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The Forum > Article Comments > Australia exports its draconian immigration system > Comments

Australia exports its draconian immigration system : Comments

By James Norman, published 15/9/2008

The EU is moving towards an immigration policy that includes tightly secured borders, stiff penalties and forced detention.

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An Essential Research Poll which came in the wake of the Labor Government's announcement that it was liberalising mandatory detention policy indicated that Australians still retain a hardline attitude towards asylum seekers. Less than a quarter of respondents (24%) said the past policy on asylum seekers had been too tough, while 62% said it had been right or not tough enough. The poll also reported that a majority of Australians think that the country is now taking too many refugees.

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.
Posted by franklin, Friday, 26 September 2008 12:46:00 PM
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There is no argument about Australia becoming more of an integrated multi-national country.We need to be, or our economy will come to a shuddering halt and our development will be retarded if not halted. One cannot help noticing each quarter if not each passing month how our shopping centres are palpably revealing the growth of migrant population in Australia.There has been a sort of explosion of peoples from the Middle East,India, Malaysia,Vietnam,China,the Philippines, and now from African countries from East Africa,central,west and South Africa.And I find it so stimulating as I talk to them and ask where they are from and how they are getting on and they are only too happy to tell me their stories which I find sometimes terribly sad and sometimes so inspiring.And that is as it should be. This is proof of a responsible and effective immigration policy that is working so well as far as i can see.
There is only one thing that I for one as an Australian require of them and that is that they make no attempt to subvert our secular democratic society and integrate peacefully and become Australians.

That doesnt mean that we should abolish our detention centres and monitoring scrutiny and repatriate those who are security services reject.I am totally opposed to detaining them for a period of time and then offering them extended work visas to enable them to qualify in a job and be given permanent residence afterwards.Why put them into detention centres in that case? If they were found to be unfit for assimilation then they wil still be suspect somewhat later down the track.Some undesirable and criminal elements have fooled us and crept in already.We need to beef up our intelligence services and train them more effectively and then have the guts to deport the undesirables ASAP.

socratease
Posted by socratease, Saturday, 27 September 2008 11:46:34 PM
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