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July 26, 2013
So the Coalition's Operation Sovereign Borders has made explicit was implicit in its response to asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat. Australia is being invaded; the boat arrivals have created a national emergence; the military is required to defend Australia's borders; and the military is to be turned on the invaders in leaky boats lurking over the border.
David Rowe
Harsh policies deter people from getting on leaky boats organized by the people smugglers is the assumption. As more boats arrive the rhetoric of deterrence becomes ever more inflamed; the system of prisons built on the archipelago on various islands to our north is extended; and the system of detention and punishment becomes harsher.
It is a focus group policy for the Fortress Australia group who are scared, fearful and insecure and and who want to see asylum seekers arriving on the boats demonised and suffer. They don't belong here. So the punitive treatment of boat-borne asylum seekers is justified. The xenophobes are indifferent to Australia's involvement in conflict and persecution that force people to leave their homes and seek protection. Only Australia's policies determine the flow of asylum seekers. All that matters is the national interest and being toughest on asylum seekers.
Hence the acceptance of the unilateral Howard mantra: “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come here” which now means “Stop the Boats!” with its implication of turning them back. It doesn't matter that Indonesia says that it won't accept any attempt to return them to Indonesia and that the only solution to the asylum seeker crisis lay in regional co-operation.
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According to the government’s own statistics, over 90 per cent of asylum seekers arriving by boat in recent years have been genuine refugees, seeking real protection.