Horus

<< With all due respect ---that description could equally apply to many of the poorer suburbs, in many of the third worlds cities. >>

With all due respect to yourself, even though in this case it's hardly well earned, the current situation in Sri Lanka cannot just be likened to any poor suburb of any third world city, dire though of course many such suburbs certainly are.

You're obviously not aware that the situation in question is being described in terms of 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide'. Over a quarter of a million Tamils have been rounded up and herded off their land, during which time an estimated 20 000 were killed. Hundreds are dying every week in the camps they've been herded into, and not all are dying from disease and starvation. They're being murdered both in and outside the camps. They've been told their land is riddled with landmines and that there are plans to install Sinhala populations in former Tamil areas.

No Horus, I'll show you more respect when you stop talking through your hat and start researching the lives of the people you're so quick to renounce as cheats and impostors.

Banjo

<< Fleeing persecution and death, be damned, they have been laying around in Indonesia for years. >>

Again, if you'd bothered to check your facts, you'd know that Tamils have faced persecution in Sri Lanka for many years. This morning's news is no real surprise to many. These people it seems, along with thousands of others, have been registered years ago by the UNHCR as genuine refugees, and very understandably are sick of being warehoused in a squalid, overcrowded and forgotten limbo world created directly as a result of John Howard's and Kevin Rudd's 'push back and warehouse' policies. They know full well by now that no country is going to come along and take them in. They've been left in the unenviable position of people-smugglers being their only option.

I guarantee you'd take the same course if in their shoes, though of course that sort of empathy is probably beyond you.

Banjo, I'm referring to people who enter "legally" via plane and claim asylum status. I thought I made that clear .... there's MANY thousands of them every year, and MANY thousands of them SUCCESSFULLY gain asylum here; a FAR greater number than boat people.

This is what I've been saying all along. People, such as you, DEMONISE boat people, but IGNORE plane people. In your post you accused these Sri Lankan boat people of "avoiding prosecution for crimes" and compared them to "nazis". Take a look at your language. It's the language of illogical paranoia. People like you TARGET boat people because they're easy targets. Your comments are cruel and inhumane.

ANY boat person found to be not genuine (historically it's been a tiny, tiny, tiny minority), should be sent back to their country of origin ..... I doubt ANYONE SERIOUSLY DENIES THAT SHOULD BE THE CASE. But the whingers and complainers aren't happy with just that. The leaders want to DEMONISE boat people for political advantage, and their followers want to DEMONISE boat people out of fear.

Australia is changing, and the bigots are becoming fewer in number every year, thank God.

Shadow minister, that quota is NOT an inflexible quota. Get your facts right. You have been unable to name even ONE person, who is currently listed in a queue, who has been denied asylum in Australia specifically because of boat people. People like you just LOVE to feed the great lie, "boat people queue jump and deny refugees a place here" .... that's a LIE, LIE, LIE. Anyone who is not to the right of Attila The Hun knows the so called "Pacific Solution" did NOT stop boat people. I've already explained why there was a lull in boat people (but NOT plane people)at the time....... but I guess one can't retrain any trained monkey who falls for the political spin surrounding the demonisation of boat people.

No matter what is true or not about all the boat-people asylum seekers and the countries they come from, the fact still remains that it is way too dangerous for small boats with too many people aboard to travel by sea to Australia.

No matter how dire their situation is, shouldn't we be doing all we can to dissuade these people from arriving here that way? How many boats with lots of people aboard sink without a trace that we never hear about?

The racists and non-racists of this country can argue with each other until they are blue in the face, but that won't change what is essentially a suicide mission for many of these boat people.
They should be stopped by whatever ways we can.

Suzzieonline;
These boats are normally going to sea fishing and the crew are the fishermen.
If they knew the boat was unseaworthy, they would not take it to sea
no matter how much they were paid.

These are the same boats you see the Navy chasing up for illegal
fishing. They are probably told by the smugglers they will only get
a few months in a Darwin holiday camp.
The larger ones are probably used for inter island trade.
Boats like these are at sea all around the Indonesian archipelago.
Some do get into trouble, but the design has been developed over
many generations. Sure they don't have much more equipment than a GPS
a compass and a radio, but you are talking about experienced seamen.

Suze, you've betrayed yourself via your "language".

It all sounded pretty good - - - - - - - till you dropped that last sentence on us. This is something that some people do - - - they don't want "outsiders" here at all, so they use the pretense of concern for the boat peoples' welfare as a cloak for their opposition to boat people. Eventually their "language" betrays them, and often it takes just a sentence or two.

"They should be stopped by whatever ways we can" says Suze. That's easy to say, sitting comfortably behind your computer, belly full of lovely food, happy home life (hopefully), in no constant fear of being raped, assaulted, shot, knifed, bombed, persecuted with no viable future for your children, yourself or your spouse. "Whatever ways we can"? Suze, if you really cared, you'd be writing about ways to improve the speed of resettlement, ways to solve homeland conflicts, helping the thousands of children who live like animals (but at least some animals have a brighter future than some of these kids) etc etc etc. But no, they should be STOPPED by WHATEVER WAY WE CAN. Suze, I hope you enjoy your belly full of food, the education you've received, the nice house you live in.

What would you do if you were in an asylum seeker's shoes Suze? EXACTLY THE SAME I bet. And so would MOST people.

To expect people to sit passively for 5, 10, 15 years (it happens all the time) and subjugate themselves this way,(just as long as they are "there" and not "here") shows an appalling inhumanity by anyone who is happy to subject people to this type of life.The world needs to share the load and provide safe asylum for people in danger or those without a future.

But the world largely just doesn't care. Just like some of the people here. It's terribly sad.

TZ52HX,
"Many thousands of them" Your source? Keep in mind once they are approved by UN and we agree they are transported here by plane.
If you are talking about over stayers of visas I think you'll find they are from elsewhere.

Mind you one could argue that NZ is overly represented here and those voracious tourists consume and defile our valuable resources etc.

Suzie,
Good point
I often bang on about how we should spend our money more productively and constructively by helping the refugees to want to stay home.

In truth they would prefer to if they had adequate positive reason.

Suppose for some reason our coastal regions became unlivable suddenly
we had to migrate would you or any of us really do that lightly?
Suppose we could make more money better lifestyle in the US would you move? probably not! Take the Mong community in the states many simply went to sleep never to awake, they willed themselves to death they fretted that much for their home, poverty and all.
I wonder why some people think that the same reasoning doesn't apply to refugees? It does.

I suggest that a comparative little would keep them home in the environment they prefer. And let them develop the way they are happy with. What is so fab about our way of life? suicide, depression, addictions et al all threatening to overwhelm our society's social services' charity et sec.
Think about downsizers and sea changers.All are seeking happiness yet left alone these people have little or none of the above. Why?