Well said, Runner. How brutal can Australians be if they treat all refugees equally? What is definitely brutal is the way refugees died attempting to reach Christmas Island. Why would they attempt suicidal voyages if it gave them no advantage over millions of other refugees?

If there is any brutality it is in the current policy. Equality of treatment for refugees is essential if further brutal and senseless deaths are to be avoided.

...and cutting the engines Bazz as to appear 'stranded'in the face of authorities they were expecting from the outset of their trip.

The wild seas buffetted them into the rocks as we all know [cutting the engines previously would never have given them a hope in the world near rocks].

I was stranded in between large boulders out at sea 12 years ago with a 75 little motor [4 metre swell] with a southerly blowing a gale late in the afternoon [the weather forecast that morning did not forecast the change].

The motor was useless bogging and the boat heading towards the waves banging up against the boulders; a couple of sharks would be happy that evening.

My praying went into overtime that the motor would move us in a hurry against the strong winds and high seas as we moved closer to the boulders and rocks within the small enclosed area.

The motor stopped bogging [for 15 minutes which seemed like an hour] it had not moved us from the area at all.

For the next 2 hours I thanked God and vowed I'd assist as many people, on as many occasions, throughout the life He gave me.

Lexi,

The present cost of processing and resettling boat people is more than $2bn p.a.

Considering that an estimated 200 have drowned this year, how brutal is the existing policy.

There are nearly 150 000 refugees in Indonesia awaiting placement, and 400 million world wide. How many do we take? The people get on boats to jump the queue. Taking more in Indonesia would make no difference.

Lexi and those of similar persuasion annoy me.
What on earth do they think is the alternative ?
Just let in all who turn up anywhere by any means ?

The world is overpopulated by many billions.
How many billions would you let in ?
Eventually they will stop coming in old fishing boats and start coming
in old freighters with one or two thousand on board.
Lexi will now say I am being ridiculous, well I have news for Lexi and
others, that is just waht has happened in Canada.
Three feighters were bought by a Tamil organisation, loaded up and
finally docked at Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Make no mistake that is what we are facing, and the latest disaster
will prompt it to happen sooner as the market will demand larger
ships than the clapped out fishing boats that have been the standard so far.
It will solve the Christmas Island crowding as they will dock in Darling Harbour.

Shadow Minister:

The verdict of the world is: they're heading your way, so they're yours. This was a lesson that was learned after the knockback from Norway, in July 2003. It marked the start of a long, slow retreat by the Howard government as everyone left on Manus and Nauru Islands were gradually brought here. Some rotted on the islands for more than five years some went mad waiting; but in the end the largest single group of people fed through the Pacific Solution ended up where they were always heading: Australia. Yet somehow there survives as David Marr points out: "an unshakeable hope that if we process boat people elsewhere, then someone else will take them." Marr tells us that a
"Nielsen poll conducted for the Herald in early June found that despite the sad unwinding of the Pacific Solution, 62 per cent of Australians continue to support "the Howard government's policy of processing asylum seekers in countries outside Australia."

And as we know, and Marr confirms - " once more our diplomats are fanning out around the world seeking countries to take the problem off our hands: first, to find a client state where boat people can be processed, and then to enlist a few countries willing to give refugees processed there somewhere to start a new life. It's a unique ambition. No other country on earth has managed its refugees this way."

I really have nothing more to say on this topic. See you on another of your threads (or maybe not).

Lexi,

The hateful policy of encouraging people to die on ramshackle boats needs to be reversed.

As the statistics I showed above, the off shore processing combined with temporary protection visas slowed the boats to a trickle.

Australia has a quota for refugees. The question is whether we choose the most needy, or the more affluent risk their lives on boats.

The bottom line is that boats kill people. We need to stop the boats.