My first comment would be: why are these unacompanied minors coming here? where are their parents? what are they coming here for? we must remember most of these children are Muslim from extremist countries, in these countries children are being trained as suicide bombers, are they coming here to be trained into that order of thinking, we have to be very careful with the do good approach that they are only children. Would you send your children on some leaky boat to some other country unless you had an ulterior motive behind it? they are coming here for a better life so we think, are they, or is there some other reason? Why do we not hear more about the many people from various countries waiting in line to come here legally, instead of the queue jumpers. The Government is doing the right thing, perhaps in fifty years we will know the truth

To the best of my knowledge, the eldest son of a family will be sent to safety in order to continue the family line. These children (some of them) carry the future existence of their families, on their shoulders.

I worry, too, about our moral compass. Mostly I worry about all those ageing Australians who forty or fifty years ago give birth to a disabled child. Devotedly they continue to care for that adult child for whom there exists no place in this country while parents are alive. Their great wish is to humanely transition their dependent person into alternative care while they are able to supervise. Their person will possibly have a cognitive age far lower than the child refugees. Yet this country feels it has a greater responsibility to families who abandon and risk the lives of their children than to its own citizens who have cared for decades and into their dotage.

Ojnab
You as the right question, why are these unaccompanied minors coming here? But you give the wrong answer.

Consider, if you are a parent, how desperate you would be to put your child into the hands of people smugglers, risking a potentially lethal boat journey for the uncertain prospect of a new life in a country far away where they may never see their family again. That’s how desperate these kids’ parents are (if they have parents). You say the kids come from countries where children are trained as suicide bombers. This is a rather sweeping generalisation, but let’s assume its true. If the options for your child were suicide bombing or risking the trip to Australia, which would you choose?

Yes! Estelles you are right, these minors should be home with their parents, if these people want to come here, including children, then they have to put up with the laws of Australia if they want to come illegally. Our committment as you say should be to look after our own, especially in the case you mention but these people would be put on the back burner in preference to these illegal immigrants including young adults.

When ever I see one of these pieces, I can't help thinking of a line from James Michener's Hawaii. One of his characters in the pre WW11 era of the book said when discussing major land holders in the islands, "The missionaries came here to do good, & they did very very well".

This says it all from my experience with NGO aid agencies. In quite a few years in the Pacific I saw very little of value for the locals done by the churches, other than a couple of nun run small hospitals.

Other than these, about the only ones I saw worth their space was some of the American Peace Core people. A few of them did much to help, although many of them were bit too much the idealist, & too impractical to achieve very much.

The last church do good scheme near here saw the church with a large grant to develop a half way house for prisoners. Somehow they over rode planning approval, & local resistance for an unsuitable sight. Still it did the job, when it closed on 3 years. The profit on the property when sold, was over a million. The pay for do gooders is quite high. I wonder if they got to keep the grant as well.

Paul, why don't you trot off to the countries concerned & do good. What ever you have to spend would go much further, & do some real good.

This government has no moral compass.

It is an absolute disgrace for them to involve us as a nation in the trading of people. Full Stop.

It is shifting our problem onto another less scruppled regime. It will do nothing for discouraging people from placing their lives and their childrens lives in the hands of smugglers with their dangerously unseaworthy boats and inexperienced crews.

We should simply return to the Pacific Solution even if we ramp up the number of refugees allowed to enter Australia.

As for the unaccompanied children. There is one simple way to discourage the practise of sending them.

Deny the option of family reunions but supply an additional option of a one way ticket home.

This must be one of the easiest 'moral' issues ever.

If you find a child in a shopping centre, what do you do? Bugger me, you put out a PA and find the parents. You put the child back in the arms of the parents - which is where the child should have been the whole time.

Let's stop anguishing about something so simple.

So we have gathered, according to people against sending them to Malaysia, that if an unaccompanied minor arrives in our custody, it is our obligation to adopt them to an Australian carer while they are being processed.
So therefore;
1- if they are accepted, do they become legally adopted by the foster family?
2- what happens if the parents show up and they fall short of the criteria, are mentally unstable, dangerous, religious fanatics etc?
Do we bar them entry (thus dividing the child from their biological parents, but retaining our right to personal safety)- or provide the child with the option to rejoin their parents in deportation (of course, if they refuse, they may grow up resentful).

For that matter- what if the children themselves show symptoms of antisocial behaviour, religious fanaticism, low moral development, etc?

A lot of considerations that are being overlooked in this issue.

Paul,
I go along with Hasbeen, you'd be far better qualified to comment were you to spend time & money (yours, not mine) at the departure places whence these children are being sent from.
Academic idealism is simply ineffective in a real life situation. If you
re really concerned about the welfare of those people & their children you should go to their villages & help them help themselves. I can almost guarantee that that's not what they want. They don't want a better life, they're following orders to ruin the West. Or do you believe that running away from a system that's no good but still bring that system here & try to enforce it it is looking for a better life ? Better have another glass of warm wine mate.

i never thought i would hear both christians & loony left bleeding hearts advocating the break up of families, the neglect & abuse of children.

clearly the most moral, humane thing to do is to return these children immediately to where ever they came from so they can be re united with their mother.

Shame on all of you for even daring to suggest anything else.