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The Forum > Article Comments > Let's not forget the SIEV-X > Comments

Let's not forget the SIEV-X : Comments

By Susan Metcalfe, published 17/6/2008

'Hope', a documentary by Steve Thomas and Sue Brooks, is Amal Hassan Basry’s story - a survivor of the ill-fated SIEV-X.

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Obviously a must see film. No matter on which side of the political fence you sit.

The remarks of some posters made feel naseous, but then I remembered that they speak from the comfort and security of being Australian and living here without any personal experience whatsoever of war or political terror. Or indeed, the remotest possibility of ever experiencing this.

You have no idea, or the imagination, what it is like to live with relentless terror. If you did, you would know that what seems irrational to you here in Australia might appear to be the most logical thing to do when fleeing with your children away from a situation through a hostile 'host' country. The things that you see briefly on the news or in interesting exposes in current affair programmes is the daily reality year in and year out for some people.

We are not removed or can shield ourselves from the consequences, such as displaced people just because we want to. We are actively involved.

It is not logical to demand isolation politics in one area and yet expect to reap the economic rewards from a global world.

Australia, like other Western countries, are not like Iran, Indonesia, Sudan, Pakistan, or any of those third world countries that bear the brunt of the vast majority of refugees. There is hope for a future here, and peace.

Just to say that we are an open democratic society where our government is held accountable is not enough. It must be seen to be so. We meddle and exert pressure in other nations, that requires a certain moral authority.
Posted by yvonne, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 9:42:32 PM
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It seems that some believe that it was entirely the victims' own fault and they just got what they deserved.
Posted by wobbles, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 11:09:40 PM
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QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE
ADDITIONAL BUDGET ESTIMATES HEARING: 19 FEBRUARY 2008
IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP PORTFOLIO
(29) Output 1.6: Offshore Asylum Seeker Management
Senator Nettle (L&CA 97) asked:
There used to be a table that we got as part of questions on notice—I think Senator Ludwig used to ask for it—about the cost of processing detainees at the different detention centres. Is it possible to get an update of that table?
Answer:
The cost of processing asylum seekers in Nauru and Manus Province, PNG, from 2001 to 31 December 2007 was $305 million, including departmental costs in Australia.
The costs, in millions of dollars for each centre by years are contained in the following table:
CENTRE
YEAR
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
1 Jul 07 -31 Dec 07
TOTAL
NAURU
48.5
45.0
33.6
34.4
26.4
29.7
15.4
233
MANUS
29.4
20.6
6.2
1.8
2.4
1.4
0.4
62.2
NATIONAL OFFICE CO-ORD
2.4
2.3
1.5
1.3
1.0
1.0
0.3
9.8
TOTAL
80.3
67.9
41.3
37.5
29.8
32.1
16.1
305

Your taxes at work. Remember that this $305 million is only what DIMA cost. Then we had the millions in bribes to Nauru and Manus Island and the $350 million to the international organisation for migration.

During those years we spent $26 million one year to keep two Iraqis on Nauru and $6.2 million for one Palestinian on Manus Island.

To put all this into perspective for the ranters and haters we sent a lousy $50 million to the UNHCR to help the other 21 million refugees - that means we spent about $1 million each for the 1500 people to go to the Pacific islands and then bring them back here while we donated $2.30 per person per year to survive in places like Sri Lanka.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Thursday, 19 June 2008 3:08:09 AM
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Briefly tonykevin1, I concur in general with your fears of a redneck backlash, but think plerdsus was just making a general comment about immanent forces that are driving the mess that seiv X is a nasty symptom of.
re Col
Rouges comments, wasn't the reason the boat was overloaded due to reasons beyond the control of the victims, as mentioned by several posters. Was the senate inquiry fudged? Would it have been fudged if there was nothing to hide?
I was one who bought the queue jumper line back then, but ever since then inconvenient snippets keep turning up that really hint at something not just careless but egregious.
The Dr Haneef case was the last in a long line of incidents indicating just how untrustworthy the Howard government was when it came to being honest about controversial situations going back to Webb Dock.
Posted by paul walter, Thursday, 19 June 2008 8:23:26 PM
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WEll I have now seen the film. I cried for about 105 of the 110 minutes as I watched the enormous grief and courage of an amazingly gutsy woman dying of cancer who wanted to tell us her story. She was not a criminal, nor a queue jumper, nor any of the other vile things the Col Rouge's of this world choose to think.

It was wonderful during the film to discover Sondous Ismael who lost all those beautiful little girls is now an Australian with three little children. Najah and her sister Zena whom I had met in Adelaide made an appearance and their grief at the loss of another sister, a brother and Najah's baby boy was still palpable and made me want to hug them on the screen.

Faris Khadem lost his wife and little girl while his mother and son were locked in Woomera and is remarried and an Australian.

One of the most frightening things was Amal being denied entry to Indonesia where she was flying to try and get some answers - the Indonesian embassy here issued her a legal visa but she was denied entry? Was it because the main architect of Operation Relex is now the ambassador in Jakarta? Amal was allowed into Bangkok airport and Amman, Jordan and Tehran, Iran. Why not Indonesia?

The most devastating part of the film was the film maker dropping hundreds of flowers into the water at the port the boat left from.

For the haters I say this - these people are now Australian citizens and I for one demand you treat them with respect. They have suffered more than enough.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Friday, 20 June 2008 2:03:08 AM
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We tend to get two diametrically opposed views on this topic.

The fact is that in any group of refugees, there are those who are leaving their home country on the pretence of being refugees, but who are really doing it for economic reasons; and those who really are fleeing for genuine humanitarian reasons. The former are queue jumpers and should be put back in the rightful queue, but the latter should be treated in a way that is sympathetic to their situation. While both types are technically coming here illegally, the Department of Immigration should discriminate between the two, something it used to do, but seemingly not so much any more.

On another point, how is it that economic migrants do not have their fair share (going by the record numbers coming into our country) of undesirables but refugees do? There is definitely some victimisation of migrants going on based on whether or not they are economically "useful". As usual, the human side is monstered by greed and the need to fuel the economy.
Posted by RobP, Friday, 20 June 2008 1:23:31 PM
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