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Post by garfield on Oct 12, 2012 7:30:52 GMT 10
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Post by tam on Oct 12, 2012 8:06:09 GMT 10
ELECTRICIANS, security guards, government workers and businessmen were among a wave of middle-class asylum seekers caught leaving Sri Lanka by boat, the country's navy has revealed.
In a briefing to a Liberal MP on a study tour, Sri Lanka's navy revealed that most of the 2279 people arrested leaving on 52 boats this year from 24 locations were "economic migrants" looking for a better life in Australia. Sri Lankan authorities believed the asylum seekers had mortgaged property, taken out loans, pawned jewellery and received support from others to fund the $10,000 payment for people smugglers to take them to Australia.
The navy claimed in a briefing that asylum seekers chose to board unseaworthy one-engined boats for the dangerous 25 to 30-day journey to Australia in "appalling conditions" because of the "success rates" of Australia's asylum processing claim system.
AUSTRALIA'S humanitarian intake program is one of the most generous in the world. We take our responsibilities seriously.
CHRISTMAS Island detention centres are so overcrowded with asylum seekers the president of the Human Rights Commission fears there could be a riot.
Almost 100 of those arrested were businessmen, 179 were fishermen, 27 government workers, 87 drivers, 158 labourers, 15 electricians, 87 farmers and 43 masons.
Photographs taken by the navy (above) show filthy hulls into which dozens of people had been crammed along with pictures of each boat and a separate image of the asylum seekers, sometimes more than 100 from each boat, including pregnant women and very young children.
Sri Lankan officials have arrested eight people-smuggling kingpins, six of them in the Sri Lankan port city of Trincomalee.
Despite the arrests, 4109 Sri Lankans have reached Australia this year, including one boat carrying 70 people which arrived at the Cocos Islands yesterday. An unknown number have drowned.
Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, said yesterday there was no way of knowing how many had died on voyages but that relatives had reported family members missing to police.
Liberal MP Don Randall was briefed two weeks ago by the head of the navy in a region of Sri Lanka.
He spoke with 36 asylum seekers who had been arrested, including a man with his children. All said they wanted to come to Australia for a better life. Others who had been arrested were fishermen wanting to earn more.
"He had the rest of his family with him, he had sold his house, he resigned from his public service job," Mr Randall said before adding the asylum seekers who were arrested were not tortured or mistreated upon their return. Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said that after the largest refugee camp in Sri Lanka was closed last month, following the end of the nation's civil war in 2009, the government had an opportunity to return asylum seekers.
"Labor's inaction is encouraging more people to ... undertake a voyage even more dangerous than the one from Indonesia," Mr Morrison said. Asked about the report, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen declined to comment.
The UNHCR has recently returned more than 230,000 internally displaced Sri Lankans to their villages and assisted 873 who voluntarily returned from overseas.
A spokesman said the UNHCR still recommends "all claims by asylum seekers from Sri Lanka be considered on their individual merits", which the Australian government said it complies with.
Meanwhile, an Iranian man attempted suicide yesterday at the Nauru processing camp. Refugee advocates said the asylum seeker was "blue" when found. A Department of Immigration spokeswoman said he suffered no injuries.
When asked about the report, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen declined to comment.
Looks like they are not all genuine but we all knew that.
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Post by garfield on Oct 12, 2012 8:59:27 GMT 10
"An unknown number have drowned"Rudd and Gillard caused all these deaths yet all we are worried about in parliament is who called who names 
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Post by spindrift on Oct 12, 2012 10:32:15 GMT 10
Thne issue of asylum seekers required a regional solution....all in parliament agreed, and when Gillard accomplished that solution, Abbott brought out the wrecking ball, creating chaos which is his sole oblective...nothing constructive, just destructive because its a hung parliament and he smells a possible victory....not thinking what is good for Australia overall...just him and his ambition comes first.
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Post by pim on Oct 12, 2012 10:33:41 GMT 10
 G'morning, garfield! |
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Post by garfield on Oct 12, 2012 20:01:47 GMT 10
Thne issue of asylum seekers required a regional solution....all in parliament agreed, and when Gillard accomplished that solution, Abbott brought out the wrecking ball, creating chaos which is his sole oblective...nothing constructive, just destructive because its a hung parliament and he smells a possible victory....not thinking what is good for Australia overall...just him and his ambition comes first. I'm going to come back as a psychologist next time around, it just fascinates the f#ck out of me how the human mind works and how two people can view the same subject and come to such totally opposite conclusions. The idiot Gillard/Rudd government has f#cked about with border protection and turned it into a scammers f#cking paradise free for all leading to the deaths of thousands of boat people yet somehow the liberal party, the ones that completely solved the problem when they were in charge are now somehow responsible for labors mess, f#ckin funny stuff, love reading the thoughts of the mentally challenged lefty f#ck ups, it just makes me ever more thankfull, you know, like when you see a dribbling spastic in a wheelchair ... there but for the grace of god (actually evolution) go I ;D |
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Post by garfield on Oct 12, 2012 20:07:05 GMT 10
G'morning, garfield! You crying croc tears over the amount of reffos gillards drowned? |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2012 20:24:16 GMT 10
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Post by spindrift on Oct 13, 2012 8:31:54 GMT 10
Of course if one isn't prepared to look at things without bias and objectively then the conclusions will be just pro conservative psycho babble as Garfield is prone to espouse.
After Johnnie Howards government people were concerned about the humanitarian aspects of the Pacific Solution and any incoming government had a responsibility to address those concerns as Rudd had done.
And governments have a due responsibility to be flexible and design new policies, to be inventive and creative, try new things or little is achieved in forwarding a nation.
It was recognised that a policy change had to be addressed with the increasing asylum seekers numbers arriving by perilous boat journey, the number increase factors not only due to policy changes there were other environmental factors as well, such as increased war, poverty, and persecution, and that will always be a drive factor for people movement.
Certainly the boats can be stopped with punitive measures on asylum seekers but that will also push up the numbers who fly in as an alternative goal, and its still the case the majority are fly in arrival.
A new direction in policy had to be found and on expert advice the Malaysian Regional Solution was found to be the better solution for all concerned than the punitive action with the Pacific Solution.
Gillard set out to achieve that solution and it was scuttled by the conservative’s hell bent on creating chaos rather than what was good policy...if one has an open mind that can be seen as such.
With Nauru and Manus it will only fall to the same humanitarian complaints that were there before.
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Post by garfield on Oct 13, 2012 10:46:46 GMT 10
there were other environmental factors as well, such as increased war, poverty, and persecution Complete nonsense as usual  , there was only one factor and that factor was f#ckwit rudd ... The red spot indicates where rudd and gillard opened australia up for businees to criminal people smugglers and bogus reffos.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2012 11:02:31 GMT 10
there were other environmental factors as well, such as increased war, poverty, and persecution Complete nonsense as usual , there was only one factor and that factor was f#ckwit rudd ... The red spot indicates where rudd and gillard opened australia up for businees to criminal people smugglers and bogus reffos.  |
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, there was only one factor and that factor was f#ckwit rudd ...