Submitted by triviafrenzy t3_10z80ds in todayilearned
Reply to comment by Unindoctrinated in TIL the Pacific island nation of Nauru has been so damaged by phosphate mining that in 1964 Australia offered to repopulate the entire nation to Curtis Island near the Australian Coast. Nauru refused the offer in order to maintain their sovereignty and not become part of Australia. by triviafrenzy
> We imprison refugees there.
You mean the ones that dont come via international recognised channels, the ones that pay thousands to people smugglers?
> You mean the ones that dont come via international recognised channels, the ones that pay thousands to people
A refugee is someone who is fleeing. There's no requirement to follow "recognized channels." If things go to shit in your country they're not expecting you to go to the border guards with your immigration papers. That's not how refugee works.
And even if it was, that doesn't really excuse detaining someone in a random pacific island.
You go to the first safe country. You don't welfare shop by skipping thru safe countries that don't give you a large enough handout. Most refugees are in fact not refuges, merely migrants attempting to game the system
> You go to the first safe country
Doesn't always work. Isn't always safe. If you want an example the refugee camps in Turkey are infamous for the lack of funding and terrible conditions. You wouldn't want to stay there for any long period of time. You're a human being and actually want a life that's more than waiting for help while living in squalor. For many families the solution was to have the adult men go for work where it's available so the family could have a better life.
> Most refugees are in fact not refuges
Utterly untrue. I think your views have been seriously warped if you believe this. There are 89.3 million refugees globally. Of which 72% are hosted in neighbouring countries. Only 17% of refugees are hosted in high income countries. Far from your narrative of "window shopping."
It's also insane to think that detaining them in a distant pacific island is fine even if your warped vision was true. If someone breaks a law just deport them why are you putting them on a prison island? It's psychotic.
It's not only the few refugees that meet that criteria that are imprisoned there.
You do realise that the vast majority of refugees are not what bigots, LNP politicians, and our right-wing media's propaganda portrays them to be, right?
Our offshore detention policies are literally unlawful and "cruel, inhuman or degrading" according to the International Criminal Court.
"Boat people" are dramatically outnumbered by people who fly in legally, but never leave, but they're also far more likely to not be white. Guess which group Border Force cares about and which group are virtually never even looked for let alone imprisoned or deported?
>You do realise that the vast majority of refugees
Maybe a 1/4 of the worlds population could pass the refugee test. If numbers of refugees had stayed low then they would have been let in.
Problem was that the refugee industry industrialised shipping refugees to Australia, there was vast profits to be made. Back in 2007 there was 25 boat refugees, this jumped to 4940 in 2010 and just two more years to 25173.
It was more than doubling each year. At what point does a country say enough is enough?
Year Boat Refugees
2007–08 25
2010–11 4940
2011–12 7983
2012–13 25 173
At what point does a country say enough is enough? When it serves our politicians' agenda.
When neither politicians nor the media refer to or care about one form of illegal immigration, but claim to care greatly about another, the numbers clearly aren't the problem.
>At what point does a country say enough is enough? When it serves our politicians' agenda.
The open border fans like you never provide a number of how many refugees should australia take in a year. 100k, 200k, million?
Nice job skipping my main point. Illegal immigrants should be treated identically, no matter their race, country of origin, or wealth. They aren't. Certainly not since Howard figured out how to use them to prompt racist Aussies to keep electing him.
I'm not an open border fan. I'm a fan of Australia not being an international embarrassment due to our mistreatment of refugees. I'm a fan of adhering to the conditions of international agreements that we sign. I'm a fan of basic decency towards people.
We literally put children in prison because their parents tried to move them to a country that might provide them a better life. That is unjust and inhumane.
Didn't realize that Asians and lebanese where 1. White and 2. Coming in on boats. Thanks for clearing that up, bigot
You've either seriously misunderstood me or replied to the wrong person's comment.
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