"Looks like Sancho has gone after being confronted a few facts." (Quote: Bongo).

This is bliddy irritating! What smarmy arrogance!

I haven't backed away-I'm tired is all.

We now have Sri Lankans on their way. You can bet your boots that they're Tamil Tigers hell bent on taking over our country.

That's it. I'm going to Araldite the BBQ to the back wall.

I'm ready for 'em.

............that 'server error' thing is an absolute turd! Trying for the fourth time...

All-,
Bloody oath, I agree with you The WHOLE book should be thrown at the bastards that traffic in these girls. They are held captive and can't speak English and got no hope. It seems, under the present set up, the girls are held as the crimials when it should be the trafficers.

A much, much tougher line has to be taken here and if anyone deserved permanent residency it should be these girls, if they want that.

If I had anything to do with this I would give the girls every opportunity I could and really smash the trafficers.

It reaslly troubles me that the ones that are trafficing seem to get off lightly.

If you can get some stats or other validation on this I would like to know.

Don't worry Ginx - Inspector Bongo's on the case! While he's gathering data, he might like to check out the wealth of facts available at

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20090417-A-Crikey-index-Refugees-the-real-story.html

since his sleuthing talents obviously haven't extended thus far as yet. Who knows, he may even discover why his persistent and deliberate misuse of the pejorative term "illegals" is both incorrect in law and offensive.

Yabby: << I gather that there is already a UNHCR processing centre in Indonesia, only their criteria are a bit stricter then those in Aus, so alot lower% of people are found to be genuine. >>

That's just crap Yabby - the criteria are exactly the same. The trouble is, of those found to be genuine asylum seekers by UNHCR less than 100 are accepted from refugee camps in Indonesia annually. If Australia (and other wealthy nations) were to set up their own processing centres there would undoubtedly be enormous benefits to the hapless refugees who are stuck in limbo in Indonesia.

In fact, they might even set up something like a 'queue' of the sort that onshore refugees are often accused of 'jumping'. Currently, there isn't one.

That's what you were arguing for, wasn't it Yabby - a fair go for refugees? Or were you just having a lend of us like I suggested?

*You mentioned that the UNHCR criteria defining a genuine refugee was stricter that what the Aussie criteria is*

Banjo, as far as I know, the definiton is the same, just that our
Aussies are perhaps more gullible then some of the UNHCR officers.

Now just imagine if Bronwyn, Fractelle and Foxy had the job of
interviewing potential applicants. Hehe, they would be a pushover :)

I just remember the figures from when they were debated back a few
years ago. Acceptance in Australia was around 90%, in Indonesia by
UNHCR officers, around 60%.

These are the UNHCR definitions, it is pretty easy to claim
asylum, that is why I think the 1951 Convention needs updating
to cope with today's world.

http://www.unhcr.org.uk/press/reporting/guidance/terminology.html

As to people burning their passports, they do it because it gets
them results. In my opinion, much has changed in terms of our
international relations, with Indonesia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

If a Govt with testicles set out to end the boat trade, sending
people home, even after they have burned their passports, would
put a stop to that.

But of course most of our politicians are poodles, few have any
testicles left, so they will just plod on, blame those evil
people transporters and refuse to address the core problem of this
issue.

I caught the SBS late news a short time ago:

Within a short time it was blatantly obvious what line SBS favoured re refugees: it wasn’t so much as news program as a re-education session.

First they had Rudd giving his spiel: the surge in refugees reflected a spike in world refugees and the current trouble in Sri Lanka was likely to add to that regionally.
[The camera stayed on Rudd while he spoke, without interruption]
Then they had Julian Burnside QC: the burn victims had suffered horribly and it would be immoral to send them back to Indonesia and even worse to send them back to where they originally came from.
[again the camera stayed on Burnsides face as he spoke, without interruption ]
Then they had an SBS reporter: with a graph showing how few refugees arrivals we had had last year compared to Yemen & two other countries, whose names escapes me.
[ The camera gave the report its full attention ]
Then they had Tim Costello preaching ‘compassion’ and decrying the ‘hysteria’.
[ again full attention –uninterrupted speech]
And finally-and with the shortest time clip of all –they had Malcolm Turnbull.From memory – because it was only very short –Malcolm didn’t actually get to speak for himself – we were told he had criticised the govts refugee policy.
[.While Malcolm’s position was being reported, the camera actually cut back to the burning boat and the refugees in the water ]

So much for fair an balance reporting --- Goebbels could not have done it any better!

Anyway – I wasn’t going to get back into the fray because, when I checked earlier in the evening, peace and goodwill seemed to have broken out ¬.

And Ginx had written a warm & sensitive post earlier in the day – before she got all grumpy again .

My original intention was to simply to say Hi , thanks and all the best Ginx &,PS I hope any personal issues you have are resolved real soon…



Cheers!

Ooo, I know Horrie; I know. But when I see more .rap.....

Still, I do like what you were going to say. Thanks!