hello all.

I would like to hear members' points of view regarding refugees and the correct ethical treatment required. This is a situation in which one country in particular, Australia, is severely lacking. Let me elaborate:

Under John Howard, Australia has further stepped up its campaign of racism against the refugees, or 'queue-jumpers', in recent years. This all came to a head during the infamous 'children overboard' scandal. In October 2001, a boatload of refugees from afghanistan arrived in australian waters. Quickly, the australian navy rushed out to meet it. The boat began sinking, and the navy made no effort to rescue those surely about to drown. One man raised his child above his head to show the navy vessel that there are children aboard. Thiswas blatantly bastardised into claims that the refugees were throwing their children overboard. Without missing a beat, Howard declares that 'we don't want people like this in our country'. Eventually, after the boat had sunk the refugees were rescued, and taken to mandatory detention camps. Conveniently, this happened right before the election, and helped him win it comfortably. After the election, evidence began surfacing that no such incident (children being thrown overboard) had taken place. Howard claimed that he was misinformed. However, the only problem, was that several people were ready to testify that they had in fact informed the prime minister that the allegations were false. Even so, the whole incident conveniently went away.

Lately, Australia's policy of mandatory incarceration in sweltering concentration camps for all refugees seeking asylum for, in some cases, up to four years has been widely condemned by international human rights groups.

Thoughts?

[edit on 2-12-2004 by General Zapata]