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OK, the plan is this. Asylum seekers arriving by boat, most of whom are genuine refugees, will be send to Papua New Guinea for processing and resettled in whatever countries will take them. The capacity of the detention centre on Manus Island will be expanded from 600 to 3000 people. (PNG is a corrupt, violent mess, which already hosts 9000 asylum seekers it can't process.)
The stated goal is to remove all incentive for the asylum seekers stranded in nearby countries like Indonesia to attempt the dangerous crossing. On the surface, you'd think this couldn't fail; but nothing has ever stopped the boats - not the risk of death, not the savage punishments we've meted out. Asylum seekers are desperate to reach safety and start new lives, and if there's a genuine chance they'll be resettled, they may very well take it. (ETA: The Premier of Queenland pointed out that PNG is only four kilometres from his state, and that people can "row across in a tinnie or a canoe".)
The real goal is to keep these mysterious, swarthy foreign devils out of the country, to buy a small number of voters in key seats. Any cost and any lie is worth that goal, and has been for over two decades.
We created the boats situation ourselves, by leaving the refugees next door to rot for decades, rather than working with neighbouring nations to bring them here. The boats will stop when people fleeing for their lives can reach safe shores without needing to step aboard them.
The stated goal is to remove all incentive for the asylum seekers stranded in nearby countries like Indonesia to attempt the dangerous crossing. On the surface, you'd think this couldn't fail; but nothing has ever stopped the boats - not the risk of death, not the savage punishments we've meted out. Asylum seekers are desperate to reach safety and start new lives, and if there's a genuine chance they'll be resettled, they may very well take it. (ETA: The Premier of Queenland pointed out that PNG is only four kilometres from his state, and that people can "row across in a tinnie or a canoe".)
The real goal is to keep these mysterious, swarthy foreign devils out of the country, to buy a small number of voters in key seats. Any cost and any lie is worth that goal, and has been for over two decades.
We created the boats situation ourselves, by leaving the refugees next door to rot for decades, rather than working with neighbouring nations to bring them here. The boats will stop when people fleeing for their lives can reach safe shores without needing to step aboard them.
