The Social Justice Network is expressing its deep sadness and sorrow for the tragedy off Christmas Island today which resulted so far of death of 27 asylum seekers. Such number that is not final and could be increased further in the next few hours.
But this sad tragedy should be used by the government to reflect on the current policies and seek fundamental changes to them.
“We wrote to this minister and to the previous one warning them about consequencies of current tough policies. We detailed to them proposed full plan to relieve the issues of unauthorized arrivals” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “Such plan that would work to stop the flood of boat people in very humane way”
The plan points include:
1- Significant increase to the quota of refugees and humanitarian intake.
2- Set up processing centre in Indonesia to process protection applications and transfer applicants found to be refugees to Australia.
3- Fundamentally reform the highly discriminatory and inhumane immigration system.
The network deeply believes that such plan would result in smooth humane solution for this issue. A solution that is similar to Malcolm Fraser’s solution to Vietnamese boat people crisis in mid 70s of last century.
“We note that the issue of unauthorized arrivals is complex issue that needs holistic approach and not cosmetic steps by caving in to racist rhetoric of needs to toughen measures proposed by Liberal opposition”
“We also note that any empty rhetoric vended by so-called progressive parliamentary politicians would not solve any problem if fundamental changes to address racism and discrimination in the system are not taken. We note that such fundamental reforms could see many boat people arriving on other categories, including skilled migration and family reunion”.
“The new government’s legislations in this regard, which saw no opposition by the Greens party and the independents, made the migration system more discriminatory and racist. The new skilled migration system, for example, will benefit only English speaking people to migrate to the country. The new regulations tightened the language requirements to the extent that only English speaking people can be qualified”
We note also that the Greens party had participated in racist Anti-population debate and supports less migration. Such move that will leave no other options for many non-English speaking people in war-torn countries but to come by unauthorized route.
The tragedy today constitutes golden opportunity for the minority Labor government to seek fundamental changes to address the racist inhumane system. While we hope that the minority government will take this opportunity, but we understand that the reality is different story.
At least we hope that the government would not give up to the opposition’s racist calls and use the tragedy to fundamentally change policies in the opposite way. Accepting any changes to re-introduce Temporary Protection visa system or re-opening of Nauru detention centre would be fatal for Labor-Greens government.
The Liberal opposition would dance form joy to prove that “Howard was right”.
For media interviews, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment