Yes, South Africa had over 200,000 applications for asylum last year – roughly one quarter of all those in the world. 2008 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons
So, should Australia panic over the number of asylum seekers who have arrived here by boat this year – about 1,300? Nearly 1,500 boat people: should we worry?
I think that this graphic equals many volumes of words.
(Thanks to Ranking America for this graphic)
Sabzali Salman gave Darwin Magistrate’s Court a statement about events leading up to the explosion of the people smugglers’ boat that he was aboard.
His narration of his journey to Australia contains important information about people smuggling. It reveals that, despite strict requirements on international airlines to make sure that passengers hold the proper documents before travelling, this appears to be easily overcome in Pakistani airports:
The Pakistani people smuggler went through the security check points at the airport with him and walked him to the plane.
Sabsazli’s story also illustrates the ease with which border controls in Indonesian airports can be breached:
At the Indonesian airport he was met by an Indonesian people smuggler [IPS]. The IPS took his plane ticket and talked with the airport authorities. He was not detained by any authorities and was allowed to leave the airport. (See Indonesia offers cash to asylum seekers)
And, I am forced to admit, people smugglers are ‘advertising’ Australia:
Sabzali says that the middleman for the people smuggler in Pakistan told him that Australia “would accept refugees and was sympathetic to refugees”. See Australians turn away from bull about boatpeople
It cost him US$6000 to travel to Australia.
Extracts from Sabzali Salman’s statement tendered in Darwin Magistrates Court, September 23, 2009
It’s Sunday Funday, and although there is only one joke in this clip, it is made by Obama. Found at Racialicious.com
As we all know, 1 presidential joke = 1,000 jokes made by you or me.
Have a great Sunday!
Before we start worrying about the numbers of asylum seekers arriving by boat this year in Australia (nearly 1,500), let’s have a look at all the numbers.
The asylum seekers processed on Christmas Island who are found to have genuine claims to refugee status (and that seems to be nearly 100% so far) will be given visas in the Humanitarian category.
The numbers of visas in this category have hardly changed in the decades since the upper limit was legislated. The upper limit for 2008-09 was 13,500.
This is only 4% of the total migration of people hoping to make a home in Australia.
The numbers for 2007-08 were
Humanitarian (refugees) 13,014
Skilled 108 540
Family (Family reunion) 49 870
New Zealand settlers 34 491
Special (distinguished talent) 220
Skilled Long Stay Temporary Business visas 110,570 (although these are ‘temporary’ many workers take these visas as a pathway to permanency).
That’s a total of 316,705 people.
Let’s keep it in perspective.
Numbers from Permanent Migration to Australia – An Overview by Eligibility Category and
In Australia, up to 37 foreign students have been packed into a two-storey Brisbane suburban home by a Korean education agent. The rent the students paid was being used to cover the lease for education agents’ upstairs home-office. See Students to march for foreign student rights
When the local council raided, they discovered 27 students, including three Asian girls asleep in a double bed, with beds for a further 10 people. Asian students lived three to a bed
There have been similar incidences in Sydney and Melbourne, where one house had 38 students.
In India, 200 visa agents had their licences suspended by Australian after reports of fraudulent behaviour. The agents are meant to help students gain visas to live, study and work in Australia.
There are also concerns that a lack of student visa checks are taking place to ensure students are living in Australia on valid Australian visas obtained through legal means. 200 Australian student visa agents suspended in India
An Australian Navy patrol vessel intercepted another boat carrying 98 suspected asylum seekers yesterday (Wednesday 23 September). Did the Howard government regime ‘create’ some of these ‘boatpeople’?
Jack Smit of Project Safecom claims that many of the asylum seekers in Indonesia who are now boarding boats to Australia are “pushed-back” asylum seekers.
Jack says that the Howard government condoned and encouraged boatloads of asylum seekers being “pushed back’ out of the Australian migration zone and back to Indonesia, breaching its obligations under the Refugee Convention.
“Answers need to be provided to the Australian public about how many times boats were ‘pushed back’ and when, and if these boats had been inside the Australian migration zone prior to being ‘pushed back’”. Hazara Es, and stuck on Lombok
The Adelaide Advertiser yesterday put the arrivals of asylum seekers by boat on the front page. Huge surge in asylum seekers
The article, and the editorial that accompanied it, led to 56 comments, 48 of which were negative in tone. (By the way, the number of comments compares with 169 on the same day about the weather, and 159 earlier in the week about Kane Cornes!)
This is an important issue, and we should all be concerned about it. We should be concerned about Australia’s resources, and about social harmony.
We need to have a debate about the issue, based on facts, not urban legends.
Here are some of the inaccuracies in the Advertiser comments:
1. There is ‘no cohesive national plan to assist these people in the understanding of our Laws, our culture, the expectations in society’.
Refugees are supported by a program that provides specialised health checks and treatment, torture and trauma counselling, assistance with everyday matters, and education about Australian laws, culture, and expectations. The program also promotes integration, and has the goal of all refugees participating fully in employment, education, and their local neighbourhood. These programs are the Settlement Support Program and the Intensive Humanitarian Support Service, both funded by the department of Immigration.
2. ‘Benefits to asylum seekers include a pension greater than those who have lived and worked to support the welfare system receive, not to mention subsidised housing AND subsidised loans for Housing’.
These lies are based on a spam mail that begins “Everyone needs to be aware of this one. God bless our seniors”
And continues with lies that say that Australian residents from a refugee background receive welfare payments that range from double to 10 time that of age pensioners. This email actually began in Canada (!) in 2004, then was changed to refer to the USA and sent around there, and then the same thing happened in Australia. With the same numbers – which were wrong in the first email Immigrant facts and furphies
The facts are that refugees get exactly the same benefits, pensions and allowances as any other Australian.
3. Refugees bring criminality, and there are ‘lawless’ refugee youth running amok with knives in Adelaide.
The stabbing murder of a Sudanese youth in the CBD in November 2008 has given rise to the myth that the increase in stabbings in recent months is due to refugees from Africa.
I have paid close attention to any reports of stabbing violence since the November incident, because I am concerned that this one very public and awful event will damage the reputation of the Sudanese I know who are no more related to ‘stabbing violence’ than you or me.
None of the stabbing incidents reported in the South Australian media since Daniel’s death have been by Sudanese or any other Africans.
As far as I could tell stabbing seems to be pretty multicultural in Adelaide, with the bulk perpetrated by good old Aussies. A stab in the dark
The asylum seeker numbers are an issue that we must face, but face with facts.
“The disparity between rich and poor nations has indeed become a scandal that must no longer be allowed to disfigure the world order… Until it is redressed, the flow of immigrants from poor countries to the rich First World will continue: if they are prevented from getting in legally, they will get in illegally” – Michael Dummett.
A boat crammed with 54 people was intercepted by Australian Customs off the West Australian coast yesterday. It was theIt was the seventh boat to have arrived in the past fortnight. Boatload stretches border protection 54 asylum seekers rescued from boat off Australia
Cue: Opposition migration-talker Sharman Stone to recycle Howard-era catch phrases that are at best half-truths, and in all cases a danger to community harmony. Asylum seekers: malicious arithmetic and game show rhetoric
Instead of malicious spin, Stone could engage the government in some real debate, because the increase in numbers of arrivals of asylum seekers actually presents some real concerns.
Around 1300 asylums seekers have arrived this year, and nearly all are proving to meet the criteria as refugees. As they are released they are applying for their families to join them. The majority of them will apply for immediate family groups of around 6 people.
The approximately 13,000 places annually available for humanitarian visas comprise 6000 refugee places, while the rest is allocated to the Other Humanitarian program. The Other Humanitarian program comprises the Special Humanitarian Program, family reunion, and initial onshore protection.
Simple arithmetic shows that, when this year’s arrivals apply for family reunion, this will absorb almost all Other Humanitarian places in the quota.
Reports are that this is already causing animosity from other refugee groups, in particular towards Afghans, who make up the majority of the new asylum seekers.
Will the government have to extend the waiting time for family reunion approvals for this group in order to ease the pressure?
Hello, Sunday Fun day fans!
This week it’s Leymah Gbowee telling Stephen Colbert how she organized the women of Liberia to go on strike – to stop giving their partners sex until they stopped fighting themselves, or stood up to other men and told them to stop.
Perhaps we could have a strike until Sharman Stone starts engaging in rational arguments about asylum seeker policy?
The Federal Opposition is blaming the changes in government policy for the increase in numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Australia this year. Asylum seekers: malicious arithmetic and game show rhetoric
2009 could indeed be a new record year for asylum seekers- in Norway, Finland, Britain and Malta!
(And probably for more nations- I ran out of energy to keep checking national newspaper reports at that point!)
9,900 asylum seekers arrived in Norway until July this year, an increase by 45 percent compared with the same period last year, reported the Norway Post.
Last year, around 14,400 asylum seekers arrived in Norway, nearly double the number from the year before.
Record numbers of asylum-seekers are entering Finland this year. Asylum applications to reach a record high this year
In just three months over the summer, 29,100 arrived in the UK claiming asylum – the equivalent of 116,400 a year and the highest figure in the nation’s history. Record number asylum seeker claims
Malta saw an 89 per cent increase in new asylum applications last year http://www.eriplanet.com/Diaspora/4688-Malta-receives-worlds-highest-number-asylum-applications.html
None of these nations have changed asylum seeker policies substantially in recent times.
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