Navy intercepts seventh boat of asylum-seekers in two months

[redandblack]

No, for a change you didn't, but nobody is in any doubt that you were.

Being disingenuous just makes it more obvious.

[redandblack]

If you get past the capitals and the ideology it does raise interesting questions though.
I wonder what happens in the US, Canada, UK, and European countries...
Anyone know?

Good question, Psyber.

I suspect they don't get shot or put in prison. I think they take vastly more refugees than we do.

[wycbloods]

Oh, because you know which laws I prefer and what I mean as humour

Get your hand off it

Oh, because it is so hard to work that out having read all your posts in the "politics" thread.

Have I made a comment regarding asylum seekers?

Do you need to make a comment re asylum seekers?

I'll answer it for you. NO.

[Jimmy_041]

Were what?

Actually I have no opinion on the subject because I just dont know how to fix it. Neither political party can seem to come up with the right plan either. Maybe the Govt of the day needs to ramp up the refugee processing in these countries

Having lived overseas for a good proportion of my life, I've seen how some other countries deal with the matter. I dont think 10 lashes with the rattan is the right way to go, but do ask myself why do they come here? Maybe because the snakeheads know they can get good money for it and the people will pay that amount of money. Very unlikely they would pay that much to go to Indonesia (or New Zealand)

[Sojourner]

Looks like the "Indonesian Solution is going really well......"

From Yahoo News,

Afghan boat fired on over bribe: claim
AAP
November 15, 2009, 6:51 pm

Indonesian authorities opened fire on a boat crammed full of Afghan asylum seekers, wounding two, after demanding a bribe the Afghans could not afford to pay, one of the asylum seekers says.

The 17-year-old boy, who spoke to AAP from immigration detention in West Timor, says the group of 61 Afghans had been on the water for four days, trying to reach Australia, when the Indonesian coast guard intercepted them near Rote Island early on Friday.

After the coast guard demanded a $US50,000 ($A54,206) bribe, the Afghans handed over all their money and were allowed to proceed, the boy said. But half an hour later they were stopped by another coast guard boat, whose crew asked for more money.

Because they could not pay, the Indonesians told them they had to stop their boat. But the Afghans, who believed they were then in international waters, decided to continue, the boy said.

"Without any announcement, without saying anything, they started shooting," said the boy, who does not want to be named.

Another 17-year-old boy was shot in the hand and a man aged about 30, believed to have been one of the boat's nine crew, was shot in the leg. Both are now being treated in a police hospital in Kupang.

"I don't know if they are dead or alive. We don't have communication with them," the boy told AAP.

"They knew this boat was carrying asylum seekers."

Bayu Herlambang, operations chief of West Timor Water Police, said the violence had been necessary.

"The police shot them because they were trying to fight back after the patrol saw them," he said.

Provincial sea police chief AR Lubis told reporters in Kupang the passengers protested at their arrest and clashed with the crew of their ship.

"The migrants wanted to continue their journey to Australia but the ship captain wanted to follow police orders and a clash broke out between the migrants and the ship's crew," Lubis said.

"Five of the ship's crew members were hurled into the sea. The police fired warning shots but they didn't care. Finally, the police shot the captain in the thigh to stop the clash and detained them."

But Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the teenager's account made a mockery of the police line.

Ms Curr said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's so-called "Indonesia solution" was clearly pressuring Indonesian authorities to be tougher on asylum seekers.

"They have never shot asylum seekers before," she said.

"This is a new game.

"This is a dangerous escalation."

The federal government has described the shooting as "regrettable".

"We don't know what's happened. We don't know what kind of circumstances that's been involved," Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner told Network Ten.

"Obviously it's regrettable if anybody's been injured in any kind of situation like this."

The boy said he had boarded the boat after waiting more than a year for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to process his case. He says his father was killed by the Taliban and he has a sister who lives in Brisbane.

Meanwhile, the stand-off aboard the Oceanic Viking continued on Sunday.

AAP understands at least four of the remaining 56 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard the boat will leave in the coming days, perhaps as early as Monday. That number could rise.

Twenty-two left the boat on Friday.

In Singapore, Rudd discussed the issue with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono but indicated there was still a way to go to finalise a new deal on people smuggling.

He said he had no further details about the shooting incident.

"This lies within the purview of Indonesian national police and we will be seeking to get details of what has occurred," he told reporters.

Indonesian police on Sunday arrested about 40 more Afghan asylum seekers in west Java before they could board a boat to Australia.

[mick]

The latte sippers must be wringing their hands at the Rudd government's current policy with regard to boat people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

[Leaping Lindner]

I'm confused. We as a nation have our armed forces in Afghanistan fighting an oppressive regime to introduce "democracy" and "freedom" to the country, but when nationals from the same country want to flee the regime we are fighting we don't allow them into OUR country.

As for the Sri Lankans....

[Q.]

I'm confused. We as a nation have our armed forces in Afghanistan fighting an oppressive regime to introduce "democracy" and "freedom" to the country, but when nationals from the same country want to flee the regime we are fighting we don't allow them into OUR country.

It's cuz they're all terrorists ya know, we're better off without these towel heads anyway...

[Squawk]

They are allowed in, in the right circumstances. Liberating a country is a different scenario to opening the door (unfettered).

In all honesty, this is a very difficult problem to address - you have to find a balance between identifying genuine refugees, but not allowing every refugee in or the numbers will only skyrocket further.

Whilst some of these people are undesirable, they go through the same security process as any other prospective immigrant. The problem is, they often destroy their ID making verification of their ID and their past very difficult.

So much more I'd like to say but will have to leave it there. What I can say is I have worked on developing a policy solution for this, and found it to be one of the most difficult challenges I have encountered.

[ORDoubleBlues]

It's all very well to agree with our way of doing things but it's not the real refugees that are getting into Australia, it's the ones that can afford to pay a five figure sum to circumvent the process.

[once_were_warriors]

It's all very well to agree with our way of doing things but it's not the real refugees that are getting into Australia, it's the ones that can afford to pay a five figure sum to circumvent the process.

You don't have to be poor to be a refugee.

[redden whites]

It's all very well to agree with our way of doing things but it's not the real refugees that are getting into Australia, it's the ones that can afford to pay a five figure sum to circumvent the process.

O.M.G

[Darth Vader]

I'm wondering how it would go if we took these poor souls off their boats at Christmas Island, gave them a tub, some clean clothes, fed them and stuck them on Hercules transport plane and sent them back?
You'd probably only have to do it twice and the word would get around that the salad days in Oz are over and they'd stop buying illegal passages on dodgy boats.

[dedja]

How are you going to work out where they came from?

[Darth Vader]

you could start by asking them. If that didn't work we could drop them in Indonesia after first doing a deal with them.
Like, you guys cop this sweet or we are stopping all the aid we send you until you change your mid. Our Govt has no balls at the top has it?

[Q.]

Emigration is one of the oldest and most constant human experiences. Imaginary lines on maps and socially irresponsible hardline stances will not stop it.

[Leaping Lindner]

I'm wondering how it would go if we took these poor souls off their boats at Christmas Island, gave them a tub, some clean clothes, fed them and stuck them on Hercules transport plane and sent them back?
You'd probably only have to do it twice and the word would get around that the salad days in Oz are over and they'd stop buying illegal passages on dodgy boats.

We did that with many East Timorise refugees after the Indonesians annexed their country. Given the Indonesian Army's remarkable record on Human Rights I am absolutely certain no harm whatsoever came to them on their return.

[ORDoubleBlues]

It's all very well to agree with our way of doing things but it's not the real refugees that are getting into Australia, it's the ones that can afford to pay a five figure sum to circumvent the process.

O.M.G

Please enlighten me as to how this is incorrect?

[ORDoubleBlues]

.

[redandblack]

.

I agree, ORDB, a much better post than your previous one