There should be a law against allowing refugee advocates anywhere near those who attempted to come here via people smugglers rather than going through the correct channels. Ian RinTOOL and his moronic mates are doing more harm than good with their outright lies!! An Australian lawyer supporting the rioting on Manus Island is the latest in a long line of pathetic and dangerous thinking from the left. #auspol #BSWNBPM #sameoldlabor #Green15 #theirABC #Fairfax -THE irresponsibility and deliberate ignorance displayed by so-called progressive activists over border protection is difficult to fathom. It is as though they have chosen to unlearn the sorry saga that unfolded after they convinced the Rudd Labor government to unwind the Pacific solution in 2008. They don’t want to remember the 820 boats and 51,870 asylum-seekers who took perilous journeys to Australia and ended up in immigration detention of one kind or another for various periods of time. Nor do the activists choose to recall the 1200 or more asylum-seekers who died at sea, almost 2000 children who were in detention at any one time, the $11.6 billion expended or the tens of thousands of overseas refugees without money for people-smugglers who could not be accepted into our humanitarian care because all places had been filled. Having wiped all of this experience from their apparently blameless minds, the activists now adopt the same sorts of emotional and disruptive tactics against the Abbott government that they used to condemn the Howard government’s Pacific solution. Refugee advocates work hand in glove with asylum-seekers to encourage protests and stand-offs, and spread often spurious information through compliant media to heighten political angst about the detention facilities. Last July, for instance, Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Committee claimed up to 10 mothers “attempted suicide” on Christmas Island. This claim was buttressed on the ABC by the Human Rights Commission President, Gillian Triggs, and echoed in the Fairfax press. Only it wasn’t true, and later Mr Rintoul admitted; “I probably shouldn’t have said attempted suicide … people drinking concoctions of shampoo or detergent generally don’t die.” Yet the ABC can’t seem to help itself. This week it ran claims by Mr Rintoul that asylum-seekers on Manus Island faced “fatal consequences” because authorities were denying them drinking water. The Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, was forced to emphatically refute those claims, while dealing with a worrying situation. But it gets worse. Self-styled refugee advocate Greg Barns (who also heads a group called the Australian Lawyers Alliance) has advocated violence. “I support riots on Manus,” he tweeted. “There is no other way to end cruelty.” This level of recklessness is difficult to explain and impossible to defend; especially when an Iranian asylum-seeker, Reza Berati, tragically was killed in a riot on Manus Island last year. Another self-styled activist, Julian Burnside QC, also vented. “Indonesia kills prisoners quickly,” he tweeted. “Australia kills boatpeople slowly.” Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has likened the return of asylum-seekers to sending Jews back to Nazi Germany and former ABC host Waleed Aly suggested Operation Sovereign Borders could be renamed “Operation Slaughter.” Offshore processing, mandatory detention and turning back boats are tough policies. But they do prevent people-smuggling and maintain the integrity of our immigration system, so that lives are saved. In the past year just one boat has arrived. This has spared an incalculable amount of human trauma and undoubtedly dozens of lives. And here’s the rub; we haven’t taken any fewer refugees. The so-called refugee advocates and their many sympathisers in the media need to admit theyve been wrong, accept sensible and workable policies, and behave responsibly.- theaustralian.au/opinion/editorials/taking-refuge-from-the-facts/story-e6frg71x-1227191343452?nk=1a2a9940b6b79a896ab44fa797ba73bd
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:55:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015