Seeking a policy, somewhere, anywhere

I have been too angry, shocked, frustrated, sad and a million other things to have written a blog about the latest announcements on how Australia's leaders intend to address the human rights issue of seeking asylum.

And in my delay - Julia has been doing a nice job of self-destructing on this issue. Her plans for East Timor seem to be without foundation, Tony's alternate plans for the Defence Force to play decision maker on which boats stay and which boats go also seems to without foundation. Key point for both politicians (in case they were looking here for advice) -  If you are making an announcement that involves 2 parties, get the ok from the other group before you make that announcement!!

So... the facts:

• Australia receives less than 1% of the world's refugees
• In total we are talking about around 3,000 people in one year at most by boat
• of those who arrive by boat, in recent years -  more than 90% were found to be genuine refugees
• There is no queue to jump and there are usually no papers to be thrown over board. Many people in the world never receive a birth certificate, and you try going to a Government office  asking staff there for a passport because you'd like to leave the country - the office is run by the people who killed your mother, or that office is a 200km walk from your home over a hill, past the football field, past a few hundred landmines and through a few groups of rebel fighters keen top recruit you. 

The Government is trying to convince us that a processing centre (I'll call it a detention centre) in East Timor will stop the potentially fatal boat trips that people are making. Ummm.... a bit of geography here, East Timor is an island!! To get there you need a boat, asylum seekers don't pass by the coast of East Timor, decide not to stop and then head on to Australia -  check out a map. They leave Indonesia and head down the Indian Ocean towards Australia's West Coast - not for fun, because that is a navigational route.  

I am all for a regional processing centre -  one where people are detained for the shortest possible time, where they can live in the community, work and have their health and education needs met whilst awaiting assessment. But is a developing nation such as East Timor the best place for this?? Or is it one that needs the money and one where Australia has some influence? The asylum seekers would either continue down the Indian Ocean, be picked up and transferred back across the top of Australia and through the Timor Sea. OR -  they would be taken straight from hiding in Indonesian ports to East Timor.  Indonesia and East Timor are not exactly best friends, I can't see how this plan actually work. This doesn't seem like complex political or logistical information to me, why has our adept, intelligent PM not thought about it or even chatted it through with oh, i don't know, East Timor's PM for one?? No, not Jose, he's the Pres and that's great, but you gotta talk to the PM too Goolia!

Julia says she didn't want a race to the bottom. She says that the debate should be honest and calm. ok... go for it. 

I have just noticed that in my first par of this blog I called these politicians 'leaders'. They are not, they are following an ill-informed, racist and therefore fearful public. Leadership would be to take a stand, announce the facts and state that Australia will uphold its international obligations and be a humane country. That'd get my vote. 

Just for fun, check out this clip, it has no point but i love it.

Temporary Insanity

I have been putting off writing this blog because i really don't want to give Abbott and his shit ideas any more volume. But people have been asking me about temporary protection visas (TPVs), what it all means and why the fuss...

well, essentially its crap and has been proven to cause mental anguish, exacerbate trauma and most people who were given TPVs in the past were eventually granted full protection to remain in Australia permanently. It involves assessing an asylum seeker, finding that they meet the criteria of being a refugee but then suggesting, just in case things get better in your country of origin we will only give you a 3 year visa and at that point, we'll re-assess to check whether you are still a refugee WTF ?!?!?!

TPVs were introduced in 1999 under Howard. Psychologists, doctors, experts, refugees and Australians who cared campaigned hard and they were abolished in 2008 by the Rudd Government.

The people I knew on TPVs told me they couldn't enrol in a degree as they may not be around to finish it, they were hard to employ because they couldn't guarantee how long they would be in the country, they found it very hard to start relationships because there was every possibility they would be removed from Australia. They were living their lives in limbo, feeling insecure, unsafe, finding it hard to have hope and not trusting of Australian authorities. 

Frighteningly these people were trapped -  many were men who had made the dangerous journey here by sea -  they were not entitled to apply for their family to be reunited with them in Australia and they had no rights to re-enter Australia if they left. So we saw young children and wives commonly separated from their father / husband. And now Abbott, who is apparently a man of faith, of family values, who believes in the "Aussie spirit" is suggesting this is a good way to treat people. ABSURD

more info

Check out a fantastic film, Molly and Mabarek - set in Young when the abbatoir there was open and when Afghan refugees found a real home. 

what would you do with $5.8million

Now, it might be a bit nerdy I know, but I actually don't mind looking into Federal budgets!

When you look past the massive figures that really don't make any sense to me -  you can see where policy really is heading. Fairly simple; if an issue has f***all funding -  mental health in 2010/11 for example -  it is quite clear that when the Government craps on about 'being committed to tackling mental health issues in Australia, having an agenda for change, looking to the future' etc etc it's empty rhetoric because there are no $$ set aside to actually make anything happen. 

My favourite treasure from this recently announced budget... 

$5.8million for 2 staff to go to Afghanistan and stop asylum seekers from coming here to seek protection. 

I shit you not. 

This is not something out of Monty Python -  although I do have some great visuals on 2 Aussie dudes all kitted out making mad dashes over mountain passes a-la-roadrunner, standing on street corners in dusty towns showing locals pictures of Australia's bushfires, snakes and crocodiles -  DONT GO - you think the Taliban is bad...

Honestly, the Rudd Government is sending '2 staff for 2 years to stop asylum seekers at the source' and the total cost is 5.8 million Australian taxpayer dollars. Most of course will go on security (unless those 2 guys are paid around $1.5 million/yr each) -  but that doesn't make sense because why would 2 guys need so much security in a country that is safe and from where people don't need to flee?? (according to the Rudd Government, this is the case and that's why they are not processing the asylum applications of the Afghans on Christmas Island who came after 9 April).  These 2 guys 'stopping the flow of asylum seekers' will no doubt employ local interpreters, fixers and guides -  these locals will be relatively well paid and so will take the job which at the same time puts their life at risk. The whole situation is just so bizarre I can't quite believe someone sitting in Canberra thunk it up and it got past a senior desk, into the budget and out to the public! Not to mention the mathematicians, this year around 1200 Afghans have asked Australia for protection - back when we used to process claims from these people, over 90% were found to be genuine refugees. Do these numbers warrant the spend?

5.8 million dollars - imagine the indigenous housing, the remote health care centre, the refuge for homeless youth, the renewable energy rebates for homes, the dignified care of seniors - allocating the budget is about making choices, its where the Government firmly puts its priorities on paper and this government is choosing to spend our money on 2 guys running around in fatigues having no f***ing impact whatsoever trying to stop people from doing what they can to get their family to a place where they won't be raped, shot or tortured. Nice one Rudd.

This bit is not for everyone I know, but go on.. it won't make you a crazed political activist, just an engaged citizen!

Senate Estimates Committees meet in the next few weeks. Its where we say thank goodness for minor parties and independents, and at times even the opposition -  each committee deals with certain portfolio spending and those Senators not in Government hold the Govt representatives to account on why, how, what. 

I know it's not for everyone but on any issue you can Get in touch with your Senator, it's their job to represent us and we have every right to ask them to be checking on what the hell the Government is up to, its our money they are spending. If they are not on a particular estimates committee, ask them to send your query to their party colleague who is. 

It's the Aussie way

A boat... about 45 adults and 15 children on board. They're Australian they are sailing around the world (not after a world record so any distance above the equator will do) and their next stop is Faro, Portugal. 

Portugese Customs received a distress call from the boat 10 days ago. One of the trip organisers got things a bit wrong, the boat is nearly out of food, water and fuel. Hungry teenagers, unwell uncles, it's not going so well !! A U.S ship passes by the Aussies -  reports that all is ok, the Portugese still know where the boat is and that it's on it's way to their shores. No further checks are carried out, they'll arrive in about a week. 

They don't arrive.

Things on board are bad, the young children really need food, the boat will drift off course without fuel, they've been at sea for weeks -  people are feeling weak, tired, sick. Some people on board have had bad experiences in the past this boat trip is bringing back all sorts of horrendous nightmares. Some of the men can't take it anymore, on board are their children, wives, sisters, uncles, friends -  they construct a raft of sorts and head off on the expanse of blue, grey choppy water to find help. What else could they do. Is it a choice -  you are the strongest on board, you have to try and help the others, don't you? Besides, the captain made that distress call over a week ago, the Portugese will be on their way to check on the boat... won't they. 

The 5 men don't make it back to the boat, no other vessel picks them up -  the remainder of the Aussies don't make it to shore. The Portugese officials eventually go to boat's aid and take the passengers to a remote island that is not Portugese territory and then locks them up in detention. 

Furious at Portugal? Think they should have done more? Do you feel for those 5 brave men, do you worry about the other passengers who are now detained with no idea when they will get off the remote island or where they will be sent -  they have just lost 5 of their fellow travellers, they are tired and scared. 

I can't even begin to imagine the emotion, fear, physical sickness that these people would have been feeling. Compound that with the fact that they are not Australian -  they are Sri Lankan, they are fleeing war, their homes have been destroyed, family members killed, it is not safe to send their children to school in the town they grew up in -  this boat trip was a chance at a safe, new beginning. 

Just imagine for a moment if this story was actually about 60 Aussies sailing around Europe. Six Aussie families who'd saved for the trip, Michelle's 50th, Sam's 21st, it would reunite all the Thompson kids who have been living all around the world, Faro was to to be the last port, from there people were going to fly off to other destinations or home - they were due to land on Tom and Sarah's third wedding anniversary -  Tom was one of the five men... 

We won't hear the personal stories from the real life version, we won't see the colour photographs from the couple's wedding, the interviews with the 9 year olds who are worried about their classmate who was on board, the neighbour who remembers the good deeds of those on board. These Sri Lankan asylum seekers will remain labeled as the latest "illegal boat arrival" -  the boat gets named by Australia "SIEV #whatever" (suspected illegal entry vessel). 

It is not illegal to seek asylum, it is illegal for Australia to deny these people the right to have their story heard (we are not processing claims from Sri Lankans at the moment!). And surely it is against the law of the sea to leave a boat like this unchecked. 

A policy where inhumane treatment is the benchmark will only lead to more deaths. A population who cannot see asylum seekers as individual humans will continue to let Governments do this. 

If you think I made it up -  read this

(apologies to Portugal, no reason for picking you in this scenario!!)

Image by Katyousha from a Dec, 2005 refugee action. Published in UTS mag. 

Its a floodgate... of votes

So, we voted Howard out. The Herd warned we could be wearing rose coloured glasses -  it seems the tint has worn off and someone has handed out those aeroplane eye masks that don't quite fit and have a slightly odd smell.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has announced that Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are safe countries to live and that Australia will no longer be processing asylum seekers from these countries. Umm... is that the same Afghanistan where  DFAT says don't go  and where Australian troops are presently 'keeping the peace'? And is that the same Sri Lanka where DFAT says to reconsider travel due to political tension?

And what the hell happened to assessing asylum seekers as individuals? That is Australian law, that is international law? Have all the Government's legal advisers taken leave at once or has this Government re-employed Howard's team.

Almost 100% of recent asylum seekers to Australia from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have been found by our already rigorous system to be genuine refugees -  but to Evans this does not matter.

What benefit is there is grouping asylum seekers together in regional bundles. Just ask talk-back radio and tabloid press: fear. It's "them", "they" are illegal. Call them all one big unlawful group and you remove the mother, the teenager, the father trying to protect his family in the only way left  - it's simple, remove the human and its much easier to have inhumane policy.

I am appalled to be living in a country that has reverted to racism, that lacks compassion, that has complete disregard for international law and where the Government can get away with using people's trauma and despair to gain votes from a public who don't bother to think about the reality.
Getting on a boat and trying to seek aslyum in a country so foreign to your own is not a choice -  its a matter of survival.