Re: [pf] asylum-seekers. Australian Brigadier Adrian D'Hage (retd)

· contains:
  "Australia asked the master of the Norwegian ship Tampa to assist"
  "once processed [in various places] around the Pacific, genuine refugees
will come back here anyway. To date, 93% of Afghans and 97% of Iraqis
reaching our shores have been found to be genuine refugees. [Given] the
much lower costs of processing _here_, I wonder how many hospital beds and
teachers that sort of expenditure buys? The logic beggars belief."
  "When Pakistan and Iran each take a million refugees and we don't reach
our miniscule quota of 12,000 and fill very few - if any - of the 400
`women at risk' places, we should not be surprised when decent people
around the world are increasingly seeing Australians as compassionless,
inward-looking and racist."


· When I was 1/3 my age, Australia was known for its "White Australia"
policy. (And I suspect that in those days, the law still didn't recognise
aborigines as people).

· I had thought the Aussies had grown up; I guess not. Comment, Arnie?

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At 17:28 5/11/2001 +1100, Clinton Fernandes sent-on:
>   Speech by retired Brigadier Adrian D'Hage to be given to: Rural
Australians for Refugees, in Bowral tonight (Mon 5 Nov 01).
>
>A little over two months ago, 433 human beings, otherwise known as asylum
seekers, were making a desperate bid to escape the ravages of Afghanistan
and Iraq when their ferry began to sink.
>
>Australia asked the master of the Norwegian ship Tampa to assist, and in
true Viking tradition, he did. But having asked for his assistance, we then
forbade him to enter Australian waters and when he did, our special forces
stormed his ship. 
>In the end we bribed impoverished Nauru with $20 million. 
> ...
> we have sent a third of our navy to charge around the Timor Sea and the
Indian ocean to intercept these leaking vessels. The costs so far are
estimated at over $160m and rising at $3m a day. A billion dollars a year.
>
>And we are burning this vast amount of public money on the understanding
that once processed around the pacific, genuine refugees will come back
here anyway. To date, 93% of Afghans and 97% of Iraqis reaching our shores
have been found to be genuine refugees. Less the much lower costs of
processing here, I wonder how many hospital beds and teachers that sort of
expenditure buys? The logic beggars belief.
>
>Whilst it is necessary to keep our borders secure, when there are no
queues in Afghanistan, when there is no embassy, when the international
situation has produced millions of people who have sold everything they
have to give their kids a chance, Mr Howard, Mr Beazley, take note - you
don't do it this way. Most of them are precisely the sort of gutsy people
this nation needs.
>
>And when Pakistan and Iran each take a million refugees and we don't reach
our miniscule quota of 12,000 and fill very few - if any - of the 400
`women at risk' places, we should not be surprised when decent people
around the world are increasingly seeing Australians as compassionless,
inward-looking and racist.
>
>And we are now widening our search for impoverished Pacific islands, the
latest being Papua New Guinea, which, as any of you who have visited there
will know, is far less equipped than we are to deal with this crisis.
> ...

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David.
David MacClement [davd @ ihug.co.nz] (remove spaces)
http://davd.tripod.com/GrRR-011102_titles.html#top
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
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