In the past, I have naively thought the facts would bring an end to the fearmongering – by explaining to people that we receive just a few thousand asylum seekers each year, and that they pose no threat to our way of life or sustainability. I want to explain that 99.99% of people who entered Australia last year did so by plane; that Australia takes just 0.03% of the world’s refugees and displaced people; and that there are 76 countries that take more refugees than we do, based on wealth.
These days, I talk about a much simpler truth: the moral responsibilities that come with living in a free and democratic country, and what it means to be an Australian. This means we have a moral duty to act and show compassion to vulnerable, innocent people who are fleeing for their lives.
Being Australian should count for something greater than pandering to baseless fears.
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5 comments:
Can I commend to all readers of Ms Cat the Amensty petition about asylum seekers and refugees which is mentioned in the comments to the article by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/23509/
I agree, these 'facts' need to be taken more seriously instead of denied or distorted in the service of fear mongering and xenophobia.
First and foremost, arrivals by air carry identification and visa's. Arrivals by boat, mostly have destroyed whatever i.d they had before they get here, that is why they should be locked up. Until their identity and risk are verified.
In other words, they are illegal entrants. If a Chinese navy ship arrived tomorrow, would you be happy with that? Thought not! But its exactly the same.
Anon, I'm going to leave your comment there rather than bin it as it deserves, so that other people can see what prejudice, ignorance, cowardly anonymity, bad logic and really terrible punctuation all look like. It's really quite an achievement for one short paragraph.
Ay, backing both your post and your comment Ms PavCat...
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