Category: Australia

Kiribati man looking to be the first “climate refugee” allowed to stay in New Zealand

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh brother, here we go (again)!

Australian Refugee Council President, Phil Glendenning: “This is a new cohort of people who are emerging, the rest of the world needs to pay attention.”

Never mind that the release a week or so ago of the latest UN report on the climate admitted to a “lull in warming” for the last 15 years or so.

Here is the story from New Zealand, originally written by AP but apparently re-worked at “Climate Progress” a publication of Soros’ Think Progress.

Readers may wish to go back to our previous post on Kiribati to learn about the massive engineering project the government there might like to undertake (they will need your $$$).

Climate Progress:

If ocean levels rise by as much as three feet by the end of the century, as predicted by the Fifth IPCC Assessment report released last week, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati — composed of 32 atolls — would mostly disappear.

The potential impacts on the 100,000 citizens of Kiribati, not to mention the millions of others living in low-lying island nations and coastal areas, of this climate change-induced forced exodus are already playing out in New Zealand where a Kiribati man is trying to convince the court that he’s a climate refugee.

“AF” came to New Zealand for “better prospects.”   He is an “economic migrant” not a “refugee!”

The man, referred to as “AF” in hearings, and his wife came to New Zealand six years ago for higher ground and better prospects, according to The Associated Press. Since then, immigration authorities have twice rejected his argument that rising sea levels make it too dangerous for him and his family to return to Kiribati.

On October 16 the case will go before New Zealand’s High Court.

Bruce Burson, a member of New Zealand’s Immigration and Protection Tribunal, has said that the legal concept of a refugee is someone that is being persecuted, which requires human interaction. Burson also said that the man’s claim was rejected because the family’s predicament was the same as faced by the entire population of Kiribati.

As I mentioned in previous posts on the subject, there is a Leftwing internal squabble on-going between the faction that wishes to keep as its own, and the one wishing to take control of, the word “refugee.”  Underlying both of the factions is the ultimate goal of pouring the ‘have-nots’ into the West to create chaos and bring “change.”

You can see the potential for an even greater stampede to the West from the third world if migrants like “AF” are successful.

The legal case remains a long shot, but one that deserves close attention due to the likelihood of similar cases in the future. Sea level rise impacts not only low-lying islands with small populations but also heavily populated coastal regions, such as Kolkata, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I didn’t know that refugee advocates in Australia were pushing this new designation back in April.  Here is Australia’s Refugee Council head honcho, Phil Glendenning.  This is, of course, B.A. (before Abbott!).

In April the Refugee Council of Australia implored the Australian government to become the first nation in the world to recognize populations displaced due to changes in climate as “climate refugees.”

Phil Glendenning, president of the Refugee Council of Australia, told The Guardian, “These are people who are not suffering from persecution because of their beliefs, race or because they belong to a particular group.” As a result, “they don’t meet the Refugee Convention criteria but, nevertheless, there will be a need for people to be resettled because they have been displaced by climate change. This is a new cohort of people who are emerging, the rest of the world needs to pay attention.”

For more, see our ‘climate refugees’ category, here.

Australia: The ‘asylum-seeker’ showdown we all need to be watching!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As readers here know, Australia has a new government, a conservative one, which promises to get the ‘boat people’ crisis under control.  But, the human rights industrial complex is punching back hard with a gambit to take the Abbott government before the UN Human Rights Council before it even gets off the ground.

Tony Abbott sworn in September 18th as the new Australian Prime Minister. Immigration policy was on the voters’ minds.

Here is the news from The Guardian (Australia’s refugee stance sets ‘alarming global precedent’).  Precedent is right, alarming is wrong.  Every Western country must get its borders under its control and we will all be watching to see if Australia can stem the tide of mostly economic migrants (most from Muslim countries) arriving by the thousands on their shores.

[Here is another story (Global Post) on the same subject, hat tip:  Joanne]

The Guardian gasping in indignation:

Australia is engaging in “unlawful and increasingly punitive” treatment of asylum seekers, an Australian legal group will tell the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In a scathing statement to be read out to the UN’s premier human rights body on Tuesday night, the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre will call on the council to condemn the “alarming global precedent” set by Australia’s stance towards refugees who arrive by boat.

The HRLC will highlight how asylum seekers are being “subjected to arbitrary, indefinite detention” in inadequate conditions on Nauru and Manus Island based on their mode of arrival, contrary to the Refugee Convention, of which Australia is a signatory.

The statement also criticises the new Coalition government’s policies of towing back boats to their origin, abolishing the right to appeal negative refugee assessments to an independent tribunal and the withdrawal of publicly-funded legal assistance for asylum seekers.

From the Global Post story here is another list of the new measures Abbott proposes in order to discourage those who are invading Australia:

Abbott says he will use the navy to tow rickety people-smuggling boats back to their place of origin — typically Indonesia — and will force those who do arrive or are already here onto a tough new regime.

They will be placed on three-year temporary visas with no chance of permanent residency, denied family reunion, appeal or legal assistance and made to work for government benefits.

The general supposition is that most who are arriving illegally are economic migrants and not truly in need of protection, as is the case for the majority of illegal migrants to the US.  They have all just figured out how to use that magic word—asylum.

Swearing in story and photo are here.

This is our 112th post in our Australia category.

Australia: Thorny asylum issues face new Australian government

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Judy told you the other day, here, that the conservatives are now in control of the government in Australia and that immigration policy differences played a huge role in the election outcome.

“Hardliner” Scott Morrison appointed immigration minister in Abbott government. Photo: . AAP/David Crosling

I’m in no position to analyze the myriad issues facing the new government over its “boat people” policy going forward, but here is a legal writer at SBS.com.au , Alex Reilly, laying out the mine fields ahead for the likely new immigration minister, Scott Morrison.

Reilly:

Asylum seeker policy experienced a rush of activity in the lead-up to the election. Behind the Abbott government’s bold promise to “stop the boats” in its first term of government is a series of specific proposals – some adopted from Labor, and some of the Coalition’s own creation.

The new immigration minister, Scott Morrison, inherits a portfolio that is in disarray. There are tens of thousands of asylum seekers already in Australia who have made an application for a Protection Visa, but who have not had their claim considered at first instance by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). They are in various forms of detention or in the community on bridging visas with no rights to work.

I couldn’t possibly begin to analyze this, other than to say it sure looks “thorny!”  Read it all.

You might want to see our previous 110 posts on Australia where the public is in a much greater state of agitation over illegal aliens (mostly from Muslim countries) than Americans seem to be.   Or at least the issue is a pivotal election issue there and has not YET reached that level in the US.

Did Tony Abbott’s tough stand on refugees win him the Australia election?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party won big in Australia’s elections last week.  (The Liberal Party is the conservative party.)  And the leftist British paper, the Guardian, attributes it to his emphasis on refugees with its headline, Tony Abbott, the man who promised to ‘stop the boats’, sails to victory.  Its snide subhead, “Australia’s new prime minister succeeded by exploiting fear about migrants and disunity among his rivals,” is par for the leftist course.

In other words, Australians have no legitimate reason to oppose boatloads of refugees and it’s exploitation to bring it up.  More from the Guardian:

Abbott says the country is facing a “national emergency”; he is to appoint a three-star general to oversee his “Operation Sovereign Borders”.

The political pressure he exerted in opposition on the issue was so great it forced Labor into a spectacular volte-face on processing refugees offshore. Tents and temporary structures on the tiny pacific islands of Manus and Nauru house refugees in conditions widely criticised by human rights groups. Thousands more live on bridging visas in Australia, unable to work while their claims are processed.

Labor’s parting shot in what had become a contest of who could appear toughest on refugees was a deal with Papua New Guinea. Refugees arriving by boat will now be settled there rather than in Australia.

As prime minister, Abbott will go further, reducing Australia’s humanitarian intake by 6,250 places a year to 13,750 and refusing refugees permanent residence, access to family reunions or to legal aid.

The Guardian minimizes the problem, saying Australia’s numbers of refugees are small by world standards.  It doesn’t give any information on why there’s a problem.  See Ann’s recent post for some background, or search “Abbott” for more.

Australia didn’t admit any non-white immigrants until the 1970s.  Now discrimination against immigrants on the basis of race is illegal, though there are sometimes voices raised against the policy.   But the voters are not so bogged down in political correctness that they think they need to accept boatloads of people without regard to their effect on Australia — and many of whom are not true refugees.  Would that we had some courageous politicians like Tony Abbott.

Rohingya Muslims making a run for Australia; don’t believe Aussies will follow-through on get-tough policy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here are some snippets of the story from The Sydney Morning Herald last week.

We are expected to believe that each of these Rohingya men and boys found $5000 each to hire people smugglers to get them to Australia (or Thailand)?

There are two things that interest me in this report.  

First and foremost, how do abjectly poor asylum seekers find $5000 each to hire human traffickers?

This is my theory, I believe they are being paid by the likes of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to be the advancing army of Islam into Southeast Asia and Australia.  OIC knows that a demographic war (Al Hijra) is their best bet for world domination and they have been deeply involved in the destabilization of Burma.

The other problem I have with this report is the repetition of the media meme that the Rohingya were just minding their own business in Burma and the Buddhists came after them.  The Rohingya did their share of the killing!

PNG or no PNG, they are coming!

Myanmar’s Rohingya are fleeing their country in unprecedented numbers – and more and more are looking to Australia for sanctuary.

Undeterred by threats of resettlement offshore or years in immigration detention, increasing numbers of Myanmar’s Muslim ethnic minority are paying people smugglers up to $5000 to board boats for a complicated journey through Malaysia, Indonesia and, for those who can afford it, ultimately to Australia.

Advocacy group The Arakan Project estimates 37,000 Rohingya have boarded boats for those three countries in the past 10 months. Few Rohingya fleeing Myanmar have reached Australian shores previously but, following widespread communal violence last year and increasing state-sanctioned oppression since, the numbers have risen exponentially.

Mohammed(s) on the way!

Despite the risks, and Australia’s new “hardline” policy on boat arrivals, Australia is increasingly seen as an attractive option. In Kutupalong refugee camp, Mohammed Zolil says he fled after his two friends were killed in anti-Muslim attacks last year.

“What I hear from other people is it is peaceful in Australia, and so I wish I could go to Australia. I hear a lot of people go to Australia.”

He says Australia’s policy change is known, but people believe their people smugglers over a distant government.

“A few days ago, I’ve heard from someone over the phone that the government does not allow to go inside Australia, they’ll send them somewhere else . . . but even after all this difficulty, still people will try.”

Mohammed Iqbal Hussain, a teacher, says people are encouraged by others who’ve gone before them.  [There is that “sugar on the table” concept again—ed]

So, if you’ve gotten this far and are saying to yourself—too bad for Australia, remember that Rohingya are being resettled in Europe, Canada and the US.  The numbers are small so far, but US contractors, like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops are lobbying the State Department to bring them some Rohingya to add to their refugee diversity in your town!  Read all about it in our Rohingya Reports category with 153 previous posts.