Australia won’t solve its refugee problem until it figures out what the problem actually is. A few thousand unauthorised asylum seekers arriving each year won’t lead to social anarchy or the destruction of our culture. Southeast Asia will not rise up like some kind of human tide and drown us all. We are not being taken advantage of, or lied to, or robbed. These are fallacies, and they are not the problem.
The problem is the sheer enormity of the refugee population in Asia, most of whom have nothing like the resources to come to Australia, legally or otherwise. They are no threat to anybody, but they are a burden on humanity, a world of suffering which we in Australia have a moral and legal obligation to try to help. If we seriously disagreed with that we would be free anytime to abandon the refugee convention and assert our indifference as a matter of policy. But, despite years of controversy, no-one of any standing has suggested it; it hasn’t happened and I seriously doubt it ever could. In spite of our misunderstanding of the problem, we are basically a decent people.
So, restarting the “Pacific solution” will not solve the problem. The Nauru option is designed to be a deterrent, even though such policy barriers are disallowed by the refugee convention. By setting up a deterrent we will inadvertently ensure that the vast and desperate refugee population remains so, stuck in countries which offer no welcome or opportunity. This solves nothing, not even the perceived problems of our worst imagining. The boats may stop, but the threat will remain if you choose to see it that way.
What is needed is not one, but a network of refugee processing centres in SE Asia, administered by the UNHCR and funded by countries within the convention. The resettlement of refugees in donor countries would be augmented by the re-establishment of asylum seekers’ bona fides, so that the host countries can begin to accept them as legitimate visa holders with work rights and other opportunities for life.
The federal opposition in Australia opposes regional processing options, while stubbornly insisting on such badly designed “solutions” as Nauru, which will only engage with those who attempt the perilous sea journey anyway, despite the deterrence. They will still try, and many will still die. This is the height of mulish stupidity, a party-branding of local politics at its most venal. It has only resurfaced now as an attempt by responsible government to resolve the deadlock when the opposition clearly will not compromise. A thousand refugees could drown and the opposition would not budge.
I support the Malaysia solution despite its flaws, also the Timor L’Este solution, the Bangkok solution, the Karachi solution. The solution is not in the middle of the Pacific but right here on our doorstep where the actual problem is.
Wake up Australia! You are being lied to once again, and not by any asylum seeker or refugee.
Michael Evans
Armidale
