Refugee policy is obsolete, inhumane and a disgrace

With respect to Klaus Woldring's letter (edition 457), Australia does cherry-pick UNHCR-assessed refugees from off-shore, including from Asia, so the suggestion he is making is already theoretically in effect.

The problem with the process is that Australia takes so few that an off-shore asylum-seeker is better off buying a lottery ticket and hoping to buy his way in with the winnings.

However, an asylum-seeker who arrives in Australia goes to the top of the queue, so there is a great incentive to get on-shore and have a foot in the door.

Numbers of on-shore asylum-seekers are still arriving but they come by plane, not by boat, and are not publicised.

Despite all the rhetoric about saving lives, the real issue with boat people was that there were so many of them that accepting them would exceed the quota the Government had set itself (the Government counts on-shore refugees against the quota for off-shore refugees, even though it never actually reaches the quota figure anyway).

The draconian off-shore imprisonment of these people hasn't even stopped the boats, although the Government keeps information on this secret, what has stopped the boats is interdiction by the Border Force.

The policy is, therefore, obsolete as well as inhumane.

This imprisonment of refugees, contrary to our Convention obligations, is a disgrace, but both political parties are locked into it and are afraid to give way for fear of losing reactionary votes.

I believe that most Australians would welcome an amnesty for this small number of people that would allow them to come to Australia and settle with dignity.

However, it is not a high enough voting issue to affect ballots, yet.

Email, 7 Nov 2018

Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy