The real world and Australia

Australians often like to poke fun at how allegedly insular people from the USA are when in comes to events outside their borders.  But the fact that a tiny number of asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia generates pants-wetting front page coverage in Australia suggests we might be no better when it comes to being aware of what reality is like outside our insular bubble.

To provide just one contrast, the European nation of Greece – with a population around half of Australia’s – received around 25 000 asylum claims in 2007.  The number of asylum seekers who arrived by boat in Australia in 2007 was around 150. It should be noted that Human Rights Watch believes Greece (and by extension the EU) is not doing much better than Australia did in past years in ensuring the human rights of these people are respected. The fact they are much larger in number than Australia has ever had to deal with does not negate human rights principles.

None the less, the huge numbers of asylum seekers which other developed countries have to deal with (which in turn are lower than the numbers which some far poorer countries have to manage) shows how risible it is to assert that the arrival in Australian in 2008 of an even lower number of asylum seekers by boat than happened in 2007 – just 127 this year according to the same front page article - is somehow due to an alleged ‘softening’ of Australia’s “immigration regime”.

My understanding is that a sizeable proportion of the tiny number from this year are ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan.  When it comes to people seeking a better life – or any life at all in many cases – there are bound to be a multitude of factors which can be pointed to when it comes to explaining why asylum seekers try to get on boats to reach Australia.  But it would not hurt to have a look at what has been happening in Afghanistan – such as this piece which reports that people who were forced back to Afghanistan from Nauru by the former Australian government was assassinated by Taliban aligned forces.

And this one which reports in detail on what is happening now in Afghanistan and asks just who are the Taliban in the current situation.

One could also look at the conditions now faced by those in Indonesia who apply for asylum there.

Rather than trying to put a punitive regime back in place, which by definition is based on the ludicrous notion that these obviously desperate asylum seekers are some sort of ‘cheats’, it might be wiser to look at all the factors outside our borders.

If you can’t be bothered to click on the links above, here are some grabs:

THE Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, has demanded answers to allegations up to 20 Afghan asylum seekers rejected by Australia under the Howard government’s so-called Pacific solution were killed after returning to Afghanistan, and others remain in hiding from the Taliban.

The claims are contained in a documentary to be aired on SBS on November 19. The film, A Well-Founded Fear, produced by Anne Delaney, is based on the efforts of Phil Glendenning, the director of social justice agency the Edmund Rice Centre, who has spent the past six years tracing many of these rejected asylum seekers.

and:

If there is an exact location marking the West’s failures in Afghanistan, it is the modest police checkpoint that sits on the main highway 20 minutes south of Kabul. The post signals the edge of the capital, a city of spectacular tension, blast walls, and standstill traffic. Beyond this point, Kabul’s gritty, low-slung buildings and narrow streets give way to a vast plain of serene farmland hemmed in by sandy mountains. In this valley in Logar province, the American-backed government of Afghanistan no longer exists.

Instead of government officials, men in muddied black turbans with assault rifles slung over their shoulders patrol the highway, checking for thieves and “spies.” The charred carcass of a tanker, meant to deliver fuel to international forces further south, sits belly up on the roadside.

The police say they don’t dare enter these districts, especially at night when the guerrillas rule the roads. In some parts of the country’s south and east, these insurgents have even set up their own government, which they call the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the name of the former Taliban government). They mete out justice in makeshift Sharia courts. They settle land disputes between villagers. They dictate the curricula in schools.

Just three years ago, the central government still controlled the provinces near Kabul. But years of mismanagement, rampant criminality, and mounting civilian casualties have led to a spectacular resurgence of the Taliban and other related groups. Today, the Islamic Emirate enjoys de facto control in large parts of the country’s south and east. According to ACBAR, an umbrella organization representing more than 100 aid agencies, insurgent attacks have increased by 50% over the past year. Foreign soldiers are now dying at a higher rate here than in Iraq.