What can we do?

It’s time to be serious. We in Australia have a huge problem that needs fixing.

Our current band of “leaders” (i.e., our politicians) seemingly have no scruples about dishing out cruelty to other human beings.

Sure, I appreciate that many countries over the world are battling dilemmas concerning asylum seekers but Australia seems to be one of the worst as far as offering any refuge for these poor souls. 

 

We (well, not me personally) have gathered all those seeking asylum and called them “illegals” -  which they certainly are not – and herded them into hell holes of immigration detention centres – jails really -   where they are mistreated and otherwise ignored.  

Some of these centres are not much more that a cluster of large tents. AND, they are not even in Australia. They are in what are called “offshore detention facilities”.

The people are not being ‘processed’; their stories are not being heard and some of these people have been in detention centres for YEARS. Some of them are CHILDREN.

It is inhumane and against all decency.

 

It is costing millions of dollars to keep these people locked up.

Surely it would cost far less to employ staff to ‘process’ them and allow them into our community.

 

In Australia we often hear complaints about there not being enough skilled workers to fill current job vacancies. Perhaps, just maybe, there are people currently locked up in detention centres who could be the mechanic, the engineer, the nurse, the willing worker of any persuasion who would contribute to our society and to our economy.

Maybe? Surely? But no one is checking that avenue.

 

It is preferred to offer the scare tactics of warnings of terrorism and the dangers of ‘the other’.

 

Many Australians (I hang my head in shame) have turned into the most terrible racists and are rebelling against any plans of government to settle asylum seekers in our country.

They are too selfish to even try the imaginative task of ‘putting your feet in the others’ shoes’.

They cannot see that these people are fleeing for their lives and the lives of their children.

  

Our opposition leader (Bill Shorten), in the latest ALP conference has backed the current plan of our PM (the heartless Tony Abbott) and stated that he will continue the ‘stop the boats’ strategy and continue to ‘turn back the boats’.

He claims it will ‘save thousands of lives that would otherwise be lost at sea.’

 

Is that true?

If they ‘turn back the boats’, does that mean that no one drowns at sea?

How do we know?

How do we know what happens to the poor people on any boat that is ‘turned back’?

 

Then Bill Shorten announces this:

 

Doubling the refugee intake to 27,000 a year by 2025* would be one of the other key elements of his (Bill Shorten’s) policy.

* by 2025!

 

What I need to know is, if Australia accepts more refugees, do the numbers come from the thousands now in detention? Or are we to accept refugees who fly into our airports? There is a big difference!

 

Last week, a boat of refugees, reported to be from Vietnam, was reportedly sighted off the Western Australian coast.

Once reported, the media was silenced and the government would not permit another word to be said or written about them. These matters are not to be discussed or reported in any way. There is a blanket of secrecy now over the fate of these refugees.

Where are they?

What is happening to them?

What has happened to Australia as a democracy?

 

I am ashamed of my country.