Australia’s Green Labor Government has admitted that all of its detention centres set up to process illegal boat arrivals are full. It’s offshore detention strategy on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus Island, which it reluctantly re-opened, has failed dismally.
Since Labor came to power in 2007, over 30,000 asylum seekers have arrived on Australia’s shores aboard more than 500 chartered fishing boats.
But three times that number arrive by plane year on year into mainly Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The difference is that most plane arrivals have a valid visa to get through Customs, then they apply for asylum. This lot are in fact economic migrants illegitimately using the Refugee Convention.
Most boat illegals (Irregular Maritime Arrivals) come from Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq via intermediate countries, typically Indonesia. If they were genuine refugees they would remain in the first country of arrival. Sri Lankan arrivals by boat enter Australian waters directly, since Australia’s Cocos Island is quite close to Sri Lanka – a week’s motoring on typically flat seas. In 2010-11, most plane illegals centering Australia came from China, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Iran.
But most are economic migrants who have heard about the good life in Australia and so selectively pay full airfares or boat charter fares to arrive in Australia to live and work. Such economic migrants do not meet the definition of ‘refugee’ or ‘asylum seeker’ under the Refugee Convention. The Chinese and Indians represent the most numerous offenders. They come here for Australia’s economic good life.
The 1951 Refugee Convention was specifically set up after World War II, over half a century ago to accommodate Europeans fleeing persecution and violence. In Australia’s case, most of the arrivals claiming to be refugees are not doing so in good faith. They are abusing the good will of Australia being a signatory to the convention. Many arrivals deliberately destroy their identity papers. Many arrivals pay people smugglers large sums to travel. They bypass other countries and selectively target Australia as a destination, not for asylum, but for the economic good life.
Call to Modify Australia’s Adoption of the Refugee Convention
What is clearly a problem with Australia trying to meet its obligations under the Refugee Convention:
- Tens of thousands of economic migrants are clearly abusing the Refugee Convention as a illegitimate backdoor way of migrating to Australia
- Genuine asylum seekers are being denied asylum to Australia due to economic migrants ‘queue jumping’
- The relentless high volume of arrivals has become unsustainable for Australia
- Detention centres have overflowed and the scale of asylum processing has exceeded the Australian Government’s capacity to cope
- Arrivals are over-burdening the Australian Government’s budget capacity, blowing out by more than $2 billion so far this year, and beyond the budgets of the States to cope with the costs
- Arrivals by both boat and even moreso by plane are harmfully impacting upon Australia’s urban social infrastructure (housing, health, welfare, education, employment) to the extent that Australian nationals have themselves become significantly disadvantaged. This fails the fairness test.
- On a per capita basis, Australia is receiving more arrivals than many other nations
- Despite Australia’s territorial size, its viable land is limited and has likely been exceeded.
So decisive action needs to be taken at a national level to address what has become a serious, costly, socially devisive and nation-wide problem.
Redefining categories of arrivals is necessary to prevent economic migrants falsely claiming asylum status and who then deny genuine asylum seekers access to Australia for sanctuary.
An ‘illegal‘ is a foreigner who arrives in a country without a required valid visa. This is a presumptive categorisation, pending Immigration reclassification according to case-by-case merit.
An ‘asylum seeker‘ is an illegal who has been identified and assesssed as fleeing persecution or violence in their country of origin, who is not an economic migrant.
Asylum is presumed to be temporary so long as the threat of persecution or violence exists. If that threat is removed, then asylum expires and automatic repatriation is mandatory. Such repatriation has been quite successful in Australia with returning Bosnians and South Somalis after the end of their respective civil wars.
In stark contrast, economic migration is presumed to be permanent, and so requires a high standard of acceptance and assimilation.
Arrival in a destination country via intermediate countries is a migration choice, not asylum and as such the illegal is deemed to be an economic migrant, not an asylum seeker.
Such changes will capture and close the grossly exploited and abused loopholes by economic migrants. Australia needs to enact national legislation to modify its adoption of the out of date Refugee Convention and to change the out of date Migration Act of 1958 each accordingly. Compliance with the spirit of the Refugee Convention is what matters. Economic migrants using the Refugee Convention to achieve backdoor immigration is disingenuous and needs to be officially recognised as a crime.
– – –
With first the Rudd Labor Government then the toppling Gillard Labor Government both naively abandoning deterrents to illegal arrivals, and the Greens advertising Australia as a willing recipient to anyone who wishes to come, the hoards have certainly responded.
Almost 7,700 asylum seekers have arrived since the government announced a return to Manus Island and Nauru. More than 16,600 asylum seekers have arrived since the government announced its first expansion of bridging visa releases last November. Fourteen out of 20 detention centres are not just full, but over capacity.
Now with detention centres all full, thousands of economic migrants arriving illegally are to be released automatically into the Australian community. The Green Labor Government is now granting them bridging visas, handing out welfare payments of around $440 a fortnight.
These illegals don’t have to work.
These illegals don’t have to make any contribution to the community.
These illegals are bludging off Australian taxpayers.
They are Economic Leeches.
The Opposition has branded this correctly as “hard wired welfare.” At the same time, Australia’s single parents are set to lose child support from the Green Labor Government and are told to instead beg for charity. At the same time, Australia’s own homless exceeds 600,000. At the same time, Green Labor has seconded Australia’s lead charity organisation for Australia’s homeless, The Salvation Army, to look after illegal boat arrivals on Manus Island and Nauru. Nice.
Australia’s border protection has been scrapped by the current OneWorldist mob in Canberra. Green Labor values foreigners over Australians. It has set up an open slather invitation to attract the world’s poor to Australia, and it will only burden Australian taxpayers more and ultimately dumb down Australia’s generations of hard fought living standards as these hoards overrun our communities.
It amounts to an unarmed invasion. When a government will not defend a nation’s sovereignty, including the protection of its borders and protection of its people from invaders, a government has lost all legitimacy. Julia Gillard and that Sarah Hanson-Young are traitors to the Australian nation.
And 99% of these illegals seeking cheap work settle amongst their ethnic groups in the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, packing into available accommodation, jacking up rents, overloading our hospitals and schools.
Just like the funnelweb spiders have come out with the torrential spring rains, Sydneysiders are warned that illegals are prowling the streets, hungry and on the hunt for your job and your way of life.
(Note: Nowhere above is the term ‘people smuggler’ discussed. This is a side issue and LibLab distraction tactic).