Ludwig, Just what advantages do you see in MAKING people do what they would do naturally?
Would you be looking to maximize participation?
Do you think it would discourage making the voyage?
Do you think the incentive to supplement income by growing food would be too weak? Or that they would rather sit in detention for 5 years?
If you believe in these or other reasons, I hope you will go into them a bit.

Landrights4all, the important thing is to stop the boats and regain control of our borders, and exercise our refugee-assistance entirely through offshore programs that are within our formal immigration program, and via international aid.

This subject of asylum seekers doing a bit of work for the Australian community is very much off to the side of my concerns.

If we are to have asylum seekers and they are to live in the community and not in detention centres, then they should absolutely be required to do some sort of work that would benefit the Australian community and help reduce the enormous cost of their support and processing.

But of course, there should be NO asylum seekers that don’t go to detention centres, and for a considerable period of time, except maybe children.

The fact that some asylum seekers get to live in the community straight up surely adds greatly to the pull factors. And we absolutely need to address all significant pull factors in order to stifle the motivation for people making the trip to Australia by rickety boat.

continued

Working for 15 hours a week, ongoing, until they have paid off all the expenses of supporting and processing them, or until they get their claims rejected and are deported, or if accepted as refugees; until they get fulltime work, seems like a sensible idea to me….just for as long as there is a net benefit to the community, and it is not more trouble than it is worth.

This sort of thing would perhaps add slightly to the deterrence factor to would-be new arrivals. But it is hardly significant compared to whether they would be living in a centre in Nauru or Manus Island or moving pretty freely in Sydney or Melbourne.

A work scheme that includes agricultural pursuits whereby asylum seekers grow some of their own food and give some to the community would be good.

But I think such schemes should be limited to those who get refugee determination and then settle in the general community. I shouldn’t have even broached the idea of asylum seekers doing this, because they should not be outside of detention centres until their claims are processed and approved, and they have done a minimum period of time in there as a fundamental part of the deterrence factor.

Trading insults and name calling on this thread does nothing to help the situation this government has put us in.

Another boat sinks and 33 more drowned with no comment by the government.

So now we have over 1000 drowned.

A flood of illegal entrants, so we cannot cope

A cost of billions of dollars, that could have been used to benefit Australians.

Previously we had a system that worked, with hardly any illegal arrivals. This is a glaring example of the incompedence of the Rudd/Gillard government. Have they put ideology before common sense or is it just stupidity? Either way a complete stuff up.

This issue alone should see the Labor government dismissed for many years to come

Ludwig, If I was a genuine refugee, nothing Gillard or Abbot could do would deter me. I don't believe for a moment the boats can be stopped. I believe that whatever is done, the numbers will keep growing until there is a balanced population throughout our region and a balanced living standard. I think only a war between the poor and rich (us) could put this balancing off, but it would be short term and ultimately futile with lots of suffering and environmental damage which we can ill afford.
The smartest thing to do would be to lay foundations for a more sustainable economic pathway. Not only would the poor ( including refugees and the unemployed) be pleased to be able to have a recognised role in this, but the rest of society would benefit greatly too.

Paul1405 Quote "80% of refugees are at this moment living in third world countries" - This sound like a compelling winning statement on your behalf EXCEPT for 2 MAJOR points.
1 Those 80% are being supported and kept alive by the MONEY from mostly western countries or Arab countries pressured by western countries.

2) Those third world countries give then nothing but the land they can temporarily use for the camps.

It is only STUPID western countries that put out the golden welcome mat.