Australia now doesn't exist

_Sian_ · Nov 3, 2012

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/in...ifts-goalposts-on-offshore-processing/1038246

At least as a migration zone. If the current policy change goes through, the Australian mainland will be nonexistant in terms of migration.

This basically means that if an asylumn seeker shows up, they can't claim asylumn as they should be able to according to the international refugee convention we signed. Because guess what, even if they're standing in the middle of Sydney or Melbourne, they're now not technically in Australia.

Quite the magic trick that.

As for those who apply for asylumn, they are moved offshore to the island country of Nauru, where they are held in mandatory detention until their claims are processed. The last time this happened (under the previous government), there were people held for years without charge.

Humanitarian issues aside, and there is a heap of them just looking at this, doesn't this sort of change effect other procedures ect? I imagine if Australia suddenly doesn't exist as a migration zone, there must be repucussions in areas such as visas and the such.

Plot Device · Nov 3, 2012

This Nauru place sounds like a variation on America's Ellis Island in New York City.

In the 1960's, the Constitutionality of even having such an immigrant detention center as Ellis Island was challenged, and the result was Ellis Island got shut down.

muravyets · Nov 3, 2012

I'm also interested in the answers to your questions. In particular, I wonder what effect that will have on the international convention Australia signed, or perhaps more to the point, what effect a conflict there will have on Australia's standing viz the UN.

_Sian_ · Nov 3, 2012

muravyets said:
I'm also interested in the answers to your questions. In particular, I wonder what effect that will have on the international convention Australia signed, or perhaps more to the point, what effect a conflict there will have on Australia's standing viz the UN.

That's the thing,we have a security seat now, one would think that would bring the whole thing under more scrutiny.

muravyets · Nov 3, 2012

I can't speak for the UN, but I know I would have a serious problem with a nation wantonly violating or selfishly jerry-rigging to circumvent the terms of international conventions they signed onto and sit in council to enforce.

blacbird · Nov 3, 2012

Plot Device said:
This Nauru place sounds like a variation on America's Ellis Island in New York City.

Probably worse. Nauru is an atoll which once boasted a vast resource of potash fertilizer, remains of organisms accumulated over tens, probably hundreds of millennia. Back in the 1970s this resource made the island the wealthiest place, per capita, on the planet.

The potash is now essentially mined out, leaving the island a skeleton of what it once was, and with virtually no income. It isn't exactly a tourist hotbed.

Nauru is closer to Devil's Island than to Ellis Island.

caw

veinglory · Nov 3, 2012

Nauru is completely barren, in the middle of the ocean, and you stay there for years--apparently leading many people currently there to go insane.

muravyets · Nov 3, 2012

Yeah, Nauru is basically an environmental nightmare. I'm having a hard time imagining something more hostile the Australian government could have done that wasn't actually violent.

veinglory · Nov 3, 2012

I heard an interview with someone who managed to get processed through Nauru describing the lack of anything to do but wait, and how hard it was to sleep because of the people screaming and babbling all night. It sounded like a horror show.

_Sian_ · Nov 3, 2012

I suppose at least this time they aren't sending children out there. They had families out there last time. Which was appalling. Not that this isn't, but still.

I just hate that of the one thing that both major parties agree on, this is it. In my opinion, and this is purely an opinion, it stinks of "yellow peril" type thinking.

muravyets · Nov 3, 2012

That seems to be tout le rage this season. We're getting some of that, too. Here in the US, rightwing PACs have been treating some states with viciously racist ads about the Chinese making debtor-slaves out of Americans and stealing all our jobs. They were forced to pull them earlier in the campaign, but last week, they trotted them out again. Kind of sickening, isn't it? I mean, ffs, if a government wants to go all nativist, why not just close the borders. Why abuse people?

mccardey · Nov 5, 2012

_Sian_ said:
I just hate that of the one thing that both major parties agree on, this is it. In my opinion, and this is purely an opinion, it stinks of "yellow peril" type thinking.

And dog-whistle politicking and short-term self-interest and a fundamental lack of moral leadership. And don't get me started on the basic heartlessness. Or the stupidity. :rant:

Sian, I was out visiting at Villawood detention centre in the middle of a very cold patch in winter last year. There were Sri Lankans walking around barefoot because it was taking three or four weeks for "supplies" (shoes and socks!) to come in. These were people who had been rescued at sea with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Barefoot in Winter.

My friend and I went and bought shoes at DJs. Took about thirty minutes. I don't think I've ever met a visitor at Villawood who didn't end up hopping out to pick up something essential for someone who would otherwise have had to wait weeks.

Makes me feel sick.

Australia now doesn't exist

_Sian_

Ooooh, pretty lights and sirens :D

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

muravyets

Old revolutionary

_Sian_

Ooooh, pretty lights and sirens :D

muravyets

Old revolutionary

blacbird

veinglory

volitare nequeo

muravyets

Old revolutionary

veinglory

volitare nequeo

_Sian_

Ooooh, pretty lights and sirens :D

muravyets

Old revolutionary

mccardey