I wrote here last month about 160 ethnic Hmong people – originally from Laos – being kept in detention in Thailand despite having been recognised as refugees by the UN and a number of countries having offered to resettle them.
Today comes news that the Thai government has forcibly deported over 4000 Hmong people back to Laos. This rather brutally shows – yet again – that countries to the north of Australia are not safe places for refugees to try to survive in. With literally hundreds of thousands of refugees and other displaced people living precariously in various parts of south-east Asia, and more than one country engaging in serious human rights abuses, it is amazing that we can consider a couple of thousand refugees arriving in boats over the course of a year as some sort of ’crisis’. Or that we think just trying to blockade means of transportation is likely to prevent a flow of asylum seekers in the long term.
Meanwhile, the extraordinary stand off involving the boatload of Tamils off the port of Marak in Indonesia continues after more than two months. One person from the boat has now died, and the whole incident has clearly used up a lot of diplomatic capital with Indonesia for no benefit to anyone.
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WATCH THIS VIDEO – very disturbing with over 4000 Hmong deported back to Laos. The video shows several Hmong children that got forcefully deported from the refugee camp, and the girls explain what happened to them back in Laos: http://www.youtube.com/user/SommerFilms?blend=2&ob=1#p/u/14/jbn394wy-pw
We ain’t seen nothing yet. Imagine the movement of people as low-lying areas of asia become increasingly uninhabitable as sea levels rise. Consequential social tensions? You bet.
Or, as is happening as desertification increases in Africa. Can fortress Australian practically and ethically hold out?
Just for reference, this is what a real refugee camp with real refugee’s looks like:
http://tinyurl.com/yd6mg88
http://tinyurl.com/ybs6fcy
This is NOT a refugee camp, and this is NOT where REAL Refugee’s stay:
http://tinyurl.com/yce34ua
Trying to smear innocent vulnerable people is clearly much more enjoyable for you, but it would be handy if you could at least try to be on topic, ‘TheTruthHurts’.
I suppose it is precisely because the truths hurts that you regularly go to such great lengths to avoid it.