Australia's life-saving immigration policy has lessons for Thailand

The thrust of David Brown’s letter is typical of the debate that has been waged in Australia for many years over the “boat-people problem”. Brown’s point that “Australia has an appalling record on the treatment of refugees” needs to be questioned. Those who migrate to Australia either do so legally, through an immigration programme, or illegally. The people Brown refers to as “refugees” are in fact illegal immigrants who attempt to land on Australian shores via boats from Indonesia and Malaysia. Most countries treat illegal immigrants much the same as Australia does – detaining them in secure facilities until their identity and country of origin can be determined and action taken either to repatriate them or offer them haven as “refugees”, as appropriate.

The Abbott government has put in place stringent procedures designed primarily to deter people from taking the illegal and dangerous trip from Indonesia and Malaysia, which has resulted in an untold number of deaths. 

To date the Australian government’s actions have greatly reduced the number of boats undertaking the treacherous trip and thereby saved many lives. 

Brown offers no alternative solution, unless he simply wants Australia to open the gates in the manner of Britain and now the EU, which has resulted in assimilation, economic and social issues.  

The recent exposure of people-trafficking camps here has revealed the enormity of the problem and placed Thailand at the forefront in seeking ways to deal with this multi-national issue. Yet Brown dismisses Thailand’s invitation to Australia to take part in a regional forum on refugee problems as “akin to the farmer consulting the fox on how to protect his chickens”. This is nothing more than a cheap attempt at humour. 

In reality, Australia needs to be included in any conference on ways to resolve this issue in our region. “Australia is part of Asia,” then-prime minister Paul Keating said in the early 1990s, and those words ring just as true today. 

There is no simple answer to this worldwide problem, since there will always be people eager to prey on those left vulnerable by persecution or oppression in their own countries. But solutions need to be found and action taken. 

Ray Gregory