What is worse?

[donnashuggy]

Those that overstay their visa that fly in (majority)

or

Those that arrive by boat.......with the possibily of seeking asylum (unlikely) and sent back.

I generally keep up with what is going on and don't understand the governments fixation with boats when the numbers are the clear minority.

[boris1gary]

Simply not true tall - below is statement  from a joint publication Edmunds Rice Centre for Justica and Community and The School of Education, Australian Catholic University.

Myth 9: Australia is second only to Canada in the number of refugees it takes

Fact: This is incorrect. This claim is based on the fact that Australia is one of only eight countries whose immigration program actually specifies an annual quota of refugees and at 12,000 Australia’s quota is the second highest on a per capita basis. However, as UNHCR reports indicate, many more than eight countries take refugees and asylum seekers – but unlike Australia they do not set a fixed number. These are the facts:

• 71 countries accept refugees and asylum seekers in some form or other
• Of the 71 Australia is ranked 32nd ;
• On a per capita basis Australia is ranked 38th, slightly behind Kazakhstan, Guinea, Djibouti and Syria;
• Of the 29 developed countries that accept refugees and asylum seekers Australia is ranked 14th. Per capita, the US takes twice as many refugees as Australia.

[donnashuggy]

Stopping the boats was one of the major reasons that the current government got in power, cruelty is popular.

[tall_bearded]

I mean when was the last time you heard any politician say that certain racial or religious groups should be given preference when it comes to our humanitarian intake? 

Furthermore when was the last time you have heard me say that selection should be based on race or religion?

Also I think you would find that before the boats stated arriving, a significant proportion of those who gained entry from the middle east and Africa were in fact Muslim, with some Christian also in the mix, because in these places Christians are a persecute minority.

Or is it a case of, if one objects to the boats, as those on the boats are predominantly Muslim, these two facts alone are sufficient to establish I am anti-Muslim, which would come as news to the bulk of my previous customers, a lot of whom were  Muslim, and who were always accorded the same level of curacy and respect I gave to any other of my customers.

[donnashuggy]

Politicians don't have to say it, it's obvious

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@tall_bearded wrote:

How are they being used for political advantage when every decision made results in open criticism?

---

It's not the government using them for political advantage,

[donnashuggy]

Are you familiar with how Tony Abbott preferenced parties in his own electorate crikey?

[tall_bearded]

Of all of the countries you have mentioned,  how many give residence status to those who qualify as refugees.

Yes some countries allow more in.  But of those who you have identifiedas accepting more,  how may provide permanent radiance and ultimate citizenship to those who are there. 

Or are you saying we should follow their example.  That is instead of focussing our refugee humanitarian effort to relocation and residence and ultimately citizenship, we cease the e avctivities and allow the UN to open and run refugee camps and when someone arrives and claims safe haven we simply send them there, on the understanding, when it time for them to go home, they leave, and if they wot go voluntarily, they will be fordable removed.

[*crikey*mate*]

When Mr Abbott first became PM, these boards were flooded with outrage that "the boats were still coming, Mr Abbott is a liar".

So now, it seems that because the boats are stopping/easing, and it seems that Mr Abbott is in fact trying to halt people smuggling as he said he would do, they're just finding another platform from which to criticize Mr Abbott.

If people were sincere about their keyboard horror of the plight of those in need of asylum, they would have been celebrating that those boats had gotten here because of the lives "saved", not used their arrival for political pot shots.

So to me, that's all this is - another political pot shot against a PM that some don't like.

The boats don't stop - people criticized.

The boats stop and the same people continue to criticize.

meh

[boris1gary]

I am equal in my critisism's regarding Government policy and asylum seeker's - ALP and LIbs, they both stink.

[**meep**]

tall_bearded - are you referring to the following?

From UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency:

Only a small number of states take part in UNHCR resettlement programmes. The United States is the world's top resettlement country, while Australia, Canada and the Nordic countries also provide a sizeable number of places annually. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of countries involved in resettlement in Europe and Latin America.

According to the Refugee Council of Australia, Australia ranked second in 2012 for the resettlement of refugees per capita (0.267 refugees per 1,000 population) beaten only by Canada (0.283 per 1,000). In absolute terms the top three resettlement countries were America (66,300), Canada (9,600) and Australia (5,900).