thoughts on boat people
While I'm on the high seas, let's have a closer look at the media-termed "crisis" of asylum seekers coming to Australia.
The content from here onward may be controversial and is aimed at a mature audience. It contains rant themes. Only read if you can accept frank discussion on this topic.
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It has been a few years since we have seen asylum seekers make headlines. Not since the children overboard fiasco has there been such wide media coverage of boat people until the boat explosion off Australia's north-west coast two days ago. Whilst I refuse to be drawn into speculation of why the boat exploded, it suffices to say that it was an image of suffering. Could it be the recklessness and callous disregard of the people smugglers in their money making at the expense of these people? Or was it just desperation from the asylum seekers that led them to douse their boat with petrol and sacrifice themselves in the process to gain easier access into Australia? Whatever the reason, the reality is that we have a sunken boat and people with life threatening injuries.Indeed it must be questioned who is going to pay for the treatment and ongoing rehabilitation of these people, who will be destined for the detention centres. It would seem unfair for the general community to bear such a burden. Especially if this is the start of a wave of similar copycat instances. The amount of manpower involved was extraordinary: airplanes, navy, army, hospital staff and the list continues. The cost would reflect this. There are millions of taxpayers out there in Australia who are still on public hospital waiting lists. I am not saying that we should not save them. I am merely questioning who is eventually going to pay for it, when there are millions of people waiting for capacity-stricken hospitals.
On the reverse side, it is understandable the plight of these people and the enormous struggle they have to endure. As tragic as it seems, where would one draw the line? People are losing their jobs here and that too is tragic. Repossessions and homelessness is tragic. Where people have no money and struggle to survive, that is immensely tragic. As the economy dives, it would be reasonable to expect asylum seekers to increase as they flee to a perceived better place. However, Australia is not capable of accepting them. There already are people that are homeless and hungry. How would these asylum seekers live here if Australian people already struggle to find a job? How would they find the money to buy a house when Australians are already squeezed out of the housing market? It is already hard for people with something to get by. I just cannot imagine how hard it would be for someone with nothing to start building from ground zero given these failing economic times where opportunities are few and far between.
Maybe I underestimate the resilience of these people. What I do understand is the difficulty of the situation we live in now, and of the near future. The integration of these people into our society will just not happen without further governmental support. If we are forced to pay to upkeep these people, frankly I refuse to have them. The government cannot even afford to pay for better hospitals, schools and infrastructure for us now. I do not believe that it is in a position to divert funds away to further social welfare at the expense of all Australians. Possibly this is too selfish, but as a taxpayer I expect that our basic needs are at least covered.
Indeed we live in the world's luckiest country. The asylum seekers recognise this too. In times like this, I am hoping to only make sure our country remains the lucky country and not to see it degenerate with a burden we cannot carry.
benny | Saturday, April 18, 2009 
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Mags
benny
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I agree that we can handle a couple of boatloads, but I don't think that we have the capacity to take a large influx especially since we have just cut our skilled migration intake by 20%.
News reports say that there are 6-10,000 people waiting to make the voyage from Indonesia now. I don't even think our detention centres can support that many people. The pacific solution again?
benny |
Monday, April 20, 2009 7:07:00 pm
Admittedly, our economy is in a bad state.. but at the same time, I think it's the right thing to do as a person to look after these asylum seekers.
I think as a once-off, we as a country can still handle the costs of this incident - one boatload of people will not send the whole country into economic collapse and while it is drawing funding away from other things - it is likely to only have a short term impact.
However, you are right in worrying about whether this will set a precedence and spark copycat incidents. From a humanitarian perspective, while it would be the right thing to do to help asylum, it is not something that any country can afford to do unconditionally - our government should definitely be wary to not bite off more than they can chew.