I meant to write this post last week as the deal was coming to fruition and the human rights gangsters/no borders activists were screaming their heads off, but didn’t get to it and now I see that the deal has been sealed.
Australia is planning to allow some ‘asylum seekers’ who broke into Australia illegally to choose to be resettled in Cambodia.
The Abbott government’s immigration minister Scott Morrison got into hot water some months ago by asking (or stating) this very important point:
Why do we assume that asylum seekers have a right to resettlement in a first-world country?
That is a really good point, if they are seeking freedom from persecution, what is wrong with Cambodia? Or, are they all really just economic migrants masquerading as persecuted people.
Here is the news from Friday at Yahoo News:
Australia’s refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia is a long-term arrangement that will start small but build over time, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said.
The deal, announced on Friday and many months in the making, has been condemned by the United Nations’ refugee agency and human rights advocates.
Speaking to the ABC’s AM program, Mr Morrison said four or five refugees will be resettled in Cambodia in the early stages, but only time will tell how many refugees will make the move.
“And it’ll be based on the success of the program over time. And of course it’s a voluntary program,” he said.
He said it was a long-term agreement and Cambodia would determine how many refugees it would accept.
And, here is the story I was going to post last week from The Australian ( Charities call Cambodia refugee resettlement deal immoral):
Mr Morrison, who has lobbied for developing nations to share a higher burden of the world’s refugees, said the arrangement with Cambodia would be “an ongoing, developing relationship” to build the country’s capacity to offer protection to refugees.
Former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson, speaking on behalf of a coalition of charities, described the proposal as “inappropriate, immoral and likely illegal”.
“It is inappropriate because Cambodia has no capacity within its social sector to take an influx of refugees. Immoral because these vulnerable people are Australia’s responsibility, and while we await the detail, it appears illegal in contravening Australia’s humanitarian and refugee obligations to vulnerable children and families,” Mr Nicholson said.
[….]
Mr Nicholson’s comments were endorsed by a coalition of charities including UNICEF Australia, Save the Children, Plan International Australia, World Vision, Amnesty International, Refugee Council of Australia, International Detention Coalition and Children’s Rights International.
The proof of progress is in the statistics!
The Australian government’s hard line position against open borders (against an asylum-seeker free-for-all) has put Australia in the category of only a few advanced countries whose “asylum seeker” numbers have actually gone down. See the recently released UN report we told you about here. It can be done, but most Western governments, including the US, have apparently no will to live.
Can you just imagine how ticked-off UNHCR Antonio Guterres must be at Australia! He likely fears that some other countries might grow a spine!
