Drudge has posted the link, here. Guess the meatpackers in Australia count on immigrant labor too.
Category: Australia
Australian asylum seekers sew lips shut
They did it as a form of protest for their detention on Christmas Island! Australia has big problem with ‘boat people’ attempting to get into Australia and this detention facility has been in the news for years. There is probably a much larger story on this somewhere but this is what the Arizona Daily Star is reporting:
Ten asylum seekers at an Australian detention center sewed their lips together to protest delays in processing their refugee applications, as the government warned that protests will not change the outcome of the visa process.
The male asylum seekers have refused medical assistance since sewing their lips together Friday morning at the Christmas Island detention center. They are taking water and sugar.
The incident was part of a larger protest by 160 detainees at the remote center on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean where asylum seekers who illegally enter Australian waters by boat are detained.
For more on Australia’s refugee and asylee issues, visit our category on Australia, here.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: whole refugee program needs to be revamped
Why? Everyone lies, she says. And, besides asylees and refugees should be judged on what they can contribute to the receiving country and if they will assimilate —- good luck with that!
From The Australian:
AYAAN Hirsi Ali has called for a radical change in the way refugees should be assessed.
Ms Hirsi Ali, arguably one of the most high-profile asylum-seekers in the world, believes the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees is out of date and unable to cope with the scale of migration, and says Australia is well-placed to lead moves to replace it.
Ms Hirsi Ali, a prominent critic of Islam, said it was futile for countries to attempt to establish the bona fides of would-be refugees, not least because many asylum-seekers will say anything in order to qualify for asylum.
She said refugee claims should be rigorously assessed on the applicant’s ability to make a contribution to the host nation and to accept its values and culture.
“Everybody lies,” she told The Australian yesterday.
To learn more about Somali-born Hirsi Ali, see our archives.
New Austrialian Prime Minister wants to set up regional processing center in East Timor
As we hear often from our Australian readers, Australia is having the same problems as the US and other first world countries—illegal aliens are attempting to get into our countries by whatever means they can. Julia Gilliard, the new Prime Minister of Australia, says she wants to find a long-lasting solution to one of the hottest issues facing western nations—-immigration. Good luck with that.
From ABC News:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott both announced new policies on border protection today as the asylum seeker debate took centre stage in pre-election political manoeuvres.
Taking aim at what she called the Opposition’s “rhetoric” and “hollow slogans” on turning asylum seekers back at sea, Ms Gillard announced that the Government was negotiating with East Timor on setting up a “regional processing centre” to handle new boat arrivals before they arrived in Australia.
She said she had held talks with the United Nations as well as East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta and New Zealand’s prime minister John Key on setting up the centre and asked for the “patience and support” of the Australian people.
“The purpose [of the new centre] would be to ensure that people smugglers have no product to sell,” she said.
“A boat ride to Australia would just be a ticket back to the regional processing centre … to ensure that everyone is subject to a consistent, fair assessment process.
New UN Report says there is no need for Tamils to seek asylum!
How about telling that to the US State Department and their contractor the International Rescue Committee—we don’t need to resettle Tamils in Oakland (or anywhere else!).
Ms Gillard said the Government was lifting the suspension on processing claims for Sri Lankans after the release of a new UN report overnight, clearing the way for all Sri Lankan asylum claims to be processed as far as possible.
The report, from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, described “greatly improved” security in Sri Lanka, and said it should not be presumed that Tamils need asylum.
“I have a message for people in Sri Lanka who might be considering the journey to Australia,” Ms Gillard said.
“Do not pay a people smuggler, do not risk your life only to arrive in Australian waters to find that you are far, far more likely than anything else to be quickly sent home by plane.”
See also this article about Gilliard and immigration.
New Australian Prime Minister: no “lurch to right” on immigration
They are coming on boats from everywhere trying to get into Australia, just as our Southern Border is being overrun by mostly economic migrants including Middle Easterners with possibly other motives, making illegal immigration a critical issue for new Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Indeed the nearly two-month-long messy stand-off with the Sri Lankan Tamils may have diminished the voter’s view of Rudd’s effectiveness.*
The issue of border protection is looming as a major challenge for new Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she approaches the election.
The arrival of boatloads of asylum seekers off Australia’s north-west coast has hurt Labor in the opinion polls, and the problem that eroded Kevin Rudd’s popularity in marginal seats is now Ms Gillard’s to deal with.
Ms Gillard says she will not “lurch to the right” but she does understand the fears Australians have about illegal arrivals.
“I do understand the anxiety and indeed fears that Australians have when they see boats intercepted,” she told the 7.30 Report.
“It does make people anxious. I can understand that, I really can.”
* Incidentally, remember those Australian asylum-seeking Tamil “bachelors” we resettled in Oakland, CA (here five days ago). They are a prime example of how refugee/asylum decisions are made that have nothing to do with the legitimacy of the aliens’ case and everything to do with them being pawns in a larger political game. It is clear to me that we took the Tamil’s to help Australia out of its political predicament.