jkr
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ REFUGEE แสดงบทความทั้งหมด
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ REFUGEE แสดงบทความทั้งหมด

Settling Tamils crucial to stop asylum boats

Posted in Labels: 12:07


The Federal Government's representative to Sri Lanka says more must be done to help the country's Tamils if people smuggling is to be stopped.

The former high commissioner to India, John McCarthy, is in Sri Lanka, from where most of the current influx of asylum seekers originate.

Mr McCarthy says the issue requires a joint law-enforcement and humanitarian-based solution.

He says people smuggling is a crime and it should be dealt with, but he also says those who want to flee - mostly Tamils - should be assisted to resettle in Sri Lanka now that the country's civil war has ended.

John McCarthy has been handpicked by the Government to help find a solution to people smuggling, an issue currently causing it much political grief.

"One can only work to try and remove some of the factors that are causing boat people to depart and that of course includes action against the criminal syndicates who are bringing them out," he said.

"One has to move on a number of fronts to prevent this problem from escalating."

As the Prime Minister's special representative to Sri Lanka, Mr McCarthy is trying to get the Sri Lankan government's help to solve the problem.

"What we have been doing here is talking to ministers about tightening cooperation on law enforcement, talking about prosecution of the criminal syndicates here and also talking to the navy about prevention of departures," he said.

"Those sorts of approaches, I think, make up a combination which we hope will be effective in the short term."

But many human rights activists say a law enforcement approach only deals with the supply side of the people-smuggling equation.

They say it is the demand side that really needs to be dealt with for any long-term solution.

By this, they mean more has to be done to help Sri Lanka's Tamils, many of whom want to flee the country following the end of its civil war. This point is not lost on John McCarthy.

"Clearly there is merit in doing what we can by way of assisting resettlement of Tamils in the parts of the island from which they originally came," he said.

The spokesman for the United Nations in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, also agrees that people smuggling is more than just an issue for law enforcement.

"There is no question that there are social issues here in Sri Lanka as well," he said.

"A part of life in Sri Lanka is that huge numbers of people go overseas seeking employment but there have also been long-standing political and human-rights problems in the country and that is a spur for people wanting to escape Sri Lanka as well."

The next leg of Mr McCarthy's trip takes him to Sri Lanka's north, an area ravaged during the civil war.

There he is likely to see what life is like for an estimated 150,000 Tamils still living in government-run camps.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

Tamils economic refugees: Sri Lanka

Posted in Labels: 11:34

SRI Lanka has dismissed any suggestion Tamils are oppressed within its borders, saying those aboard the Oceanic Viking were drawn to Australia by its "magnetism" rather than the need for asylum.

Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN Palitha Kohona last night denied the Tamils aboard the vessel had started their journey from his country, describing them as "economic refugees looking for greener pastures".

Speaking on the ABC's Lateline program, Mr Kohona said there were no push factors forcing boatpeople to leave Sri Lanka, only pull factors from Australia.

"If they were actually escaping from Sri Lanka, one has to ask . . . why didn't they escape to India, which is only 22 miles (35km) away, rather than go all the way to Australia," he said. "It's the magnetic attraction of Australia that has brought these people to Australia's shores illegally."



But in an apparent contradiction of his claim that his country was "perfectly certain" the 78 Tamils on the Oceanic Viking had not originated from Sri Lanka, Mr Kohona said he believed they should be "returned" to Sri Lanka. "Personally I think they should be returned to Sri Lanka -- that is where they belong, and if that happens it is quite likely others will not make this journey again," Mr Kohona said.

The Sri Lankan government claims the majority of boats taking asylum-seekers to Australia are organised by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Mr Kohona said the Sri Lankan government had identified at least two asylum-seekers who were former Tamil Tiger fighters and it was quite possible there were others.

An Australian UN worker, James Elder -- who was expelled from Sri Lanka in September after he spoke out about conditions in refugee camps -- said it was not the role of Unicef to advocate for women and children, but simply to assist them.

"I do not think it is the role of UN officials to make statements that are one-sided, that might help propaganda line of a terrorist organisation," Mr Kohona said.

The comments came just two days after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith agreed to help Sri Lanka track down Tamil Tiger people-smugglers in return for greater co-operation in reducing asylum-seeker numbers.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

TN govt to spend Rs. 12 crore for Sri Lankan Tamils refugees' camps

Posted in Labels: 10:52

The State government has decided to spend Rs. 12 crore immediately for improving the basic amenities in Sri Lankan Tamils refugees’ camps.

Ministers and District Collectors will visit 115 camps in the State and present their findings to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi by November 10 on the condition of the camps. On the basis of their feedback, the government will work out the modalities for the expenditure of Rs. 12 crore.

Decisions to this effect were taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Monday. Eleven Ministers and senior government officials attended.

Briefing reporters of the decisions of the meeting, K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Handlooms, Textiles and Backward Classes Minister, said the Chief Minister clearly conveyed to the Ministers and the officers that the refugees should be regarded as Tamils, not as merely refugees.

Mr. Ramachandran said 73,241 persons belonging to 19,340 families were living in 115 camps in 26 districts while there were 31,802 persons of 11,288 families living outside the camps and with the approval of the authorities.

After the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government took over in May 2006, a scheme of improving the amenities of the camps was drawn up on the basis of a visit by the Ministers to the camps. The scheme, envisaging the works for Rs. 16 crore, was sent to the Central government for approval.

As the Centre’s clearance had not yet been received, the State government set apart Rs. 5 crore for 2009-2010.

The Minister denied suggestions that some refugees were being harassed in special camps. On the questions about the release of those refugees who were booked in petty cases, he assured the reporters that he would apprise the Chief Minister of this issue.

He explained how the DMK regime doubled the amount of cash doles to the refugees and other facilities/concessions given to them.

In 2005-2006, the Budget provision for the Rehablitation department was Rs. 25.78 crore whereas it was Rs. 44.62 crore in 2008. This year, a sum of Rs. 55.34 crore had been earmarked.

M.K. Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister, K. Anbazhagan, Finance Minister, Arcot N. Veeraswami, Electricity Minister, K.S. Sripathi, Chief Secretary, K. Gnanadesikan, Principal Secretary (Finance), D. Jothi Jagarajan, Public Secretary, M. Mutia Kalaivanan, Rehabililitation Commissioner and Jaffar Sait, Inspector General of Police (Intelligence), were among those who participated in the meeting.

--
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

SOS! REFUGEE FROM SRILANKA

Posted in Labels: 06:03
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

When the boat comes in

Posted in Labels: 21:42
A Sri Lankan asylum seeker remains on board his boat in Cilegon harbour, Indonesia.


The long-simmering asylum-seeker debate boiled over when a boat carrying 255 Tamils bound for Australia was redirected to Indonesia.

What happened in the Sunda Strait?

An asylum seeker is someone who has left their country of origin in search of a haven and recognition as a refugee.

A phone call from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono resulted in the interception of a boat carrying 255 Tamil asylum seekers by the Indonesian Navy in the Sunda Strait. Though on its way to Christmas Island, where Australia has a large, custom-built detention centre, the boat was diverted to the Indonesian port of Merak, in western Java.

These Tamils from northern Sri Lanka, who included 27 women and 31 children, pleaded with Mr Rudd to accept them in Australia. They refused to disembark for fear of being deported or sent to allegedly overcrowded and harsh Indonesian detention centres, where they could face many years before being resettled elsewhere.

Are more asylum seekers expected in Australia?

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2009 report, the displacement of some 42 million people worldwide, including more than 15 million refugees, is the result of continuing or escalating conflicts around the world. About 80 per cent of the world's refugees are hosted by developing countries such as Pakistan, Syria, Iran and Jordan.

Many say that Australia cannot be immune to these growing numbers, pointing out that we receive far fewer asylum seekers than many other countries. In 2008, Italy received 36,000 asylum seekers by boat and the US received 49,000. So far this year, about 1700 asylum seekers have arrived in Australia by boat, with more arrivals intercepted in recent days.

The stated aim of the regional co-operation between Australia and Indonesia is to crack down on the criminal activities of people smugglers - those who surreptitiously transport people, often desperate refugees, across international borders for a sizeable fee. Packed onto overcrowded, usually unsafe boats, passengers are often treated inhumanely and deaths are common.

What major policy changes did the Rudd Government make?

The Government introduced several changes to the policies of the previous government. For example, the highly controversial Pacific Solution, under which asylum seekers were transported to detention centres in other countries, has been abolished. Temporary protection visas (TPVs), which required a refugee's case to be reassessed after three years with the potential of being sent home, were scrapped in 2008. Detainees are no longer charged for their detention costs.

Some in Opposition attribute the increase in arrivals to these "failed" policy reforms, saying the Government has "gone soft" on border security. The Government says "push factors" such as insurgency, war and unrest in many parts of the world are responsible.

What do others say?

Many criticise the re-emergence of "fear tactics" in the debate, which they say are reminiscent of the previous government's approach to the issue. They urge the Government to refuse to be bullied into an inhumane response, and to refrain from any temptation to appeal to the racial intolerance inherent within a small section of Australian society.

Others, including the head of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, say we should welcome the Sri Lankan asylum seekers. He urges the Government to ''take the moral high ground on this matter because this is about social justice. This is about upholding the rule of law. This is about doing the right thing as a first world developed nation, and it's about doing the right thing for our communities.''

Recent Headlines

''People-smuggler arrested on Tamil boat'', The Age, October 19
''More global conflict means more asylum seekers", Sydney Morning Herald, October 14
"It's Rudd's new Tampa", Herald Sun, October 16
"Razor wire returns", The Age, October 17

What The Age says

"Some facts are in order. First, people have a legal right under the United Nations convention on refugees, to which Australia is a signatory, to seek protection from persecution. For the past decade, more than 90 per cent of asylum seekers arriving by boat have been genuine refugees; their actions are not illegal. Second, the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers, more than 96 per cent, enter Australia by air. Fewer than 40 per cent of these 'plane people' have their refugee claims accepted, yet there is little alarm about this group.
''The panic is all about an increase in boat people, from 148 (out of 3980 asylum seekers in total) in 2007, to 161 (out of 4750) last year, to about 1700 this year. The Opposition blames the adoption of 'softer' policies last September, but the increase began well before then.''
Editorial opinion, October 15

What people say

"These people are fleeing a humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka that has been orchestrated by the Government of Sri Lanka and motivated on ethnic grounds. About 300,000 Tamils remain under military rule in camps that lack basic food, shelter and health requirements. Non-government organisations and independent media access to the camps is heavily restricted.
People smugglers are the middle men, and not the root cause of why people are desperate to escape persecution, hunger and an uncertain future. They are, however, convenient bogeymen for the Australian Government to apportion blame as it seeks to preserve its 'warm diplomatic relations' with Sri Lanka."
Dr Sam Pari, The Age, October 15

"Has anyone mentioned the hundreds of true 'illegals' who came to Australia to attend 2008 World Youth Day in Sydney to see the Pope and then disappeared? Does anyone mention the thousands of students and holiday-makers who overstay their visas every year? Yet we continue to vilify and fear a relative few refugees who make their way to Australia by boat.''
Doug Steley, The Australian, October 15

''What we used to do with the navy was not go out and greet these boats. If they weren't in Australian territorial waters, in the Australian migration zone, the navy would tow the boats back to Indonesian territorial waters and give them enough fuel to get back to Indonesia. The (measures) were abolished, and so obviously for the people smugglers, Australia is open for business again.''
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer, Sydney Morning Herald, October 16

''First we 'get tough' on oppressors in foreign countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, then we 'get tough' on those who seek asylum from oppression ?"
Mark Pearce, Sydney Morning Herald, October 17

''There's not a person on this boat who has not seen someone they know killed or tortured. There are kids who have seen the legs of their fathers cut off in front of them. They are taking people out at night, stripping them and shooting them. Five people every day, sometimes 10. Women are being tortured and raped. The situation is very bad, worse than it has ever been.''
Alex, Tamil asylum seeker, The Age, October 15

''I very much regret that the Opposition seem to be trying to scare the Australian people about the number of people that might come here. It's really since Tampa that this has been made a political issue. The Liberal Party is still playing the same game. Once you scratch the redneck nerve of a significant number of Australians as happened post-Tampa, then it becomes a political plaything and it's very hard to put the genie back in the bottle.''
Former prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, The Age, October 15

Web Links

The United Nations Refugee Agency
www.unhcr.org.au/index.shtml

Department of Immigration and Citizenship
immi.gov.au

A Slow Boat to Tragedy - Issues in the News, April 2009
www.education.theage.com.au/cmspage.php?intid=135&intversion=269

Your Say

What do you think about asylum seekers? Do you agree that, as a developed nation, Australia has obligations towards people seeking asylum? What policies or ideas do you think might be helpful in this debate?
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

An agonising wait

Posted in Labels: 07:27

David Marr visited immigration detention facilities on Christmas Island and encountered the complexity of sorting legitimate refugees from the rest.

She'll never eat Magi chicken noodle soup again. "All we had was one cup of water and one cup of Magi noodle soup per day, but everyone was sick all the time." In a tin shed on Christmas Island, this young Tamil was taking a break in a session called to help women cope with the stress of detention.

I never knew her name. She arrived in late June, one of 193 Tamils on the biggest boatload of asylum seekers to reach the island for eight years. The make-up of the place was changing. Christmas Island was once full of Afghans. Now at least half those held on that rock - nearly 600 of about 1100 detainees - are Tamils fleeing post-civil war Sri Lanka.

"We didn't choose to come to Australia," she told me. "We were just escaping the fear of death." She was in one of the government holding camps in northern Sri Lanka with her partner. When he was sent to Colombo for medical treatment, she somehow followed. A Tamil nurse in the hospital helped them contact a people smuggler. The price of escape was about $5000.

"We were put in a small boat with about 20 others in Colombo harbour that went out to sea and then we met a much bigger boat. There were only two women. We had a little cabin." For many days the boat ploughed south through heavy seas. Then out of nowhere, another boat appeared and took away the crew. "We were abandoned."

Sri Lankans are sailors. Afghan asylum seekers glimpse the sea for the first time when they are jammed aboard the boats. But Sri Lankans know the sea. They can navigate. All through the vicious civil war between Tamils and Sinhalese, Sri Lankans have been bringing boats to Australia.

Key decisions have been made round these human cargoes. The last asylum seekers fed into the Pacific Solution were 83 Tamils picked up by HMAS Success after sabotaging their boat in February 2007. Failed attempts to persuade other countries to resettle them was final proof that warehousing refugees on Nauru was futile. Labor rescued them and canned the Pacific Solution.

Several Sri Lankan boats, expertly sailed, have reached the Australian mainland. In November last year, a dozen men swam ashore at Shark Bay in Western Australia. But they were Sinhalese not Tamils. All but one has now been deported. The winners in the civil war get little or no sympathy from the Australian authorities.

Navigating by the stars, the boat abandoned in late June made its way towards Christmas Island with fishermen at the helm. "We saw the lights at about midnight one night and then a navy boat came alongside and shone a searchlight on us. We asked what navy this was and the reply was: Australia. The sailors were amazed that a boat so crowded had come so far and nearly reached Christmas Island."

That the island is now at bursting point is largely because of the difficulties Australian authorities have processing the Tamils. Afghans are easy. Once identified as members of the traditionally persecuted Hazara minority, refugee protection follows. But the Sri Lankans raise a number of problems.

First, Tamils from India attempting to pass themselves off as refugees from war-torn Sri Lanka have to be weeded out. Then it has to be determined where Sri Lankan Tamils actually lived. Those fleeing formerly Tamil-controlled areas in the north and east now occupied by government troops have a far easier task proving refugee status than those coming from, say, the large Tamil community in Colombo.

Lastly, the role Tamil men among the asylum seekers may have played in the breakaway Tamil Tiger movement must be assessed. Being a member of the Tigers is no bar, in itself, to winning refugee status. Young men were dragooned into joining the troops. But asylum seekers guilty of human rights offences also need to be weeded out.

Sorting the Tamils would be made infinitely easier if the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra would assist the Australian Government with identity and security checks. The Government is extremely shy of criticising the Sri Lankans, but sources in the Government and the Tamil community in Australia allege Sri Lankan diplomats are giving very little, if any help. The civil war isn't over.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

Sri Lanka boat people driven by insecurity, jobs

Posted in Labels: 09:15

October 22, 2009 Fear of persecution and a lack of jobs at home are driving thousands of Sri Lankans to risk perilous boat rides to developed countries, according to officials and politicians.

Two separate boats carrying a total of over 300 illegal immigrants believed to be members of Sri Lanka's minority Tamil community were detained last week, apparently headed for Australia and Canada.
A sizeable number of Tamils, who are often treated with suspicion by the military and civilian authorities here, try to seek asylum in Western capitals.

Those who fail and are sent home often resort to paying up to 40,000 dollars to people smugglers to get them back overseas.

"Most Tamils want to leave the country because they do not feel safe here," said pro-government Tamil politician Dharmalingam Sithadthan. "But there are also a lot of others who leave for economic reasons.

"With the kind of money they pay agents, they can easily start a small business here," he said. "But they would rather sell all their jewellery and property to raise money to go abroad."

An opposition Tamil politician and human rights activist, Mano Ganeshan, said Tamils still lived in fear following the final defeat in May of Tamil Tiger separatists who had been fighting a decades-old armed insurgency.

He said the military detention of some 250,000 Tamils who survived the final phase of fighting had heightened fears among the minority community in this Sinhalese-majority country.


"Some of those who are escaping in boats may be those who managed to get out of the detention camps," Ganeshan said. "Tamils feel vulnerable even after the end of the war. That is why they want to get out of the country."
Favoured destinations include Australia and Canada which have large Tamil communities.

Five years ago, Sri Lanka became something of a regional hub for people smuggling after the government extended a visas-on-arrival policy to South Asian nationals.

Thousands of men from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan came here looking for fishing trawlers that offered illegal access to Europe and Australia for 1,500 to 3,000 dollars a head.

At that time, as well as Tamils, Sinhalese economic migrants seeking better jobs were also willing to gamble everything on the chance of a new life overseas.

But the smuggling operations dropped off sharply when the Sri Lankan navy stepped up its coastal surveillance after government forces resumed fighting the Tamil rebels from 2006.

Nowadays, most illegal migrants from Sri Lanka start their journey by flying to Singapore and then crossing into Malaysia or Thailand where the precarious boat voyage begins.

Sri Lanka's navy maintained that neither of the vessels stopped last week had originated from here.

"We have a fairly good system of surveillance and we can confirm that neither of these two vessels set off from Sri Lanka," spokesman Captain D.K.P. Dassanayake told AFP.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)

Boatpeople paint PM into corner

Posted in Labels: , 10:09

ONE of the most important policy considerations to emerge out of the illegal immigration controversies of the past two weeks is the absolute centrality to us of Indonesia.

If we can solve the illegal immigration problem, it will only be through Indonesia's good offices. But just imagine for a second what an Indonesia predisposed to causing Australia trouble would be like. If Jakarta simply declined to take enforcement measures to stop people using its archipelago as a transit or launch point for travelling illegally to Australia, this would throw our nation intoconvulsions.

Indonesia, however, also offers the Rudd government a chance to remedy its failures in illegal immigration policy. The Rudd government is essentially identical to the Howard government in its policy intent, morality and even its broad methodology in dealing with illegal immigrants.

How can this be, when the government makes so much of its ending of the Pacific solution, its abolition of long-term detention camps, its abolition of temporary protection visas and the like? These things, though marginal, have encouraged people-smugglers, but this is the reverse of the government's intent.

In this area, there is only one question that counts. Can a people-smuggler get his clients - illegal immigrants - to Australian waters and ultimate residency?

If they can, then people-smuggling will flourish. If they can't, it will wither, because no one will pay a people-smuggler $15,000 if there is no realistic chance of getting to Australia. It's that simple.

The Howard government tried to make sure people were intercepted before they got to Australia and then they ended up either in Indonesia, Nauru or Manus Island.

The Rudd government is determined that people will be intercepted and end up in Indonesia. Australia puts enormous amounts of money, federal police and intelligence effort into making sure this happens.

A commentator at the weekend said the Indonesian solution could only work if processing time for asylum-seekers was speeded up so that people didn't have to spend 10 years waiting for resettlement in a Western country. In fact, exactly the reverse is the truth.

The Indonesian solution only works if there is indeed a 10-year delay in Indonesia. Illegal immigrants will be happy to wait for a considerable time in Indonesia, but 10 years is too long. If that is the delay, people-smuggling will wither. If the delay is only a few months, then it will flourish. And in flourishing it will undermine the broader immigration program, take places away from people who go through due process, and remove our control of our borders.

There are hard truths in this debate. Let me confess my own sins. When the Howard government introduced the Pacific solution, I was virulently opposed to it. I thought it was inhumane and wouldn't work. In fact, it did work. It also became clear to me the vast majority of people intercepted were not refugees but illegal immigrants.

In saying that, I make no moral criticism of the illegal immigrants. If I were living in Sri Lanka or Afghanistan and I could pay a people-smuggler $15,000 to get me to Australia, to enjoy everything from law and order and good weather to Medicare, Centrelink and good schools, I would make that effort.

But that understandable motivation does not make a person a refugee. I think Sri Lankans generally make excellent migrants to Australia. I have always favoured a larger immigration program and a larger refugee intake, but I want Australia to choose who it takes and to do so in an orderly way.

Just being a Tamil does not make you a refugee. Moreover, if you are fleeing persecution as a Tamil in Sri Lanka, why wouldn't you go and live in Tamil Nadu, the giant Tamil state of India, just next door to Sri Lanka? India does not persecute people for being Tamils.

The reason you would prefer Australia is because life is much better in Australia. But this is not then a question of fleeing persecution. This is an immigration aspiration that should go through the normal processes Australia applies to everyone who comes lawfully through our big and successful immigration program.

My esteemed colleague Paul Kelly argues in his The March of Patriots that there is a bargain between the Australian people and their governments. The Australian people accept a big, diverse and in many respects generous immigration program, so long as it is orderly and well controlled by the government. In this bargain neither the Australian people nor their governments are racist, bigoted or narrow minded, despite the vain moral posturing of most commentators in the past couple of weeks.

I have been writing about refugees for 30 years and one thing that has become clear to me is that the classification of someone as a refugee is a hugely subjective process. It often comes down to whether you believe someone's claims or not, necessarily without evidence. The choice is entirely yours.

When I first got involved with this issue, with the Vietnamese boatpeople 30 years ago, I was convinced many Vietnamese were rejected as refugees who really were refugees, really were persecuted by their government. Now, administrative convenience means that almost anyone who gets to Australia and claims refugee status will be given it.

Since the Rudd government came to office, only 10 asylum-seekers who have got to Australian jurisdiction have been returned to their homeland. They were 10 Sri Lankan Catholics. Yet the majority of boatpeople will be Afghans, some Iraqis and other Muslims. On the whole, their countries won't easily take these people back. Administrative convenience means that most such people will become permanent residents.

Last week The Australian reported allegations that two Iraqi members of the Shia Mahdi Army, who had been involved in kidnapping and torture, came to Australia as illegal immigrants and got permanent residence. It is not paranoia to be worried about such cases. If the Rudd Government does not get on top of the illegal immigration problem, the nearly 2000 who have come in little over a year will become many more thousands. This would be a disaster for Australia.

Rudd is absolutely right to take a tough line against illegal immigration. Those who criticise him for doing so and saying so, such as the normally sound Labor MP Michael Danby, or those who cannot bring themselves to embrace the Prime Minister's language, such as Foreign Minister Stephen Smith in a remarkably evasive and feeble performance on Lateline, merely show how much better, shrewder and braver than the Labor Party Rudd is.

There is a reason this government is so dominated by its PM.
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Read Users' Comments (0)
สมัครสมาชิก: บทความ (Atom)
Copyright 2009 REFUGEE
Free WordPress Themes designed by EZwpthemes
Converted by Theme Craft
Powered by Blogger Templates