SIEV 36

[dreamer_easy]

The Coalition, knowing a nice little vote-earner when they see one, want to reinstate Temporary Protection Visas. These are illegal for more than one reason: they're intended to deter refugees from seeking safety (which they don't), and they discriminate against refugees. In this instance, I don't mean "technically asylum seekers but almost certainly refugees"; I mean people who have been proven to be genuine refugees, fleeing persecution, torture, and death. On a TPV, a refugee can't work, can't use Medicare, can't bring their family to safety - and has no way of knowing whether this really is safety, or whether they'll be sent back to the horrors they tried to escape. As you can imagine, this fucks them up.

At least the bastards aren't proposing throwing another billion dollars down the maw of the Pacific Solution. (And thank heavens for the Coalition members who oppose the return to TPVs.)

ETA: If you read one document about this issue, read the Refugee Council of Australia's press release. It has the facts and also a dose of black humour: "The temporary protection policy was conceived by Pauline Hanson. When she raised the suggestion in 1998, former Coalition Minister for Immigration, Phillip Ruddock, described it in Parliament 'as highly unconscionable in a way that most thinking people would clearly reject'. The Howard government proceeded to introduce it the following year."

Comments

[hiraethin.livejournal.com]

I have seen no convincing argument for reinstating TPVs. Looks like populism of the lowest order to me.