Those who are in our region and find themselves in distress may have grounds to seek refuge in our country. Those from far away countries should seek refuge in their regions should they need to.

Under the arcane refugee rules Saddam Hussein could make application to be classified as a refugee if he made it to Ashmore Reef.

1. Australia has signed international treaties which oblige it to offer protection to those with a well founded fear of persecution.

2. If Australia does not wish to adhere to its international legal obligations, then it should drop the pretence, and officially withdraw from them. The current approach of pretending to adhere to them, but moving the Australian borders so that nobody can find them is pure hypocrisy.

3. The vast majority of asylum seekers have been proven to be genuine refugees.

4. Suggesting that the West Papuans are the aggressors against the poor, peace loving Indonesian military is pure twaddle.

Ever heard of the idea of wanting to get as far away as possible?
Also the Author start this piece with a rather big statement which is compete crap. Should the US not have fought it's war of independence?

Dear Sir,

Have you heard the expression "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?

The status of the West Papuans was determined by an independent tribunal applying Australian law. The Parliament has decided that there should be no change to the system. The rule of law in operation - it works for me. Perhaps our most celebrated recent arrivals were fleeing West Papua for precisely that reason: to flee a place where the rule of law does not apply, where rules are not applied, and arbitrariness is the norm. You couldn't blame them for leaving.

Try to keep that biblical adage in mind, my friend

I'm astounded that someone with pretensions toward some kind of understanding of international politics would group the struggle of the west papuans alongside the west Australians.

Lets see now... the papuan culture is still very tribally oriented, and while many parts of indonesia are as well, there is no real comparison between the power and sophistication of the two groups - racially, culturally and economically they are two very different people, and one is being utterly subsumed by the other.

What exactly should they do? quit complaining and lie down and take it? Be a good little local culture and get oppressed and wiped out?

It worked fine for the aboriginals, native americans and the majority of native people who had their lands colonised right?

The 'not our problem' argument is one I've advocated in plenty of conflicts, though I'd be interested to see Des Moore's opinion of conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan. I'd be happy to go along with an 'its not our problem' approach, but seriously, the conflicts were are involved in are much further away, and except for ingratiating ourselves to the US, they are much less relevant.

Des, my understanding is that the WA secession resolution was merely allowed to lapse after the heat of the moment. They were not "denied" as you claim. Furthermore, where, in the UN declaration on human rights is there a provision for some sort of veto, by an existing colonial or majority power, over the legitimate aspirations of a secessionist minority? There is none.

And your assertion that there is some sort of democratic right of a majority to deny the right to self determination of a minority is as offensive as it is ignorant. It is like suggesting that a husband should have a right to deny his estranged wife's right to a divorce. The proof of both a marriage and a national entity is whether it actually works for both parties. Clearly, Indonesia is not working for the West Papuans.

You then go on to imply that West Papuans do not even have a right, if they were to gain lawful entry, to enjoy the same rights of free expression that the rest of us regard as core values. You single out West Papuans as the only migrants who should be discouraged because of the diplomatic consequences of them presenting their side of their story. You need to take a good long look at yourself before trying to take our concepts of rights and liberties back before the days of Edmund Burke et al.