Source countries should deal with migrant issue
Play
The Agence France-Presse article "I'nesia demands answers from Aust on asylum boat 'payment'" in yesterday's paper is another example of journalists/media using the emotive term of "asylum seekers" as an attention grabber.
As I understand it, the term “asylum seeker” applies to someone who has sought asylum, usually via a country’s embassy, to escape adverse conditions in their own country.
These “boat people” are “illegal immigrants” or “economic immigrants”, as described by some people, because they have sought and paid to travel via people traffickers and enter countries illegally, usually with no ID documents. Plus, as recently uncovered in Thailand and Malaysia, subjected to gross abuses by traffickers, leading to many deaths.
They may have valid reasons for wanting to escape the conditions they endure in their own country, but they are illegal immigrants and the receiving countries are entitled to deal with them as they see fit. Australia has a harsh policy of curbing such trafficking, which has greatly reduced the number undertaking the treacherous journey, usually from Indonesia to Australia.
The problem needs to be addressed at the source – the countries of origin – as to how the problems and issues of these people can best be addressed within their own countries and, if needs be, pressure placed upon the source countries to fix the problems.
Until that occurs, globally this mass migration of trafficking will continue to occur!
Ray Gregory
Bangkok
