Australian Government
needs the courage to give priority to Christian Refugees
Operation rescue: the Christians of the
Middle East face extinction
What if the world were
to see the faces of the thousands of young girls abducted and raped by members
of Islamic State?
The world only sees glimpses of the atavistic bloodletting
carried out in the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims, compounded by
secondary guerrilla wars between moderate and fundamentalist Sunni Muslims.
The body of a little boy washes up in the surf on a Turkish
beach is photographed and broadcast around the world. The world is appalled.
But what if the world were to see the real scale of the
sectarian civil war dismembering the Arab world? About 12,000 children have
been killed in Syria alone.
Twelve thousand children. This is the estimate of both the
Oxford Research Group and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. The United
Nations has a smaller but still horrific estimate.
What if the world were to see the faces of the thousands of
young girls abducted and raped by members of Islamic State?
The world only sees glimpses of the atavistic bloodletting
carried out in the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims, compounded by
secondary guerrilla wars between moderate and fundamentalist Sunni Muslims.
The wreckage extends far beyond individual tragedies and
destroyed communities. To traverse the arc of nations in the Arab world is to
traverse a disaster zone that is spreading, not contracting.
Where once Australian tourists used to travel overland to
Europe via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, that entire
route is now too dangerous. Much of it is a disaster zone.
Syria is finished. It will never be put back together as a
single state. Eleven million Syrians have been displaced.
Iraq is now three states, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish. The
lines on the map of the region drawn by European colonisers have proved to be
ephemeral compared to the real borders formed by religion, ethnicity and
geography.
The list of failed states now extends to Libya, Yemen,
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest of the Arab states are dictatorships by
various names, at best monarchies or emirates, with Egypt under military
control.
There is no end in sight. The Arab spring was a Western
fantasy. Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to mobilising resources to fund their
proxies in the Sunni-Shiite struggle, a reason why the Saudis are pumping as
much oil as they can and Iran is desperate to re-join the international oil
marketplace.
Syria is thus the eye of a broader storm and the Muslim
world is exporting its instability to Europe, via a mass exodus of people.
What can or should Australia do? There is nothing we can do
about the ancient Sunni-Shia schism, but we can protect those who have become
collateral damage – Christians.
One of the reasons a majority of the electorate supported
the Coalition's tough line on people smugglers was that the biggest
beneficiaries would be genuine refugees.
Now is the hour. Because the border policies have been
effective, Australia is placed to significantly ramp up its intake of refugees.
There is no chance the electorate wants to import the
Sunni-Shia schism into Australia via a large influx of Muslims dislocated by
this conflict. That is a political reality. There have already been too many
incidents of Sunni-Shia conflict in Australia, and far too many incidents of
anti-Western Muslim militancy, or worse.
If either the Coalition or Labor were to announce a
large-scale program of humanitarian immigration from the war zone, it would encounter
the public's aversion to the systemic failure of democracy, pluralism and
religious tolerance in the Arab world. But that does not mean Australians
would not be willing to support a significantly larger humanitarian intake from
the region.
For the past 20 years Christians have been ethnically
cleansed across much of the Middle East as part of the rise of Muslim
militancy.
In Syria, before the civil war, more than 1 million Syrian
Christians lived in security and were better educated than the general
population. That number has been decimated.
In Iraq, the number of Christians has plunged from 1.4
million to about 250,000 over the past 40 years, displaced by waves of civil
war, invasion and ethnic cleansing. Most Christians who remain live in the Kurdish-controlled
area.
Another 300,000 Christians live under the Islamic theocracy
of Iran. Most are ethnically Armenian or Assyrian.
Would it be in breach of our discrimination laws to
prioritise Christians as refugees? No. I've checked.
About 1 million Arab Christians are currently displaced and
have no chance of returning to safety and normalcy in their own countries.
Unlike displaced Muslims they have no diaspora in the region to absorb
them.
The common sense aversion by people to a large-scale
influx of refugees, of any kind, is the sheer cost and the stress they place on
resources. This is rational. Refugees have to be housed, sustained, educated
and trained. Unemployment among unskilled workers is already high in
Australia. The federal government is already running a budget deficit.
There is, however, a large pre-existing network of private
social services – church groups – with the potential to sponsor thousands of
refugees in the short-term, providing them with places to stay in the
community.
Australia's annual refugee resettlement quota, currently
6000, is an arbitrary number (though it has real meaning in the budget
estimates). With the help of church and welfare groups, that arbitrary number
could be significantly increased.
This is the benefit of having secure borders and
credibility on border security, which the Abbott government has achieved.
With this as a starting point, the Liberal Premier of NSW,
Mike Baird, believes Australia should lift its intake from Syria. So does the
Labor leader, Bill Shorten.
The Abbott government could treble the 6000 refugee number
in each of the next four years – 72,000 refugees – and make a real
difference, without incurring the wrath of the electorate. But only if it had
the courage to give priority to Christians.
That's the political reality. That's the only way to
achieve the greatest good for the greatest number in this crisis.
Paul_Sheehan_sydneymorningherald
Heartbreaking pictures of drowned child should not change policy
ReplyDeleteIf you misjudge the refugee crisis, you incubate a political crisis.
The photographs of the body of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy, vividly convey the human tragedy on Europe's borders - but not the complexity. Many are fleeing war, but many are fleeing poverty.
This Great Migration was not expected because, for years, politicians believed that there would be less of it as poor countries became richer. Give aid, not shelter, ran the argument. "As the benefits of economic growth are spread in Mexico," Bill Clinton once assured Americans, "there will be less illegal immigration because more Mexicans will be able to support their children by staying home." When Jose Manuel Barroso led the European Commission, he made the same argument: only third world development will tackle the "root causes" of the problem. In fact, the reverse is true.
Never has there been less global hardship; since Clinton's day, the share of the population in extreme poverty (surviving on less than $US1.25 a day) has halved. Never has there been less violence: the Syrian conflict is an exception in a period of history where war has waned. It might not feel like it, but the world is more prosperous and peaceful than at any time in human history - yet the number of emigrants stands at a record high. But there is no paradox. As more people have the money to move, more are doing so - and at extraordinary personal risk.
So the Great Migration is a side effect of perhaps the greatest success of our times: the collapse in global poverty. The Washington-based Center for Global Development recently set this out, in a study drawing on more than a thousand national censuses over five decades. When a poor country becomes richer, its emigration rate rises until it becomes as wealthy as Albania or Armenia are today. This process usually takes decades, and only afterwards does wealth subdue emigration. War is a catalyst. If conflict strikes, and the country isn't quite as poor as it once was, more of those affected now have the means to cross the world. The digital age means they also have the information.
Advertisement
When the world was poorer, Europe could be pretty relaxed about immigration laws. Wars kept being waged, but newcomers arrived at the rate of 100 a day.Now, they're arriving at the rate of 1,500 a day. Globalisation has transformed the global movement of people, as well as goods and money.
If you misjudge the refugee crisis, you incubate a political crisis. Efforts intended to help can end up causing harm, costing more lives. Since the Italian navy decided to send rescue missions to the Mediterranean, the number of people making the crossing (and perishing) has trebled. Doubtless Angela Merkel meant well when she invited every Syrian to apply for asylum in Germany. But she will be toasted by the new breed of people traffickers, who will now have far more families to extort and leave stranded in Budapest or pack into boats on the coast of Libya.
A photograph of a drowned child is heartbreaking, but should not change policy: a botched response can lead to many more dead children. Hundreds of Yemeni children will likely starve this winter, victims of its civil war - we won't see the pictures, so we're unlikely to see anyone petitioning Parliament about them. But it's no less of a tragedy.
The Great Migration is a 21st-century problem, far bigger than Syria and bigger than the authorities in Brussels seem able to comprehend. To panic now, as Mrs Merkel is doing, will just bring more to panic about. The solutions of the last century - refugee camps, or the notion that you can stem the flow of migrants with foreign aid - need to be abandoned, and a new agenda needs to be forged.
The Daily Telegraph
TRUTH – ANOTHER REFUGEE OF WAR
ReplyDeleteAs a dad I’m numbed at the image of the limp lifeless body of a little boy washed up on a beach, a tragic consequence of civil or religious war, at least at first glance.
You don’t have to be a father to be shocked. It’s a defining image that will be forever burned into our memories and embedded into the pages of history.
A picture, they say, paints a thousand words. This one made the world sit up and take notice at the true cost of criminal human trafficking. As confronting as it was, editors everywhere chose to plaster the photo across front pages and websites – not for its shock value but because it was important to instantly illustrate the tragic toll of refugees and asylum seekers desperately hopping on leaky boats to escape war – or so they thought.
As tragic as this image is, it is not what it seems.
The story of the father, Abdullah Kurdi and his family, is being misreported as refugees or asylum seekers who were fleeing ISIS and the general conflict in Syria. The photo has been used as a reference point by our TV, radio and print news coverage and by our politicians over the past day as a resounding reason why we need to open our borders to more refugees.
ReplyDeleteAylan Kurdi was a three-year-old boy from Kobani, a war-torn Kurdish town on the Turkey-Syria border. His five-year-old brother Galip and his mother Rihan, 35, also died when their boat sank while trying to reach Greece.
The family had planned to emigrate to Canada to join the father’s sister and her family. Twelve others also drowned.
The truth is the Kurdi family were living in Turkey the past three years where the father worked, hoping one day to join his sister in Canada.
Tima Kurdi confirmed this by telling a reporter her brother Abdullah wanted to get his teeth fixed.
“The situation is that Abdullah does not have any teeth. Another story about it.
So I been trying to help him fix his teeth. But is gonna cost me 14,000 and up to do it. He need teeth implant. So when I told him there is no way I can get you the money in one time because dentist need to get paid right away and Western Union usually – if I send them the money – they only allowed 1,000 at a time – not under their name of course – has to be a third person to collect the money and give it them. So I said to him, actually my dad, he come up with the idea, he said to me, 'I think if they go to Europe for his case and for our future, I think he should do that, and then we’ll see if he can fix his teeth.' And that’s what I did three weeks ago.”
ReplyDeleteI can’t even begin to imagine the guilt and grief Abdullah must now feel about the loss of his family.
After the emotional shock, it’s worth looking at why little Aylan died.
It wasn’t because his father was seeking sanctuary from war. He had enjoyed safe refuge in Turkey for three years where he was working.
He was, as former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr defined, an ‘economic refugee’ – someone seeking a better life, not refuge from conflict or persecution.
Economic ‘refugees’ do not meet the qualification for refugee status, which is why they seek the back door route – paying people smugglers, using their papers to country-hop until the last leg to their preferred country, at which point they dispose of their documents to hide their true identity. It’s often referred to as ‘country shopping’.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a massive con, which this present Australian government has been able to stop.
The New York Times used the conflict and the humanitarian consequences, unfairly, dishonestly and opportunistically, to attack our Prime Minister.
The first clue of the newspaper’s dishonesty is characterised in its headline:
‘AUSTRALIA’S BRUTAL TREATMENT OF MIGRANTS'
It goes on to say,
"Prime Minister Tony Abbott has overseen a ruthlessly effective effort to stop boats packed with migrants, many of them refugees, from reaching Australia’s shores. His policies have been inhumane, of dubious legality and strikingly at odds with the country’s tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war.
"Since 2013, Australia has deployed its navy to turn back boats with migrants, including asylum seekers, before they could get close to its shores. Military personnel force vessels carrying people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and other conflict-roiled nations toward Indonesia, where most of the journeys begin. A boat captain recently reported that Australian authorities paid him $30,000 to turn back. If true, that account, which the Australian government has not disputed, would represent a violation of international laws designed to prevent human smuggling and protect asylum seekers."
ReplyDelete(end quote)
Never mind that most Australians support the policy. The editorial is bristling with deceptions, inaccuracies and outright lies. It was immediately called out for being wrong by Mark Kenny of the Sydney Morning Herald, a staunch Abbott critic.
ReplyDeleteOne important and critical point missing from the scathing editorial is that not one person, not one child, has drowned on Tony Abbott’s watch.
And isn’t that the most important consideration of all?
Far from inhumane, Abbott’s policies have ensured there are no more Abdullah Kurdis grieving for their lost children.
There are no little Alyans washing up on Australian shores.
In contrast, under the relaxed policy of the previous Labor government, border protection was dismantled in 2008 in the name of humanitarian relief.
That so-called humanitarian relief resulted in over 1200 deaths at sea including children.
If you follow the logic of the New York Times, Tony Abbott should be ashamed of his policies, which prevent little Alyans lying lifeless on our sand. It’s the same irresponsible shrug of the Greens, with their ‘tough luck’ response to deaths at sea.
ReplyDelete“Tragedy happens. Accidents happen,” was Sarah Hanson-Young’s answer after a boat sank between Australia and Indonesia resulting in 200 deaths in 2011.
The greatest test of Abbott’s success is the grudging adoption of his policies by the opposition Labor Party, finally coming to the realisation that Tony Abbott’s policies are right, that they work, that they are indeed the true humanitarian relief.
Operation Sovereign Borders stops kids drowning.
The ALP has, through gritted teeth, adopted all aspects of the Abbott solution including turning back the boats.
If there’s any one underlying message that must be read into the story of little Alyan it is that illegal human trafficking must be stopped, that the Abbott government’s successful policies must be widely adopted or the drownings will continue.
This must be balanced with an increased selective intake by all nations of genuine refugees, fleeing persecution or war or both.
ReplyDeleteAustralia has a proud history of settling refugees and migrants. This must continue.
Migration has been an overwhelmingly positive contributor to the growth, success and affluence of this nation - with exception, namely criminal ideologists who wish us harm, currently being addressed.
Careful, selective immigration and genuine refugee intakes - not open border anarchy - will strengthen Australia and save lives while meeting out international obligations.
Pickering Post