In the best demonstration there is that Australia’s policy of towing boats full of mostly Muslim illegal aliens back to Indonesia is working is a story like this one—human traffickers are now setting their sights on New Zealand.
See our Australia category for all the news on the Abbott government’s tough policy.
To American and European readers, we want you to know that some first world countries are taking steps to stop the illegal alien flow!
From the Sydney Morning Herald last week (Hat tip: the ever-vigilant ‘pungentpeppers’). Emphasis is mine:
Jakarta: People smugglers in Indonesia are mounting their first credible attempt to ship asylum seekers on the hazardous voyage to New Zealand and circumvent the Abbott government’s Operation Sovereign Borders.
Four men – two from Bangladesh and two from Afghanistan – were caught last month by the Indonesian immigration department in Jayapura, West Papua, on their way to get a boat to New Zealand.
Their capture appears to have stalled, for the time being, a plot to send up to 100 people, but sources in West Java say people smugglers in the town of Cisarua are still advertising for places on a New Zealand-bound boat.
Easier to get into New Zealand than Australia?
One of the men in custody, Bangladeshi Mohammad Saiful Islam Tanu told Fairfax Media that when he had arrived earlier this year from Malaysia to Cisarua – where many asylum seekers wait as they try to get to Australia – he had been told by others that the Abbott government had “closed the way”.
“The Australian government already is closed [the way] because every boat going to Australia comes back to Indonesia. So many people say it’s impossible. Now we not try to go to Australia,” Mr Saiful said. “What can I do? And [a people smuggler] Mr Jafar told me, ‘You can go to New Zealand from Papua’.”
Mr Saiful said the smugglers had told them that it was easier to be accepted in New Zealand than Australia.
New Zealand has taken steps to deter the migrants in advance! They will be detained!
A spokeswoman for the New Zealand embassy in Jakarta said New Zealand had never had a “mass arrival” (defined as 30 or more), but that “we are aware that people smugglers continue to express interest in targeting New Zealand through a variety of avenues, including both air and sea routes”.
[….]
Though New Zealand has been protected from the rash of asylum seekers by its distance, it has passed relatively tough new laws in case of this development. Anyone coming as part of a mass arrival can be detained until their circumstances are assessed. Even for those found eligible, there is no guarantee of permanent residence.