.

Immigration should not be stopped.

In fact Australia should increase its humanitarian immigration program, but we need to reduce our skilled migration program and balance that reduction by investing in skills training for Australians. >>

http://widebaygreens.org/2010/03/australian-greens-call-for-national-inquiry-into-population-growth/

Why do Green-haters so often tell porkies?