DreamOn

quote "Hmmm .. now what's the first thing that you'd do. I know, u'd put on pink and ?yellow? stars and go down to the nearest tin pot pom consulate, WITH YOUR DOCUMENTS, and present for a visa."

They can get a passport though from what I read, unless they were members of LTTE. It appears likely the LTTE diaspora is funding these movements. There have also raised funds from human trafficking. So we welcome some in then they send the money for more to come, not a cycle I would generally support.

So is this true, that the general Tamil population cannot get a passport? I cannot see there is this problem, from what official documentation I can find. I do not think the Sri Lankan government would be hell bent on keeping them. LTTE members though, refused a passport, because they are listed as a known terrorism organisation and UN has confirmed their involvement in human rights abuses.

Many will flee for their lives..because they have been evil and involved in ethnic cleansing, child exploitation and war crimes. refused a passport so they cannot travel. I do need to hear how those Tamils not involved in LTTE cannot get documentation?

I am not an expert by a long way but the few Sri Lankans I know are spitting chips that some people are falling for these stories. Not easy to see a clear real picture.

DreamOn,

If it were me in WWII Germany, I would grab my documents, and escape to Switzerland any way I could. Then I would front up at an embassy in Switzerland and ask for asylum. I wouldn't continue on and pay top dollar trying to reach Australia on a rickety boat.

Noone has made any reply to my question earlier.

Once a "refugee" has escaped persecution in their own country, do they then cease to be considered a refugee?

Or does being persecuted in your own country give you a free pass to settle anywhere in the world?

Comments?

In nearly all emotional matters rhetoric, exaggeration and emotive slogans masquerade as truths, but they are essentially beliefs and do need to be logically challenged. It is all too easy for Greg Barns to write a few emotionally charged sentences laced with emotive phrases such as “grossest abuses of human rights” and “xenophobic underbelly of this island continent” and “he [Phillip Ruddock] and his prime minister John Howard, turned this nation's soul into a dark and menacing beast that was the shame of the world”.

Perhaps a more balanced and credible view can be obtained from well researched academic papers that put aside emotion and present factual information. On the detention center issue the following academic paper is perhaps well worth reading to balance Greg Barn’s strident and emotive rhetoric:

“Woomera: Hell Holes and Mandatory Detention of Illegal Immigrants” by Gary Klintworth, a former member of the Refugee Review Tribunal, which can be downloaded from:

http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/cart/download/free.php?paper=45

franklin,
A very interesting paper you gave us the link to.

I see it is from Monash Uni and from People and Place, but i could not find a date.

can you provide a date?

Banjo, you should learn to right-click on your mouse.

It's from 2001, and is an apologetic for the execrable Howard-era policy of detaining asylum seekers including children in the gulag that they created.

Rudd's approach isn't much better, but at least our government doesn't imprison and abuse refugee kids any more.

No you are right CJ, the Australian Government is now disgracefuly consigning them to the tender mercies of the Indonesians and pretending that's different from Howard's solution and what's more is utterly disgustingly trying to present that as an humanitarin action.

Come on CJ show us your decency and consistacy and that you are not as hypocritical as your 'do no wrong' hero, and criticize Kevvie the great sneaking gutless wonder. And do it in the same terms you critise Howard and those who supported his solution.

Unless you do you will be totally lacking in credibility.