Something you can give me
Martin Doyle
HOW can we beat off the boat people?
There have been a lot of decisive responses lately, first from PM Julia Gillard (and the Opposition) in Australia, and more recently our own PM John Key. Thousands of asylum-seekers have reached Australian shores in recent years on-board dilapidated boats, fleeing war in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The Aussies lock them into detention camps and then run out of ideas. There are about 4,000 of them behind wire netting at the moment. Julia Gillard wants to send most of them back to where they came from, and ship all future boat people to East Timor and keep them in a detention “centre” there. John Key says our navy has been able to “turn away” one boatload, but it’s still not a big issue here.
To be fair, these people should not be under detention and nor should immigration officials pick through them (like rejected fruit) looking for bargains. They’re human beings fleeing the hells that only human beings seem capable of creating for each other. Australia has always called itself “the lucky country” but it should really rename itself the “selfish pig country”. They could pause for a moment and reflect on the fact they have sent soldiers to serve in Afghanistan for the very best of motives: they’re putting their lives on the line to save the locals from an ever-looming religious dictatorship in which people (particularly women) will be crushed. If war-weary Afghans are arriving in leaky boats begging for asylum, the answer needs to be an immediate “Welcome in, cobber!”
But what most amazes me is how small the numbers are. We’re not talking about millions of people. We’re talking about 4,000 all up, and some of them have been in these sweltering camps for years. This stalemate has absolutely got to end. So, just as a humble Wellington contribution to trans-Tasman relations, I’ve come up with the perfect solution: New Zealand should offer to take ALL boat people currently held in Australian camps. Why? We need people. Over 60,000 people permanently leave NZ every year, so hauling in 4,000 (presumably willing) asylum-seekers would do us a lot of good. Would any other country ever be so enormously humane? Just one, actually...
There’s a poem on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was written by 34-year-old Emma Lazarus in 1883. Three of its lines, as if voiced by America herself, say:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Over the years, the United States has generously welcomed millions of immigrants and refugees from every corner of the world. Many arrived with nothing, many with no surviving family, and countless others were literally saved from the ocean waters. Although life wasn’t always easy for those immigrants, America took them, and gave them rights and responsibilities. They haven’t crippled America, they have made her great.
There have been a lot of decisive responses lately, first from PM Julia Gillard (and the Opposition) in Australia, and more recently our own PM John Key. Thousands of asylum-seekers have reached Australian shores in recent years on-board dilapidated boats, fleeing war in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The Aussies lock them into detention camps and then run out of ideas. There are about 4,000 of them behind wire netting at the moment. Julia Gillard wants to send most of them back to where they came from, and ship all future boat people to East Timor and keep them in a detention “centre” there. John Key says our navy has been able to “turn away” one boatload, but it’s still not a big issue here.
To be fair, these people should not be under detention and nor should immigration officials pick through them (like rejected fruit) looking for bargains. They’re human beings fleeing the hells that only human beings seem capable of creating for each other. Australia has always called itself “the lucky country” but it should really rename itself the “selfish pig country”. They could pause for a moment and reflect on the fact they have sent soldiers to serve in Afghanistan for the very best of motives: they’re putting their lives on the line to save the locals from an ever-looming religious dictatorship in which people (particularly women) will be crushed. If war-weary Afghans are arriving in leaky boats begging for asylum, the answer needs to be an immediate “Welcome in, cobber!”
But what most amazes me is how small the numbers are. We’re not talking about millions of people. We’re talking about 4,000 all up, and some of them have been in these sweltering camps for years. This stalemate has absolutely got to end. So, just as a humble Wellington contribution to trans-Tasman relations, I’ve come up with the perfect solution: New Zealand should offer to take ALL boat people currently held in Australian camps. Why? We need people. Over 60,000 people permanently leave NZ every year, so hauling in 4,000 (presumably willing) asylum-seekers would do us a lot of good. Would any other country ever be so enormously humane? Just one, actually...
There’s a poem on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was written by 34-year-old Emma Lazarus in 1883. Three of its lines, as if voiced by America herself, say:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Over the years, the United States has generously welcomed millions of immigrants and refugees from every corner of the world. Many arrived with nothing, many with no surviving family, and countless others were literally saved from the ocean waters. Although life wasn’t always easy for those immigrants, America took them, and gave them rights and responsibilities. They haven’t crippled America, they have made her great.
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