New Australian policy to detain asylum seekers not deterring desperate people

They say they are fleeing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  But, didn’t we just hear today that the Obama Administration doesn’t want to list the Taliban as a terrorist group?

Here, on the anniversary of 9/11, is today’s news about Hillary and Obama getting soft on the Taliban.

Washington, Sept. 11 (ANI): Days after the Obama administration designated the Pakistan based Haqqani network as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, the U.S. has hinted that it is still undecided about placing the Taliban on its list of foreign terrorist groups.

“We do very intensive analysis before we designate someone as a foreign terrorist organisation, and I think I’ll let the designation speak for itself. We have reached that conclusion about the Haqqani Network and we think it’s the right decision,” The Nation quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as saying.

[…..]

The U.S. is seeking to engage the Taliban in negotiations to renounce violence and accept the Afghan Constitution to better the chances of peace following the planned withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in 2014. (ANI)

Here we have the news about asylum seekers, with no confidence that the Taliban will reform, arriving in Indonesia and ready to board boats for Australia.

REFUGEES from Afghanistan and Pakistan are still arriving in Indonesia en route to Australia despite the Gillard government’s ”no advantage” policy and the introduction of processing on Nauru.

The news suggests the policy is not a deterrent to asylum seekers leaving the war-torn South Asian countries.

It also contradicts the line from Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare that the recent influx of boats from Indonesia represented a ”closing-down sale” by people smugglers.

An Afghan refugee living in the town of Cisarua, south of Jakarta, told The Age yesterday that only days ago a new group of refugees had arrived after flying in from the city of Quetta in Pakistan.
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”They are coming little by little. Four days ago, 20 people came to Jakarta airport,” said refugee Alemzadeh, who is in Cisarua waiting for a boat to Christmas Island.

”They know [about the new policy], but they don’t stop. They say it’s too dangerous to stay in Pakistan.”

[….]

”Everyone knows [about the drowning], but … they say ‘When I go back to my country, I am sure that Taliban or al-Qaeda or the other agents of the Taliban will detain me, kill me’,” he said.

Hillary needs to get on the horn and tell these people to not fear the Taliban because Obama said so.

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