It is not illegal to seek asylum. But don't let the facts get in the way of your Alan jones based world view. But do provide a reference to your 40000 figure, just for completeness.
That's a per month figure?
Yeah, not illegal to seek asylum. But people-smuggling is illegal, as is entry without approval.
The rhetoric and use of what I might call mental shorthand to avoid honest consideration cuts both ways.
The reality is that asylum-seekers are rarely fleeing directly from danger and persecution. They might fly as regular passengers from (say) Pakistan to Malaysia, an utterly unremarkable journey, not pretending at either end to be in fear for their lives, but it is only when setting out from Malaysia to Australia that there is any claim of danger so great that they must risk the peril of the ocean on small, overcrowded boats.
Yeah, right.
I don't blame people for wanting to live in Australia. Not one little bit. I'd likely do exactly the same thing in their position to have a better life for myself and my family. The risk is worth it, and tens of thousands tell their tale of safe arrival in a land of plenty.
But let's not kid ourselves that the surge of asylum-seekers since Rudd dismantled the Pacific Solution is what the government or the Australian people wanted. It's a very expensive and dangerous way of accepting immigrants. Sure, some of them are genuine refugees, and it is Australia's duty as a good global citizen to provide a warm refuge.
But the way Rudd and Gillard have handled the situation has been remarkably ham-fisted. There are more deaths, more abuses, more unhappiness than anything from the Howard years.
Call out your names, labels, catchphrases as much as you like. Just don't try to pretend that the boat traffic is a good thing. To do so is to insult the intelligence of your fellow Australians.
