Asylum Seekers Part 2

Here we go again, banging the drum on the Asylum Seeker issue.

I take umbrage at a few things mentioned in this issue:

"A Lowy Institute poll this year found that 88 per cent of Australians believe they are queue jumpers and 86 per cent believe they "pose a potential security threat to Australia".

Who were these Australians they allegedly surveyed? Did any of those surveyed get the real facts from the people involved in this, for example the ACTUAL asylum seekers? One thing is for sure that NO politician, on either side of political fence, has ever stood up for the people who (I'm assuming) are making their way out of oppression in their home countries. We seem to forget that that is what asylum seeking is all about. I've made the point in these pages that if you have a legitimate claim for asylum from persecution in your home country, it is NOT illegal to ask another country for asylum. Furthermore, if you can't get a plane and a visa, how the hell else are you supposed to get here?

However, if it is found that the people arriving on boats are jumping the immigration queue, by all means deport them. After all, this is an illegal practice and as such, one cannot expect a nation to grant someone clemency or recourse for trying to break that nations laws, right?

Furthermore, is it overly cynical to doubt the integrity of any "studies" done by an independent think tank run by a billionaire shopping centre magnate?

The fact that 88% of respondents claim that these people are a national security threat and are "queue jumpers" proves, if nothing else, the need for a more free and open press, in order to give us the truth. The amount of misinformation on this issue alone proves that we, as a nation of literate media consumers, are not being fed reliable and accurate information.

There is no excuse for Xenophobia, but there is equally no excuse for a nation's media outlets to stoke the fires of xenophobia in the minds of its audience.

Note: I know these links all come from the Sydney Morning Herald, but there is suspiciously little printed about this in the Australian Murdoch press web sites...