Eight months after the Abbott government signed a cash-for-people pact with Cambodia to take genuine refugees from offshore detention centres for resettlement, the deal remains shrouded in confusion.
Taxpayers are stumping up countless tens of millions of dollars for the privilege, but while Immigration Minister Peter Dutton claimed yesterday that refugees are heading to Cambodia as early as this week, the Cambodian government claimed on Monday to know nothing of any applicants. It’s a shemozzle.
What we do know is that the Immigration department is putting incredible pressure on refugees to take up the Australian government’s offer of cash payments, free food, decent housing and education — in Cambodia — for four years. In the embarrassingly un-factual “fact sheet” that the government issued to Manus detainees, it was made clear that only the first wave of those taking up the offer would get the bumper package — a veiled threat to those who opt to stay.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has refused to have any part of this pact from the word go. It understands how Cambodia treats refugees — the country has a track record of returning them to certain imprisonment and probable death in countries such as Vietnam and China.
Just when you think a government can’t sink to greater depths in their treatment of refugees, they find a new low.
Still, down from costing BILLIONS under labor.
And the boats have stopped. And no one is drowning.
Nothing is perfect, but things sure have improved.
Boats are still coming. We’re not allowed to know whether anyone is drowning, and nothing’s improved for those seeking refuge.
This is another example of how poor an international citizen Australia has become with its effective withdrawal from the Refugee Convention and Protocol, all without any public debate. It also reveals how supine the Labor “opposition” is to this farcical charade.
One of the objects of Julie Bishop’s grossly misreported visit to Iran was to try and persuade them to take back Iranian asylum seekers. They quite properly told her to look elsewhere. As you say, just when you think things have sunk to the bottom, our “representatives” manage to sink even lower.
Vlad – boats are still coming? Where? When?
And people are still drowning? In Australia?
And its improved for those seeking LEGAL refugee status in Australia, right? Previously those spots were all taken up by illegals who paid people smugglers.
@ James O’Neill – While I totally disapprove of the Cambodian fiasco and other ‘arrangements’ for genuine refugees, the Iranian situation appears to be a little different.
It was reported in the media, and on ABC radio, that there are a large number of wealthy Iranian economic ‘refugees’ trying it on as asylum seekers. They just want a better life in the west, knowing that Iran will NOT take them back once they have left their country.
Much as it pains me to say it, I agree with the feds on this one. The influx of such economic migrants reduces the number of genuine refugees we can take under the current arrangements. I would like to see that number greatly increased, perhaps to 50,000 annually. Even if this means reducing the migrant intake to compensate.
And Tamas – give it a rest! Didn’t we just deploy the navy to return around 50 Vietnamese boat people who were headed here until a few days ago? Sounds like a boat ‘arrival’ to me. Even if it was hijacked on the high seas. Probably illegally!!