ASYLUM SEEKING
In 2021 alone,
A rubber dinghy carrying 30 innocent migrants en route to the United Kingdom from France capsized, resulting in the death of 27.
More than 650 innocent migrants died attempting to cross the US-Mexico border.
More than 1,300 innocent bodies washed up on various shores of the Mediterranean Sea or remain lifelessly drifting below its surface in a state of limbo, a state that would have ultimately been their destiny had they survived the treacherous expedition, a case of symbolism at its most tragic and confronting.
Post-2013 Australia has placed significant implications and punishments for asylum seekers who arrive to the country on a boat. These policies were ostensibly implemented to deter future migrants from coming into Australia ‘illegally’ and to, ‘protect against the lives lost at sea’. In reality, these policies steered an already tense social climate towards racially motivated victimhood campaigns, in which refugees became the scapegoat for.
What the Australian Liberal Government failed to consider was that the severe risks inherent in crossing oceans on overcrowded boats were already known to asylum seekers. If the likelihood of peril at sea does not successfully deter someone from attempting to reach Australia, the implementation of racially motivated, ostensibly-protective policies will, to say the least, prove ineffective.
The ‘Stop the Boats’ political campaign failed to, in fact, ‘Stop the Boats’ and left its mark through what may well be, one of the greatest moral stains upon this country’s history, that is still ongoing today. Namely, the inhumane act of offshore mandatory and indefinite detention in the Republic of Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
The Australian Government sends asylum seekers for offshore processing in detention camps that have been scrutinised heavily for their deplorable conditions and treatment of detainees. The psychological trauma that comes with being detained indefinitely is severe. Detainees are victims of a state of limbo that the Australian Government places them in. They are separated from their families and told that their visas are being ‘processed’. Many visas are arbitrarily refused accompanied by vague, irrational reasoning, whilst other members have been known to be held in detention for up to 10 years, with the average detention time being 689 days. This is an incredibly long time to be separated from your family, unsure about your future and be held captive in inhumane conditions.
What are we punishing asylum seekers for? Coming to Australia by boat? Contrary to commonly held beliefs, these are real people who value life. To put it in terms that will possibly resonate with policy-makers…these migrants employed a cost-benefit analysis and concluded that the benefit of leaving the conditions of their former country and reaching Australia, outweighed risks involved with travelling by boat.
We should all remember…nobody wants to leave their homeland, travel thousands of miles on overcrowded boats with the likely possibility of drowning lingering over their heads. So then why are we punishing these people?
Employ some empathy.
