Asylum Seekers in Australia: Tony Burke Pushes for Tighter Neck-Grip Policy
Approximately, there are 15,000 asylum seekers seeking for a visa in the country. Just in the month of May, the Department of immigration there were already 7256 asylum workers who were not granted rights to work in Australia.
Even with this current situation, the government thinks that asylum seekers should be under strict "no advantage" rules to work, The Brisbane Times reported.
"No advantage" policy entails that those asylum seekers coming to Australia by boats from August 14 2012 and those refugees waiting for humanitarian visa will be treated equally; meaning advantage or priority will no longer be given to asylum seekers.
Also, under the "no advantage" policy, people received a stipend from the government but were to be denied the right to work.
Different sectors of the community, including charities and non governmental institutions, scrutinized the policy for humanitarian reasons saying that being jobless hurt the people's view of themselves. In addition, these charity and non governmental institutions were left alone to take care of the jobless asylum seekers.
Although Prime Minister Kevin Rudd acknowledged the need to give these people right to work, he was hesitant because granting them rights to work gives leeway to people smugglers to continue with their crime.
In a related issue, new Immigration Minister Tony Burke on the other hand scrutinized Coalition's plan of sending back boat riding asylum seekers to Indonesia. Mr Burke said that people smugglers had already found a way to sabotage Australia's effort to turn back boats.
In a report from The Australian, Mr Burke said, "If anybody actually thinks you can photocopy the rules of 2001, and more than a decade later people-smugglers haven't found a way around them, then they are kidding themselves. Once they worked out that Australia was not the sort of country that would turn around and leave people drowning in the ocean, they knew they could turn any circumstance into a safety-at-sea-operation."
"All you have done, all that has been achieved, is you've effectively towed people around in circles around the Indian Ocean. That is not the way of dealing with the challenge."
Mr Burke explained that with all the observations he gathered from years of sitting on the issue, people-smugglers had always outwitted the government. He said that even if sabotage can be prevented at the point of interception under the Coalition plan, sabotage can always occur as soon as boats were sent back to the ocean.
Jim Molan, retired major-general, on the other hand explained that when Australia turn boats back into the ocean sends out the message that the country is observing severe precautionary against people smugglers.
Former navy chief Vice Admiral David Ritchie said that turning back boats can be hazardous but can definitely be done.
However Mr Burke argue that the idea formulated by Tony Abbott will only be successful if people smugglers forgot everything they had learned over the past ten years, which is of course, impossible.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scot Morrison contest, "This government has allowed a very, very dangerous precedent to remain in place now for some time and that is if you try and sink your boat, you will get to Australia."