The Howard government’s policies were effective in countering people smuggling and secondary movement asylum seekers. Secondary movement asylum seekers are asylum seekers who move from a first country of de facto asylum, moving long distances around the world through countries with little interest in persecuting them, with the aim of settling in an affluent Western country.

Almost all secondary movement asylum seekers arrived in Australia without identity papers or travel documents, deliberately destroying them to make the determination of their identities and verification of their stories of persecution and return to their countries of residence a very time consuming, difficult and costly task.

For a time until people smuggling was effectively halted by the previous government Australia’s refugee resettlement program had to be suspended as all resettlement places were being taken by secondary movement asylum seekers. The Howard government was able to halt people smuggling and the influx of secondary movement asylum seekers, so that refugee resettlement was returned to being based of need rather than financial ability to pay people smugglers.

Asylum seekers arriving at Christmas Island from Afghanistan via people smugglers are now mainly able bodied men able to pay $15,000 to people smugglers, although the annual per capita income of Afghanistan is about $800 per year or around $2 per day. In contrast, the most desperate refugees in the world are single women and children living in squalid refugee camps in Africa and Asia who live in abject poverty and are forced to deal with hostile locals, an almost total lack of economic opportunities, frequent gender based violence, high rates of crime and food shortages. They are obviously unable to pay many thousands of dollars to people smugglers.

The unintended consequence of the Rudd government policies is that able bodied men with substantial financial resources to pay people smugglers are now able to take preference in Australia’s refugee resettlement program ahead of those refugees most in need (such as desperate women and children in squalid refugee camps), which is hardly a compassionate outcome at all.

Not even vaguely historically correct Hasbeen. Both the Sinhalese and the Tamils migrated to Sri Lanka about 2500 years ago.

There are 80,000 tamil migrants in Australia and about 180,000 Sri Lankans all up in Australia.

All hedging around the issue I see.

Those who say Howard's policies were effective are idiots. When he spends millions to keep one prisoner in a jail (refugee) in another country how can anyone say it's effective? It's rubbish.

How can any of you say using the Navy to transport refugees from one end of Australia to the other, pay a small, broke Nauru mega millions to land them and then accept most of them in Ox as refugees effective?

None of it was effective, it was simply a waste of money as most of those exact same people are here today, badly damaged mentally and are likely to be planning revenge for the way they were treated. That's success?

Rudd doesn't know what to do so he keeps piling them up at Xmas Island whereby they end up here.

Frankly I'm sick of it. Put them on a plane and send them back where they came from. Nobody can tell me that groups of Afghans have $15000 to spend on a leaky boat risk. They don't have that much money. If they did they would just fly in and hide like the bulk of illegal immigrants do.

So, succesful boat policy? Total rubbish! It just meant they flew in instead you morons. How do you stop them pray tell? Racial profiling?

What I'd like to see is an immigration policy that suits those of us that actually LIVE HERE. How can we plan our lives by working hard, marrying, buying a home and having kids when the govt may just dump 500 Swahili's into your neighbourhood? What about US for a change? We come first, refugees last. Their country rejected them, not us. Send them home and apply for immigration. If they don't get on with their govt that is their problem, not ours. We can't accomodate all of these people.

And sure, shout racist at me. I have a aboriginal son in law and two aboriginal grandchildren who I love. If I'm racist what are you?

Hasbeen
As usual your archaic views show you for what you are. Your unwarranted attack on the author personally and not what he says proves his point.
The conservative approach to everything is to victimise rather than think.
The topic was refugees not the author's income or life worth.

Well said,Amicus and Hasbeen.
Has it not struck anyone(?) that somehow the UN never presses the Koreas,Japan or China and Burma to take their share of Afghan and Sri Lankan refugees? They all head to Australia. The UN Refugee Org has recently asked us to take in an additional 4800 refugees from camps in Sudan and Somalia and these countries have recently been put on the terror watch list by the USA,UK and here in Australia. The bloody UN authoriteies have thoroughly exhausted our humanitarian capacity.

NO MORE!!
Ask the others to do their bit. The next boat load should be directed to Burma, Soputh and North Korea and Japan.

socratease

But we were planning to put them in your neighbourhood...