Well done, Australia!

[GrandizerII]

The horrible conditions at Manus and Nauru are well documented. Take into consideration the seaworthiness of the vessels turned around and you will see that Operation Sovereign Borders is hardly humanitarian. Also of note is that Australia cares nothing about gangs impacting the homeland, but that gangs are said to be controlling the migrant transportation. Australia gives fuck all about the plight of the asylum seekers.

Sad but true.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Myself, I think it's pretty shitty. Here's what Amnesty International has to say about Nauru:

Nauru is to all intents and purposes an open-air prison that people cannot leave, even when they have been officially recognized as
refugees.

[...]

But it is not just that refugees cannot leave Nauru – the country is not a safe place for them to stay. Many of
the refugees and asylum-seekers interviewed by Amnesty International described how they or their friends
and family had been attacked and/or subjected to verbal abuse inside and outside of the Refugee
Processing Centre. This includes physical attacks on men, children and women – including sexual assaults –
as well as robbery and attempts to break into their homes.

[...]

The health care available on Nauru is inadequate. Certain medical services, specialists, tests and procedures
are not available on the island. Individuals said they had to wait for months to see a visiting specialist or
undergo a necessary test, even when, according to the doctors, their condition was serious, such as
suspected cancer.

Those are some extracts from the summary. I haven't read the whole thing, but I will. You can get the PDF at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa...4/2016/en/

Myself, I think the humane thing to do is help refugees, not give them a choice of returning to a place which might kill them, packing them along in the hopes some other country might be more humane ... or sticking them on an island prison and subjecting them to dehumanizing treatment.

If I were chasing you with a stick, would you hide in the first house you came to, or wait til you found one with which you had a 'link'?

Boru

I would hit you with my stick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVgfjnLqc

[Regina]

Let's be real, what's the population of Nauru? Australia could take every last person from that country and nobody would notice.

Meanwhile in The UK, alleged Brexit-fuelled attacks are up and in full swing;

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/hom...86241.html

This is what happens when you let far right nationalists dominate the discourse on immigration, and when you let sensationalist "Native" identity politics run rampant. You pave the way for these emboldened Nationalist savages taking swings at people, just for having private conversations with their friends that aren't in the Native language. This is sickening entitlement.

I'm neither for nor against immigration, I see both sides. I understand being concerned over complete un-restrained immigration and the demographics of your neighbourhood transforming, and being concerned that the Regressive Left aren't taking the initiative to challenge bigoted viewpoints within minority communities. That still doesn't mean I support completely blocking all immigrants from entering and throwing our responsibility to provide asylum by the wayside. Immigration is a nuanced thing to me, it doesn't have to be a for/against.

I do think Australia are silly for this policy, this mass immigration/asylum issue does need to be spread and shared between all countries capable of taking immigrants, not just concentrated in Europe where we are a bit overwhelmed.

[Brian37]

Let's be real, what's the population of Nauru? Australia could take every last person from that country and nobody would notice.

Meanwhile in The UK, alleged Brexit-fuelled attacks are up and in full swing;

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/hom...86241.html

This is what happens when you let far right nationalists dominate the discourse on immigration, and when you let sensationalist "Native" identity politics run rampant. You pave the way for these emboldened Nationalist savages taking swings at people, just for having private conversations with their friends that aren't in the Native language. This is sickening entitlement.

I'm neither for nor against immigration, I see both sides. I understand being concerned over complete un-restrained immigration and the demographics of your neighbourhood transforming, and being concerned that the Regressive Left aren't taking the initiative to challenge bigoted viewpoints within minority communities. That still doesn't mean I support completely blocking all immigrants from entering and throwing our responsibility to provide asylum by the wayside. Immigration is a nuanced thing to me, it doesn't have to be a for/against.

I do think Australia are silly for this policy, this mass immigration/asylum issue does need to be spread and shared between all countries capable of taking immigrants, not just concentrated in Europe where we are a bit overwhelmed.

This is the plague of our species, the bullshit idea that on a 4 billion year old planet that has had 5 mass extinctions with humans being far late in the evolutionary dance, that we, because of our brains think we are top of the chain. No, our brains and complex language as a species is only one attribute in evolution. For all the good all these religious and political and economic ideologies like to claim, we simply are ignorant far too much of why our tribalism exists and that ignorance also allows our brains to dream up very destructive ways to fight and murder each other over resources and then stupidly attach those acts to morality.

No humans, we are NOT top of the chain we are simply one aspect of life. No other species has our ability to self destruct with war and nuclear weapons. If we get stupid as a species and go nuclear, cockroaches and bacteria will be fine, but we will if we are lucky to survive, at best, will be knocked back to the stone ages. 

We simply do not understand because of the age of technology, and our population now, we cant stick with old myths and the age of conquests as if the planet was flat and you could go forward forever. Sagan's Pale Blue Dot speech is something to be valued and not widely enough known. Our species really needs to face how small and fragile we really are.

[Aractus]

I really wish Europe had a similar policy.

The policy is purely designed to divide Labor. It doesn't have much, if any, actual merit. What if a family member dies in Australia and you want to go to the funeral? Worse still, what if a family member dies in Australia and you're the legal next of kin?

Brian, they have other choices.  They can either return home, be resettled on Manus or Nauru, or go to a third country.

They can't be resettled on Manus or Nauru. That's already been established. The last time this happened we had to settle most of them in Australia and NZ, with smaller numbers going to Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. So far the Government is refusing to entertain the offer to resettle some refugees in NZ. This contradicts their message that the asylum seekers are the problem of the Manus and Nauruan governments now and we're "just funding it". This time we have had offers from Canada, the United States, NZ, Iceland as well (IIRC), and Malaysia has offered to resettle people as well. The current policy is nearly impossible to carry out, as there is no way to resettle all people in all camps, and many countries will look at the conditions in Nauru and Manus and say "we'll take the ones that are living in total squaller in Pakistani refugee camps before we worry about those ones".

Right now the refugees on Manus and Nauru have no choices, and have to wait until they're offered resettlement somewhere.

[Sterben]

I have to side with Australia on this one, Japan as well has taken a similar stance and has tightened it's immigration policy.If you try to enter Japan illegally and are caught I think your ban is over 50 years. If you over stay by even by one day in Japan past your legal time your allowed without a visa your banned from the country for ten years. The life time ban is a little extreme, but hey it makes since. If your fleeing from a corrupt country, don't expect to enter another country illegally and have a warm welcome.

[Aractus]

It's to deter people smugglers, not deter refugees. If you knew how people smuggling actually worked you would be appalled. We deal with the last stretch of it, but basically they find desperate people in refugee camps and sell them a ticket. Then when they get to the next country the smugglers detain them and ransom them to their families. Many die or are killed because their families can't pay up. See for yourself:

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/fourcor...6_288p.mp4