Category: Australia

Refugee Council of Australia: we want more refugees!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a report from the Sydney Morning Herald today (tomorrow for us in the US) where the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) is insisting that Australia take more refugees.   Presently Australia takes around 11,000 but RCOA wants the numbers upped to 20,000.

This RCOA is a consortium of NGO’s that have a financial interest in resettling refugees probably very similar to our Refugee Council USA where all the non-profit quasi-government agencies get together on letterheads (trying to look more muscular) and press releases (like the one the Sydney Morning Herald is writing from)  and produce reports advocating for more refugees to be brought to their respective countries—all to keep their member agencies in work.

Shock!  Horrors! Australian refugee intake lowest in 35 years!

The number of asylum seekers that make up the nation’s migration intake has fallen to its lowest level in 35 years, prompting calls for Australia to take a greater role in refugee resettlement.

The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) says Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program has dropped to 6.6 per cent of the nation’s total migration program despite a rise in the number of people seeking resettlement around the globe.

In its annual submission to the federal government, the Refugee Council calls for a five-year expansion of the offshore component of the Refugee and Humanitarian Program.

The council wants the refugee component boosted to 20,000 places per annum, beginning with 1000 additional resettlement places in 2010-11 for highly vulnerable refugees in Asia.

Just a reminder, the Obama Administration is aiming to resettle 80,000 refugees in the US during this year of the Great Recession.

For more on refugee problems in Australia, visit our  Australia category with 47 posts on the joys of multiculturalism down under.

Victoria police: Indian immigrants need to look poor to avoid being targets of violence

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Gheesh!  I told you about the on-going violence against Indian immigrants to Australia here last month.  Now the police chief in Victoria has advised Indians to look poor to avoid being robbed or killed.

What this article in The Age doesn’t tell you is that the violence toward Indians isn’t coming from white Australians, as a casual reader might assume, but from other ethnic groups and most likely Lebanese Muslims(?) as our commenters to the January post have confirmed.

AN INDIAN student spokesman has slammed as ridiculous Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland’s advice that Indian students should not work as taxi drivers and should ”look as poor as you can” to avoid being assaulted.

”Don’t display your iPods, don’t display your valuable watch, don’t display your valuable jewellery. Try to look as poor as you can,” Mr Overland said before adding that foreign students should, however, try to avoid living in Melbourne’s poorer suburbs where crime rates are higher.

[…..] 

Mr Overland made the comments at an international students’ safety forum attended by about 150 people in the city yesterday.

While the speech seemed to be well received at the time, Federation of Indian Students of Australia secretary Gautam Gupta later blasted Mr Overland’s advice, saying taxi drivers had a right to feel safe no matter what their nationality. ”It’s a workplace. Every workplace should be safe. I think it’s a ridiculous idea. It is blaming the worker. It is blaming the victim,” he said.

Mr Gupta said Indians shouldn’t have to look ”poor” to feel safe.

”What is he saying? Indians don’t have the right to be rich? And if they look rich, do they maybe have to get bashed? On one hand, everyone should look poor. On the other, don’t live in poor areas. I don’t understand.”

If you didn’t have any background for this story, a reader would assume that white Australians are attacking the Indian immigrants.  Svend (and other commenters) tells us this:

They’re being attacked by Lebs. As if your average white Aussie cares about Indians.

Chief Overland:  The attacks have little to do with the wealth of the victims, or are you advising white Australians to pretend to be poor too?

Isn’t diversity beautiful!

Sri Lankan boat people to be resettled

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update from Australia where a group of 78 Sri Lankan “refugees” (were they Tamils, this article doesn’t say) are being resettled in Australia, Canada and New Zealand after a long stand-off at sea and a temporary home in Indonesia.

Indonesia reportedly told Australia — we aren’t helping you anymore with your illegal immigrant problems!

We first told you about the story, here, in October.  

Below is a portion of the update today:

Jakarta (ANTARA News) – After staying in Riau`s immigration detention center for almost three months, all 78 Sri Lankan immigrants, who had earlier been `rescued` by Australia`s customs vessel Oceanic Viking, have finally left Riau, for third countries, either Australia, Canada or New Zealand.

Escorted by Indonesian foreign ministry and Australian embassy officials, the last batch of the immigrants left Riau on Wednesday (Jan. 20). The 16 immigrants were flown to Jakarta before proceeding to Australia and the Philippines.

“They are the last batch of a total of 78 Sri Lankan immigrants who were accommodated at the Tanjungpinang immigration detention center after they had to get off the Australian vessel Oceanic Viking,” Samsu Rizal, an Indonesian foreign ministry official, said in Tanjungpinang, Riau Province, Wednesday (Jan. 20).

[…..]

The deportation of Sri Lanka refugee in Indonesia to Canada and Australia, he added, was part of the Australian government`s initiative.

He explained the 78 Sri Lankans were allowed to stay on Indonesian territory for some time because Indonesia wanted to help Australia overcome the problem they posed after they were caught trying to reach Australian shores in rickety boats.

“But this will be the last time we are helping Australia deal with its foreign refugee influx problem,” Sujatmiko said adding that Indonesia did not incur any expenditures for the deportation since all the related costs were borne by the United Nations.

[….]

Despite the departure of the 78 refugees, it seems that the foreign immigrant problem is still far from over. [no kidding!]

By the way, I never did hear how the issue of the Tamils landing in Vancouver ended (if it ended).

Sydney, Australia: Police not happy accused Iraqi refugee rapist released

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In one more case of folks in Australia being challenged by the diversity-is-beautiful mythology, an Iraqi refugee charged with an alleged rape, and new to Australia, was released on bail despite pleas by the victim that she feared for her safety.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

An Iraqi refugee accused of dragging a woman from a Brisbane park into his house and raping her twice has been released from custody.

The 50-year-old Stafford man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with two counts of rape and one of deprivation of liberty.

The court heard an Indonesian woman had complained that the man had grabbed her on Tuesday afternoon from Stafford’s Gibson Park where she was sitting on a bench, talking on her phone.

He then allegedly took her through the park, through his back yard and into a bedroom where he sexually assaulted her.

The court heard the woman complained to police on leaving the house, later pointing out the address to officers and describing a computer in the bedroom where officers found the accused.

Police opposed the granting of bail too.

Police prosecutor Constable Sam Bopf, who opposed bail, highlighted the random nature of the attack.

She said a neighbour had reportedly seen the man approach other women in the park and police feared he would reoffend.

The complainant was terrified of her alleged attacker and there was a risk he would approach her if he was let out of custody because they lived in the same area, she said.

She also noted the accused had been in Australia just five or six months, was unemployed, spoke no English and had no strong ties to the community, making him a flight risk.

What is the deal with this last part?  We keep hearing that Australia’s refugee resettlement program is supposed to be a superior one—then why is this guy basically just hanging around parks?

Australia update: Diversity in Victoria fueling violent crime?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Maybe some of our Australian readers can enlighten us further about why the crime in the Victoria region of Australia involves crimes with racial motivations.   Here is a story from the Sydney Morning Herald that tells of the murder of an Indian immigrant, but completely dances around the subject of who is committing the crimes against Indians who, according to this report, are just working hard and going to school.

Apparently the targeting of Indian immigrants has further strained relations between Australia and India.

The brutal killing in Melbourne of Nitin Garg, a young Indian man with permanent residence in Australia, has put added stress on what is a difficult relationship between political leaders in New Delhi and Canberra.

Who are the vocal minorities?  What other ethnic groups?  That is what I want to know!

Obviously, the Federal Government is not responsible for street crime in Victoria. But the state’s premier, John Brumby, heads a Labor Government that gives the impression of being unduly sensitive to upsetting some vocal minorities.

The NSW police force has an organised crime directorate that includes both an Asian Crime Squad and a Middle East Organised Crime Squad. The NSW Government makes no apologies for targeting suspected criminals in response to perceived need. Victoria Police has no equivalent units. There have been suggestions that young Indians in Melbourne are being targeted by other ethnic groups. The Victorian Government has been silent on this matter.

The immediate response of Victoria Police to any suggestion that attacks on Indians are racially motivated is to throw the switch to denial, or at least to avoidance.