Refugee and Immigration Policy

_{To :}

_{Mr Patrick Conaghan}

_{Nationals Candidate for Cowper}

_{Friday 10th May, 2019}

_From: 

_{Katherine Morrison}

_{36 McNally St}

_{Bellingen, NSW 2454}

_{Dear Mr Conaghan,}

_{I am writing to you about our refugee and immigration policies.}

_{I have been very concerned at the Australian government’s lack of compassion to people who have come to Australia seeking political refuge, in fact I find it unbelievable.}

_{The planet is in crisis with millions of refugees now needing urgent help, with nowhere for them to call home in sight.  The U.S. under Trump has appallingly halved it’s refugee intake. Australia should be doing it’s fair share. There are now an overwhelming 69 million refugees in the world awaiting placement (UN 2018) with continuous increases via current conflicts and natural disasters in many parts of the globe, particularly Syria, South Sudan and the brutal persecution of the Rohinga people of Burma.}

_{How can we hold our heads up when we are so relatively wealthy and ignoring this situation, when other much poorer countries (eg Bangladesh - accepting 650,000, Turkey - accepting 700,000) receive so many thousands and we only allow such a small number.}

_{Of course people will continue to try to come here by boat as we are an island and we could not accept all that come (still a small number in the context of our overall migration programme) but it is our human duty to process their applications speedily and take thousands more than we already do. 50,0000 annually would be closer to a fair share. We know that many people arrive here by plane claiming refuge and receive a kinder, different treatment.}

_{Boat arrivals are not a simple dilemma I understand due to the danger to the refugees of their transit and the unknown numbers, but right now our treatment of them as criminals is appalling. We should not be turning these people back to face further risks at sea with the unscrupulous ‘people smugglers’ who have likely taken the last savings of these refugees and any support given them by extended family or friends in their countries of origin.}

_{How will they fare languishing for their remaining lives in countries like Indonesia or Malaysia, if indeed they make it back there? How inhumane are we to rob them of their last hope?} 

_{“Vulnerability should remain a cornerstone of our Humanitarian Program. Our priorities should be aligned with those identified by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.” (Refugee Council of Australia 2018-19 – Intake Submission)}

_{Limiting the media coverage of the boat attempts is Orwellian, does not help anyone, nor does penalising those health workers and staff who describe conditions in offshore detention.}

_{We as a nation cannot be led by what the fearful lowest common denominator thinks, those influenced by Pauline Hanson and the “shock jocks’” xenophobia. They are an ignorant and unempathic minority who need educating about the conditions that force people to take a boat and that there is no orderly process as an alternative, no “queue”. We need moral leadership here.}

 _{I believe the majority of Australians would not do as you have been doing. I am part of a large ‘Rural Australians for Refugees ‘group, and at our fortnightly roadside demonstrations over half of the passing motorists toot their horns and wave their support.}

_{Seeking asylum is not “illegal” as some media and (shamefully) politicians have labelled it, rather as you would know it is a legal right, as Australia is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, as we should always remain.}

_{I cannot bear the thought of so many people enduring deprivation and continued trauma effectively jailed for no crime in our offshore detention centres. It is madness and it is cruel. It does not sit well with Australian values let alone Christian values.}  

_{Whatever happened to the “do unto others” principle? This could be our fate at some time in the future – invaded and scrambling to find a safe haven, with our poor international reputation for a lack of compassion as now a definer of ‘Australian’. The idea of furthering this poor policy by building another offshore processing centre in New Guinea will only perpetuate these damaging situations.}

_{Several times when I have been overseas in the last decade I have been approached by the people in other countries demanding to know why we Australians do this to vulnerable people asking for our help. Why indeed. The ancestors of white people in Australia have all come here only in recent history as refugees, political or economic.}

_{Refugees are our brothers and sisters in this human family.}

_{Many applicants could be re-framed as ‘assisted migrants’ (particularly family reunion applicants connected to former refugee families here)– by and large refugees and migrants become our hardest working Australians, paying taxes, caring for their extended family well, enriching our culture immeasurably and expressing gratitude to be here and safe. (Only a rare few turn to terrorism.)}

_{Australia now needs a bigger population to afford to be able to care for our ageing population and support our needed public spending on health care, education and defence.}

_{These people should not be perceived as a ‘cost’, rather as a ‘benefit’.}

_{Clearly it is a priority to increase our overworked Department of Immigration visa processing staff, and support them with further training to facilitate sensitivity, timely processing and transport of offshore detainees to safety in Australia.} 

_{To approach other countries to accept these people is very unreasonable and a demonstration of our racial intolerance when they are really “our problem” and deserve our protection. (If people arriving by boat were European in appearance, I imagine many Australians would not countenance the treatment that these off-shore detainees currently receive.)}

_{Children are an obvious priority.}

_{I feel that a Royal Commission into the damage our past and current policies area doing to people’s lives could be useful so we can face this situation honestly, and could assist us in a way forward to positively respond to the unfortunate people rendered homeless by war who will continue to need safe haven here.} 

 _{It is a very complex problem compounded by racism and hysterical fears about those small numbers who happen to arrive by boat. We need a rational look at how other countries handle this same issue in better ways than we have done. This is the reality of our world now.}

_{Yours faithfully}

_{Katherine Morrison}