::Politics & Humanity - Australia's Refugee/Asylum Seeker Debate Got this email from the inimitable Ross Farley (who I work with at Tear Australia). He does what I do in that he takes two bits of information that you may not normally put together, and then he puts them together with dramatic/sarcastic/deadpan yet so painfully obvious kind of way that it makes us squirm at our own stupidity and inhumanity. Thanks Ross!

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Hi,
There is lots of public discussion about asylum seekers so I thought I would get up to date on the current statistics. Then I thought I may as well pass on this information. So here is what I discovered.

_1. Refugees_

* There are currently about 10.5 million refugees in the world.

* The UNHCR has a resettlement program that finds new countries for
refugees. Various countries allocate the number of refugees they
are willing to take every year. (Australia has recently increased
its allocation to 13,500 places.) Unfortunately the total number
of places made available to the UNHCR for refugee resettlement is
only 76,740 per year.

* Many argue that all refugees should apply to the UNHCR and wait
for processing. It is a matter of simple arithmatic that they
would have to wait an average of 136 years to be resettled. (10.5
million refugees divided by 76,740 places) That is a very long
queue. (That figure of 136 years also assumes that there are no
more wars or natural disasters in the next 136 years to add to the
refugee numbers.)

* If the 100 wealthiest countries took an extra, one-off intake of
about 105,000 refugees each, then the argument that refugees
should wait their turn could begin to have some validity. After
that every wealthy country would also need to dramatically
increase the number of refugees they were willing to accept.

_Visa overstayers_

* Visa overstayers are illegal immigrants who came to Australia on
tourist visas and do not leave.
* The countries of origon with largest numbers of these illegal
immigrants are UK and USA.
* In 2007-2008, the number of visa overstayers was 48,500 compared
to 25 boat people arrivals. They outnumbered boat people by 1,904
to 1.
* Of the last 12 years, 2000-2001 had the most boat people arrivals.
That same year Australia had 60,000 visa overstayers. They
outnumbered boat people 14 to 1.
* Consider the differences. Asylum seekers usually enter Australia
openly and hand themselves over to the authorities and ask for
asylum. Visa overstayers pretend to come for a holiday when the
intend to stay. Refugees are also fleeing danger. What is so
dangerous in the UK and USA?
* Why is there such a public outcry about refugees but not about
visa overstayers?

I hope this is helpful and maybe I have saved you some research time.

Thanks,
Ross

_Sources
_www.immi.gov.au
www.unhcr.org
www.refugeecouncil.org.au

Labels: Asylum Seekers, Culture, Discipleship, Faith, Humour, Refugees, Resources, Tear, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 4:53 PM   0 comments

::Politics-A change in mandatory detention laws? I was pretty excited to get this email from the Tear Changemankers network. Here is an excerpt...

Join the celebrations

After campaigning with others on refugee and asylum seeker issues since 2001, TEAR Australia ChangeMakers can join the celebrations. The Immigration Minister has proposed changes to make detention of aslyum-seekers a last resort and put in place clear boundaries so that it cannot be indefinite and unreviewable.

Asylum seekers coming by boat to one of the places that the previous Government excised from Australia's migration zone will now also have access to assistance and review of their cases – rights the former policy stripped them of.

We are very supportive of the Government's proposed changes. We hope and pray that we will never again see people (including many children) locked up for years, with all the associated mental and physical harm, while they seek protection in Australia.

If you are interested in getting involved in activity like this, check out http://www.tear.org.au/getinvolved/change-makers/

We still need to lobby the minister for immigration, letting him know that we are aware that he is trying to see this law changed, and to continue to encourage him to take this positive action. Check out the website for how to get involved in that too.

Labels: Asylum Seekers, Celebration, Discipleship, Justice, Refugees

  Posted by Stephen @ 2:25 PM   0 comments