Asylum seekers

[polksaladallie]

This is how Italy (and the Norwegian boat) deals with asylum seekers.

Compare it with what we do.

An episode of Foreign Correspondent.  (Hope it works this time)

http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/foreign-correspondent?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Corp_TV-iview|iviewAdwords...

[village_person]

No problem with sound but video fails in the first minute.

[polksaladallie]

Sorry,but it works OK for me.

Worth finding on the site anyway.

[boris1gary]

yes but don't worry, murderson says it's a blessing and all the Doctors, health workers, salvation army workers etc etc are all lying and really the concentration detention prisons are quite nice, really like 2 star hotels, whats the odd death here and there. We have to understand Australia is a teeny tiny weeny little country and there just isn't any more room, lucky that our birth rate is very low - never mind that we are an ageing population, the plan is only the wealthy will get quite old anyway.

[ufo_investigations]

These people going to Italy are moving from countries with islamic sharia law to a western democratic republic which has all the freedoms of Australia, America and the rest of the free world. They will demand mosques, halal foods and will not integrate. We have seen this time and again. I am happy that Italy has saved their lives but these people will not in any way shape or form comply with the traditions/customs and laws of Italy.

The sharia law they so deeply miss will not be discovered in Italy they will need to seek other lands.

[polksaladallie]

My intention was to make evident the different way they were treated when they were found floating on the sea, as opposed to what our navy is told to do - put them on rafts and push them elsewhere or detain them at sea for months.  In other words, hide the practices and use them as pawns to garner votes.  They are being treated as human beings who have valid reasons for fleeing until proven otherwise.

I note that the new president of Indonesia has already ripped into Abbott about the turn-back policy.

[j*oono]

I couldn't agree with you more Polksaladallie.

What a shame that here in Australia many are so opposed to asylum seekers that they are happy with this governments pledge to stop the boats and shove them back into the sea.  

Nothing is told to us about new asylum seekers.  It's pretty much a disgrace really and I would be loathe to vote for a government with such a policy.

[softail-joanie]

What a shame that here in Australia many are so opposed to asylum seekers that they are happy with this governments pledge to stop the boats and shove them back into the sea.  Nothing is told to us about new asylum seekers.  It's pretty much a disgrace really and I would be loathe to vote for a government with such a policy.

I was thinking abot that while reading through this topic, what these people have to go back to when being turned away. It must take alot for someone to chuck it all and set out for the unknown. As bad as things are here for me and I have thought about setting out for some place new, I'm not quite there yet. I mean a person has to wonder what they are gonna do for food and shelter, and in the long term to make a decent living.

This could be a small part of a much bigger problem, a world problem of population. Some say this planet can't support the number of people living today, and there has never been in known history, as many people as there are today.

Theres two ways to see this,  two sides to it, and both are valid. Still, turning boats away seems like putting a tiny bandaid on a shotgun wound.

[boris1gary]

ufoinvestigations, as your siggy is from the bible and it's sunday, here are what the Catholic Church leadership has to say on our treatment of asylum seekers and of course the Pope on an international level. I thought you posted somewhere that you consider yourself a Catholic and you have strict religious beliefs - apologies if this is incorrect.  There is a lot more as the religious community (most of it) is very active in supporting asylum seekers. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-02/pope-would-be-appalled-by-treatment-of-asylum-seekers-says-sen...

Pope Francis would be appalled by treatment of asylum seekers on Manus Island, says Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge

http://ncronline.org/

Pope Francis

"Large numbers of people are leaving their homelands, with a suitcase full of fears and desires, to undertake a hopeful and dangerous trip in search of more humane living conditions," the pope wrote. "Such migration gives rise to suspicion and hostility, even in ecclesial communities, prior to any knowledge of the migrants' lives or their stories of persecution and destitution."

Pope Francis called on all to honor the "biblical commandment of welcoming with respect and solidarity the stranger in need."

"Jesus Christ is always waiting to be recognized in migrants and refugees, in displaced persons and in exiles, and through them he calls us to share our resources, and occasionally to give up something of our acquired riches," he wrote.

But individual and even national efforts to help migrants are insufficient, the pope wrote.

Statement by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference on Asylum Seekers

We now make this urgent plea for a respect for the rights of asylum seekers, not only in Government circles but in the Australian community more broadly. Federal decision-makers in both major parties have made their decisions and implemented their policies because they think they have the support of the majority of Australians. Therefore, we want to speak to the entire Australian community.

The current policy has about it a cruelty that does no honour to our nation. How can this be when Australians are so generous in so many situations where human beings are in strife? Think of the way the Vietnamese boat people were welcomed in the 1970s and 80s. The question becomes more pointed when we think of the politicians who are making and implementing the decisions. They are not cruel people. Yet they have made decisions and are implementing policies which are cruel. How can this be so?

Island dwellers like Australians often have an acute sense of the “other” or the “outsider” – and that is how asylum seekers are being portrayed. They are the dangerous “other” or “outsider” to be feared and resisted because they are supposedly violating our borders.

http://mediablog.catholic.org.au/?p=2892