The SMH has a story this morning about why the Tamils come on boats.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/tamils-why-we-get-on-the-boats-20120720-22fuj.html

The reason generally given for not sending ALL the illegals back home is because we cannot identify who they are or where they come from. However that should not be the case with the Sri Lankens. They should be easy enough to identify where they come from.

It appears that the Sri Lanken government will co-operate with us, so why not hold them untill we have a plane load and then send them back.

It appears that about 1500 have made it here in the last 12 months so we should have been able to be rid of them.

Obviously our government is not trying or perhaps they want them to come. Could be part of the deal with the Greens. They don't care if a few don't make it.

Banjo if such a deal with the greens exists[ do not think so] it will not post Gillard.
Taking a deep breath here, is truth worth it?
YES, not keen on boats coming ,rather Tamils than some.

Dear Banjo,

We as a civilised society are obligated under
International Law to at least assess people's
applications for asylum. Sending people back
to countries from which they are fleeing persecution
would be considered unhumane. We've never questioned
the right of people to seek asylum in the past -
why should we begin to do so now? And why Tamils?
Are their requests for asylum somehow lesser than
those of others? Or are you suggesting that their
fears are not real? As far as I know the Tamil religion
does not fit into the Sri Lankan culture and they are
being persecuted. Besides the Tamils want Independence
in their own right just like the previous Soviet-occupied
countries.

Lexi,
First of all we should assume that ALL illegal arrivals are out to deceive us, otherwise they would come via the front door.

Why send the Tamils back, or should I say Sri Lankens? Because we can identify where they come from as they sail here direct with a Sri Lanken boat and Sri Lanken crew. I do not see them as proporting to be some other nationality. It seems they are NOT persecuted and come here for purely economic reasons, as the SMH article reports. So they would not qualify as refugees. In any case, someone fleeing Sri Lanka would simply go to India, which is close and has a large tamil community.

we should not be accepting these people as refugees.

Belly,
Both Rudd and Gillard said they would stop the boats and have failed to do so. Rudd and the 'Oceanic Viking' incident was pathetic. Force should have been used to remove the hijackers or set sail for Sri Lanka and let the police there remove them.

It wpould not surprise if Gillard did a deal with the greens about illegals, as she has done nothing to stop the boats and the greens acknowledge they want the influx to continue. Didn't Hanson-Young simply pass the deaths off as expected.

I personally have nothing against Sri Lankens, except the illegals, and think they would make better citizens than some others. But the point is they are illegal and should not be here.

Dear Banjo,

I got this from the web and I think it
sums things up quite well:

"Neither major party has a viable policy that can
do what they say it will. Neither major party can
offer up any new perspective or ideas. While other
policies are available to be tried, they are
politically unacceptable to many voters. So the
endless rounds of accusations, recriminations and failure
will go on. The boats will keep coming. People will keep
dying. There's no end in sight."

I'm not in a position to make judgements about
someone's application for refugee status. Or they're
"legality" - I'll leave that up to the experts. All I
know is that people have a right to seek asylum -
and each application has to be assessed individually.
I prefer not to make sweeping statements about any
group of people or tar every one with the same brush.
But, hey - that's just me.

See you on another thread

We as a civilised society are obligated
Lexi,
Noble sentiments yes but so far from reality that they sound more like a joke. We know that troubled/troublesome people will hardly ever become the opposite in their adopted country because their problems which they bring with them have nothing to do with the country they leave. these problems are religious fanaticism & that fanaticism is not left behind or destroyed with their papers before they come here.