From: Adam Flinton 

John Beckett wrote:
> I did mention that Australia's handling of asylum seekers has been an
> embarrassment, at least to me. However, on the basis that several people
> here have been known to post "devil's advocate" messages, I
will mention
> that it is possible to argue that  the Tampa incident was handled in a
> reasonable way. The Norwegian ship rescued the victims. Food and medical
> aid were provided by Australia. There was no danger of anyone being
> harmed. Some tight-arsed people argue that therefore Australia was under
> no obligation to "rescue" anyone.
>

It will dissuade ships from carrying out similar rescues in the future.
Hear an SOS in the Timor Sea &.....just keep on going while retuning
the radio....

Was it the Tampa's "obligation" to provide accomodation for the
people it had rescued even while effectively in port? Was it the
shipowner's obligation? Was it the obligation of the companies whose cargo
was being carried/delayed? Or is it a common human obligation to other
humans in peril on the sea?

Next time leave it to the Oz/Indonesian navy & if there ain't any of
their ships about then tough....keep on the course you're on & ignore
the radio.

> How does a country deal with asylum seekers?

Let em drown I say. Chum the waters between Oz & Indonesia & keep
the large shark species in robust numbers. No bodies no proof so no
political problem.

> It's a tricky issue because
> once they get a foot on dry land they can use legal manoeuvres to stay for
> a few years while the authorities work out what to do.

You mean because quite possibly they may have a "well founded fear of
persecution"? What I love about the Howard bollox was at the same time
he was/is happy to denounce the taliban & Saddam as nasty regimes etc
& yet....some Afghan & Iraqis turn up in boats & they're
obviously just economic migrants.

So are the Ozzie troops in Afghanistan & iraq illegal immigrants? Guest Workers?

> The typical case
> involves a group of 100 people who have managed to travel half way around
> the world to hire a boat and crew in Indonesia. They then try to reach
> Australia. They often have zero documentation on arrival. Yet they managed
> to travel half way around the world. The suggestion is that the whole
> thing is a scam organised by gangs who promise desperate people paradise
> for $10,000 (or whatever it is) per head. Once on the boat, they destroy
> all their identity documents so they can claim to be refugees by the UN
> definitions.
>

Yup. We get this all the time in spades i.e. there are lots of people for
whom the French, Dutch etc are just not good enough & even though
they're encamped in France etc they are still trying to get into the UK.

Doesn't mean that we threaten the rules of the sea though.

Adam


> John
>
> Adam Flinton  wrote in message
> news::
>
>>John Beckett wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Adam Flinton  wrote in message
>>>news::
>>>
>>>
>>>>What I find so ironic wrt recent Australian politics is the
"turn em
>>>>back at the beaches" view wrt immigrants/asylum
seekers. I'll bet all
>>>>the aborigines are going "damn 200 years too late" >>>
>>>>I'm just waiting for an Aussie ship to go down & no
other ships to come
>>>>to their aid "just in case" there are some
illegals on board.
>>>
>>>
>>>Well, yes - that's an embarassment too. For the record, our PM
would point
>>>out that there are no known cases where Australia has actually
not rescued
>>>people from a sinking ship.
>>>
>>
>>Ohhh stretching the point beyond the bounds of the
>>reasonable...Norwegian ship does it's "duty" & picks
up people from a
>>sinking ship & what happened? So instead of the Oz navy it was a nice
>>bunch of chunky jumper wearers &.......
>>
>>Moral: If sailing near Australia, ignore sinking ships. The sharks'll
>>make it a fairly quick death anyway.
>>
>>
>>>If "the end justifies the means", the turn-them-back
policy has been a
>>>resounding success because it has reduced the number of boats setting off
>>>in attempt to make illegal landings. It's an ugly problem. I sure would
>>>try to get to a better country if I were in some of the situations of the
>>>boat people.
>>>
>>
>>You have a large empty country settled by illegal aliens (as the
>>aborigines might argue). How did Howard/Howard's ancestors get to Oz?
>>
>>
>>
>>Adam
>>
>
>

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