The Forum > Article Comments > Australia exports its draconian immigration system > Comments
Australia exports its draconian immigration system : Comments
By James Norman, published 15/9/2008The EU is moving towards an immigration policy that includes tightly secured borders, stiff penalties and forced detention.
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A poll by the Red Cross earlier this year on vulnerable groups in the Australian community found that 89% of respondents felt the elderly living alone needed more help, 88% felt those with mental illness needed more help, 84% felt the homeless needed more help. In the same poll only 39% of respondents felt the asylum seekers needed more help.
Governments, by necessity, look at the bigger picture. There is growing realization that the international refugee system has become dysfunctional and the distinction between economic migrants and genuine refugees has become very blurred. People leaving dysfunctional third world countries are probably more than likely to depart their countries for economic reasons. Global criminal syndicates dealing in people smuggling attempt to bypass legal immigration controls by presenting economic migrants as asylum seekers in order to exploit compassion in liberal Western democracies such as Australia.
Adrienne Millbank, an academic from Monash University, wrote a very informative paper entitled “DARK VICTORY OR CIRCUIT BREAKER: AUSTRALIA AND THE INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE SYSTEM POST TAMPA” detailing the dysfunctionality of the international refugee system, which can be downloaded from:
http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/view/issue/?volume=11&issue=2
The dysfunctionality of the international refugee system was illustrated when Turkey applied for membership of the European Union. In order to fulfil its human rights obligations Turkey ratified the Protocol to the UN Refugee Convention with a geographical reservation limiting Turkey's obligations to asylum seekers fleeing conflicts in Europe only, whereas obviously the vast majority of the world’s asylum seekers are fleeing from Africa and the Middle East.