01 November, 2013

 

That's the way to do it

I've never heard of this site before (via). It's a newsfeed for Australians living in the UK, the vast majority on working holiday visas I expect — before anybody draws any snide comparisons.

Rather like the trashy and juvenile TNT and the long-gone Australasian Express, which last I used to seek out in the late 1970s just for the Bruce the Wombat cartoon strip.  Bruce was the bogan's bogan, timidly assisted by his mate, Kevin the Echidna in his tinnie-fuelled rampages through the underside of 1970s London.

I can offer no comment on the reliability of this Australian Times thingy, but this item is a lulu


People smugglers struggle as demand dives
The collapse in the trade, following the introduction of Australia’s policy of sending asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, has prompted some of those involved to consider abandoning the business altogether and seek resettlement.

So let's see if I've got this right  Desperate asylum seekers from the Middle East and South Asia, fleeing dreadful mortal persecution in their homelands, are turning down the asylum that Australia graciously and humanely offers them, because what's now on offer is safe but economically unprofitable accommodation in conditions slightly better than those they have left behind — but safe conditions nonetheless — rather than the largely fictitious first-world Eldorado of imaginary wealth that they had hoped for.

Refugees genuinely seeking humanitarian assistance, eh?  Fuck 'em.

The sooner Europe grows the cullions to follow the same policy, the better.

Comments:
Well spotted Edwin, and hats off to the new Aussie govt. for defying received opinion across the Anglosphere for introducing a credible policy on this issue.

The problem we have in our neck of the woods, apart from a supine political class scared of following in Abbott's footsteps, is finding our equivalents of PNG and Nauru, both only nominally independent of Oz, the ex colonial power in both cases. Perhaps, with Ukraine in negotiations for 'associate' EU membership, they could be strong armed into being Europe's equivalent of PNG ? They seem pretty keen to loosen ties with Putin, and if Marine Le Pen et al get a good result in next years Euro elections, who knows? Until then, a version of the Abbott solution in Europe unfortunately won't fly, owing to a lack of political will and the absence of a pliable partner willing to play host to the third worlders trying it on.

 
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