Australia drowns asylum seekers remotely

Jack Smit of Project Safecom, a venerable refugee rights web site, says that the Australian government needs to shoulder blame for recent drowning of asylum seekers off Indonesia (Immigrants drown after fleeing detention)

“The Australian government – more precisely, Australia’s Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans – will need to shoulder the blame for the drowning of at least four – but maybe more – asylum seekers enroute to Australia after their vessel capsized trying to reach the Australian coast”

“The Kupang Immigration Detention Centre from which the asylum seekers escaped prior to embarking for Australia, is funded by the Australian government and run by staff of the International Organisation for Migration – a commercial profit-making organisation regarded in some circles as having been involved in questionable practices”

And an email this morning from refugee@lists.justfreedom.org.au , commenting on an item from Xinhua news: Indonesia will repatriate stranded Burmese also places responsibility on Australia

“Australia has charged Indonesia with the responsibility of stopping asylum seekers making it to our shores. We are paying them millions of dollars to do it. Australia is thus saved from fulfilling its responsibility to the Refugee convention which we signed. Indonesia has not signed so her behaviour is not governed by human rights niceties.”

Oh ****, do we have to worry about the entire WORLD now? (And it’s so hot!)

Well, I guess the answer to that can only be YES.

War Zone Theme Park provided by UNHCR

VIPs at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos have been personally invited by Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to ‘Experience life as a refugee!’ at the ‘Refugee Run’ event.

“Just five minutes’ walk from the Congress Centre, you can enter a simulated environment that will thrust you into a war zone. You will meet a rebel attack, navigate a mine field and battle life in a refugee camp. (Spoiler alert: No harm will come to you!)”

It’s a shame that I came across this too late for the VIP event (29 January) but we can still visit it with the hoi polloi since it’s open till February 1st.

William Easterly at Aid Watch says

“Did the words ‘insensitive’, ‘dehumanizing’, or ‘disrespectful’ (not to mention ‘ludicrous’) ever come up in discussing the plans for ‘Refugee Run’?”

Ill-treating asylum seekers

Thailand has been in the news for ill-treating asylum seekers. The Thai authorities have been lining up the Rohingya who have fled Burma where, according to Amnesty International their

“freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Myanmar citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade.”

Tourists in Thailand have sent photos of Rohingya asylum seekers lined up on beaches at gunpoint. They are then over-leaded into unseaworthy vessels, towed out to open waters and then set adrift, sometimes with no food and water and no engines for the boats.

Shocking? Yes. Should Australia caution Thailand about the hman righhts of asylum seekers? Depends.

Andre Bartlett writes that

For those who think a few hundred asylum seekers a year poses an unacceptable burden for Australia, it is worth noting the acknowledgement by Amnesty of ‘Thailand’s role over the last several decades in providing temporary protection to hundreds of thousands of people who have fled persecution and conflict in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos’.

If Australia is seen to once again be turning boats of asylum seekers back, detaining refugees for prolonged periods or refusing to allow the proper assessment of asylum claims, it will be sending a clear message to our near neighbours that it is also acceptable for them to mistreat the much larger numbers of asylum seekers in their countries.”

The Rudd government has not turned back any boats, has kept its promise to process asylum claims with alacrity, and abolished the Temporary Protection Visa, which was a punitive ‘immigration outcome’ for people found to be refugees but who had arrived in the country by boat. 

Will the government resist the likely outcry if ‘too many’ boats start appearing?

Cash for violence

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship has just announced grants of up to $150,000 for projects in areas where racial intolerance is identified. (Other grants of up to $5000, with a much simpler application process will also be available.) This program will replace “living in harmony”, after an internal review found the need for a stronger focus on racial tolerance. The news release from DIAC quotes the Cronulla riots as an example of problems that could be targeted. ‘Matching up needs: anti-racism campaign takes diverse approach’

The right-wing Andrew Bolt not surprisingly has a somewhat biased view of the Diverse Australia Program, and gives the fact that we have very little racism to support his view that it is more money wasted. I have a different take: I am disappointed that it appears that we must wait for racial intolerance to appear before being able to access funds to do something about it. (And it appears to be on the increase – see my post of yesterday, End racist violence: ban Australia day? ).

Mr.  Bolt does make a good point, however, when he asks

“Has anyone ever bothered to discover if they actually do any practical good at all? I mean, what are the chances of this working?”

Indeed, seen this way, the grants are ‘cash for violence’.

But he may be surprised to learn that the economic rationalists are to blame for the deficiency of adequate answers to his question. DIAC grants are heavily audited, and grantees have to undergo an onerous process of acquittal – but that acquittal is designed to satisfy accountants who want ‘proof’ that the funds have been spent as they were allocated, but with no regard at all to judging real life outcomes, or if they do ‘practical good’.

End racist violence -ban Australia Day?

Since reading the reports of racially-motivated rioting that happened yesterday I am wondering if we should abolish Australia Day altogether. Mick Dodson, since Australian of the Year yesterday, has revived the debate about when we should celebrate Australia Day. ‘Australian of Year Dodson wants a new day’.

But now, The Australian, in an article titled Racist violence on Australia Day,  published the following

“In the Sydney suburb of Manly, hundreds of youths draped in “Aussie pride” livery wore slogans declaring “f–k off we’re full” as they smashed car windows and ran up the famous Corso targeting non-white shop keepers

A 18-year-old Asian female in one of the cars was showered with shattered glass, giving her numerous cuts to her arms. She was treated on the scene by ambulance officers.
A taxi driven by a Sikh Indian was also targeted while an Asian shopkeeper was reportedly assaulted.
Groups of men jumped up on cars chanting race hate to the terrified passengers within, and were heard singing “tits out for the boys” at passing girls and yelled “lets go f–k with these Lebs”.

At least three other locations in New South Wales have reported similar ‘celebrations’.

I guess that the anti-immigration lobby will use this as ‘evidence’ that we are receiving too many immigrants, or too fast, or ‘not like us’ – but I wonder if stirring up the patriotic, jingoistic spirit is to blame.

Australians never took themselves so seriously – and Australia Day used to pass with no more than a day off – and no racism.

Should we abolish the day altogether?

Asylum seekers, illegal immigrants and keeping the peace

About 600 migrants and refugees broke out of an overcrowded immigration facility on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa last Saturday to protest their treatment.They forced open the gates at the facility and marched toward the center of the island ….and what did they do? Rioted? Took over the town? Raped and pillaged?

They staged a peaceful protest, which locals joined in (!) and then went back to the camp -without coercion.

This reminds me of the break out from the detention camp at Woomera in outback South Australia in June 2000 when about the same number of detainees, when they reached the centre of the town, staged a non-violent protest.

The report from Italy contrasts with reports from France which claim that more than 1,000 cars were torched on New Year by what Time Magazine names as residents of ‘unemployment-racked, racially tense banlieues’. The blogger at Atlas Shrugs is somewhat less careful of ethnic stereotyping and headlines her post with Muslims torch 1,100+ cars.

I am not quite sure what to make of all this.

In a recent posting I reported that  immigrants of all kinds, including the illegal, are less likely to be involved in crime than others. Even when ‘illegals’ forcibly break out of detention centres they seem to have done so as non-violently as possible. Is France the exception to the rule?

Will the immigration fun never end???

'The illegal immigration issue gets serious'

With thanks to the blogger at GiggleFilter

Fun for ‘illegal’ immigrants

It’s still Sunday, and  The South Chicagoan just posted something that keeps us in the ‘fun’ mode – in a twisted sort of way.

The U.S. government (in the form of the Border Patrol):

“has COMMISSIONED the creation of songs meant to discourage people from trying to cross the border at anywhere other than an official checkpoint with a visa. And they’re trying to create the image that these songs come from the Mexican tradition, rather than the mind of some public relations bureaucrat in Washington. They’re calling them “migracorridos” (literally, “migration songs,” but it’s actually a play on the derisive nickname used by many Latinos for the agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency”, and they are sung in Spanish in the same sentiment as the old folk songs of the border region and the more contemporary “narcocorridos,” by which drug dealers attempt to glorify their accomplishments.Apparently Mexico’s government published a special series of comic books a few years ago about characters who triy to cross the U.S./Mexico border without a visa to try to warnof the dangers of trying to slip through the Arizona desert into the United States”. (Perhaps online games will be next?)

Apparently the Mexican Government turned the minds of US officialdom to fun.  A couple of years ago Mexican officialdom made comic books  about characters who tried to cross the U.S./Mexico border without a visa to try to warn its citizens of the dangers of trying to slip through the Arizona desert into the United States.

Reminds me of the Australian government’s video showing how dangerous Australian animals are, meant to divert asylum seekers to safer continents, distributed a few years ago to overseas immigration posts and to refugee camps in Asia. (They could have used ‘Jaws’, come to think of it!)

But, faced with the choice that this picture, also from the South Chicagoan, depicts, I don’t think a bit of desert or a few poisonous snakes would deter most people.

Are you classy? Migrate here to find out

We Australians think that we live in a society where class doesn’t matter. And ‘class’ based on wealth or family is certainly less obvious here than in Europe or the US. But as I have been arguing in the last few days immigrant workers are now the Australian underclass.

But, it is Sunday, and so, enough seriousness.

Instead, take a decorating quiz ‘Chintz or shag? and find out whether you belong in the big smoke or in Woop woop (or, as the Americans say, ‘
if you belong on Park Avenue or in a trailer park‘).

Want to fit into another class? Better learn how to talk the talk.

How many of these items can you identify?

What’s your class attitude? Play some games and find out the answers at the “People Like Us” web site.

Immigrant underclass: workers of the world need to unite

In the early 2000s I assisted Afghan Hazaras who had arrived by boat and claimed asylum in Australia – and even though the Australian government found that they were ‘genuine’ refugees under Australia’s interpretation of the UN Refugee Convention, they were given visas that severely restricted their rights, in comparison with other refugees in Australia who have all the usual rights of residents. I witnessed firsthand the misery of these restrictions. (This visa category was abolished last year by the Rudd government).

In the last three years began to work with mainland Chinese who have been sponsored to work here on 457 (Temporary Skilled Migration) visas. There are many similarities between them and the Afghan Hazaras.

Like the Hazaras they are all in full time work and pay full taxes. Unlike other refugees and workers on permanent visas, they receive no government benefits in return.

The most shocking of these restrictions (for Australians, that is, who take the excellent Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for granted) is that they must pay full price for all health care, medicines and health insurance. They are not entitled to the 510 hours of free English tuition that all other migrants form non-English speaking backgrounds get, cannot access the government’s network of free translation and interpreting, cannot get child-care or any other government subsidy, and although their children can attend government primary and secondary schools for free, if they wish to do any tertiary education they must pay full international student rates.

The lack of English lessons cripples the attempts that they and many Australians make to communicate. They are crippled financially when their health fails.

They are the new Australian underclass

I think Australia needs a National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights which is committed to expanding the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status.

As the blogger at Arizona Desert Lamp says (commenting on immigrant workers in the US, but the same is just as true here):

“Immigration has always been a subject of heated debate.  We have accused immigrants of taking away American jobs, increasing crime, and fundamentally changing our way of life.  Economists have long argued the opposite – that immigrants by taking jobs U.S. workers are unwilling or unable to do, make us a more productive and competitive nation.  Immigrants come here to make a life for themselves and their families.  They work hard, pay taxes, and try to fit in.”