Asylum seekers: Deter or Save?

Just had a message from someone saying that they think the Greens should vote for the asylum seeker Bill in parliament because something is better than nothing. This idea is so wrong. Sometimes something is much worse than what we already have.

Voting for asylum seekers, found in Australian waters, to be processed in countries who have not signed the refugee convention or any other country, might deter them from trying to get to Australia but it will only increase the suffering and push it further down the line.

The problems in the countries that asylum seekers are fleeing will not be fixed anytime soon, so by making it harder for them to get on leaky boats we are simply changing the geography, not the danger or the loss of life through botched attempts to escape. Just because the numbers of people dying in Australian waters is reduced it doesn't mean they won't die anyway in other tragic circumstances; possibly suffocating in containers or trucks or cargo holds. Use your imaginations.

What would you do if you were being persecuted and threatened with being buried alive, or buried up to your neck and then stoned or cut up into little pieces or gaoled for the rest of your life? Would you take your chances on a leaky boat or a container or an airless truck? What we need to do is increase our humanitarian quota and process asylum seekers here in the land of the just and the free and  ALSO the world community needs to work in cooperation to stop global persecution and suffering.

Comprend? So don';t suggest the Greens should vote for a cruel Bill just so that politicians won't feel responsible for refugee deaths in Australian waters. This is just a bandaid to make them feel better and look better in the eyes of the voting public. Howard said that he stopped the boats. Check the facts and figures...The only thing that reduced the number of boats during Howard's terrible and terrifying reign was that circumstances changed in the countries people were fleeing from. Full stop.

Someone else said that blocking the Bill in the Senate is undemocratic. What do they think the Senate is there for? To act as an automatic rubber stamp for every Bill passed by the House of Reps? How rediculous. And, with an asylum seeker policy that promised to stop offshore processing Labor was voted into minority Govt with the help of the Greens and the Independents. They changed their policy. the Greens have stood by their policy to end mandatory detention and to process all asylum seekers onshore and to increase our humanitarian intake. I am very proud of the Greens and their ethical stance on this issue.

Support the Greens in our fight for universal human rights. Don't expect us to compromise our ideals. If we thought that this Bill would save even one human life, we'd vote for it immediately!!!