Australias treatment of asylum seekers is nothing short of inhumane.

Our
anger is misguided due to implementation of the Stop the boats policy.
Good Morning/Afternoon Fellas
Tony Abbott said Stop the boats! - I say Let them in!
The Stop the Boat policy has sparked great debate with the topic of
Asylum Seekers back on the agenda as the highest ranked issue of the
election. Every year millions of people around the world seek asylum.
People like us. These men, women and children flee their homelands,
seeking protection from persecution because of their race, religion,
nationality, social status or political stance. But what ever the reason, the
right to seek asylum is a basic human necessity.
The issue of asylum seekers is centered around the Australian population,
who maintain a vice-like grip on their fear that anyone or anything can rob
us of our way of life This fear has bred hatred for refuges and this hatred
has reached fever pitch, culminating in former Primer Minister Kevin Rudd
who stated that no asylum seeker who arrives by boat will ever be
resettled in Australia. The former Prime Minister Tony Abbott then
enforced this rule, sending all asylum seekers arriving by boat to
detention centers on Nauru and Manus Islands. These peoples humanity
is at stake and at cost of our selfishness and misguided hatred towards
them. Tony Abbott said Stop the boats! - I say Let them in!
Refugees should not be thought as a burden on our society. It is a
common misconception that refugees wont work, theyll just sit on welfare
and drain our resources, but in hind sight they are much more than that.
Immigration isnt just a numbers game. People who are motivated enough
to change country, and often start over again with nothing in a new
country, bring a level of drive and energy that is beneficial to the
Australian economy. It is this sort of drive that pushes them to aspire to
greater heights once they arrive. To imagine a better life for you and your
family and to take the leap of faith required to leave behind all that is
familiar calls for a special kind of courage, Westfield founder Frank Lowy,
Australias second-richest person, said last year in a speech to the
Australian Multicultural Council.
Take Huy Troung for example. The Vietnamese born now businessman was
only 7 at the time when he and his family took the plunge to come to
Australia. After enduring many months of pain Troung finally made it to
Australian waters and at the time was allowed to seek refuge in Australia.
Truong went on 21 years later to found gifting site wishlist.com.au. In
1999 Wish list was first launched with around 50,000 people visiting the
website daily. By April 2000 the company raised 15 million in capital
scaling up the business. In spite of this 1000 jobs were created allowing
for a boasted economy. Tan Le, the 1998 Young Australian of the Year, is

another real life refugee success story. Le is now the co-founder of Emotiv,
a producer of headsets that read brain signals and facial movements to
control technology. As you can derive refugees are of great economical
benefit so why do we show such an apprehension towards them? Ill leave
that up to you to answer for that really is a question of morals.
Following the recent Paris Attack, ISIS is posing a greater threat to society
now more that ever. Abbotts Stop the Boat policy was in act to protect
Australia of terror treats. But is such a policy really the answer?
Approximately two percent of the Syrian immigrants who enter into
Europe seeking asylum are in fact terrorists on a mission to attack the
West on behalf of the Islamic State, (IS), claims the Lebanese Education
Minister, Elias Bousaab. In Europe terrorists posing as asylum seekers is a
very real proposition. But if we where to look at a country such as America
we can see that the stats reduce. How? thanks to the way the government
deals and filter asylum seekers. Such a fear is misguided because the
process of relocating refugees in America is very different from the way
that refugees are filtered in Europe. Syrians flown to the US will be the
most heavily vetted group of people currently allowed into the US,
according to the State Department. Each candidate is vetted first by the
UNs refugee agency, and then separately by officials from the State
Department, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the
Defense Department. The process takes between 18 months and two
years. In contrast, a refugee hoping to reach Europe can pay a smuggler
approximately $1,000 to take them in a dinghy across the six-mile-wide
strait between Turkey and the Greek islands. If Australia had a weeding
out process like the US, the Stop the Boats policy would not be needed
and the public perspective on refugee intake in turn would change.
The exodus of refuges has been provoked by a myriad of reasons, one of
which is armed conflicts within countries. War torn countries much to the
likes of Syrian, Iran and even Sri Lanka have an outpour of immigrants due
to the physical state of the country. Civil War particularly has propounded
many to leave their country. If I may sway to a tangent. Maslow's
hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham
Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". The theory
shows the hierarchy of human needs. As you can see
1. Self actualization
2. Esteem
3. Love
4. Safety
5. Physiological Health
Civil War causes the total destruction of this theory. In civil war people are
persecuted, attacked and have those around them killed. As a result,
these 5 components are eradicated hence denying the very thing that
makes us human.

Australia being the wealthy country it is should fight for the human rights
of asylum seekers. We should fight to protect the basic necessities of
humanity. Whilst you might think that we are doing just that, you are
sorely mistaken. In accordance to The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights act number 14 the right to seek asylum states that: If we are
frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right
to run away to another country to be safe. In essence it is a basic human
right to seek asylum.
Australia is not as compassionate as the media likes to portray them as to
be. The UNHCR Global Trends Report 2015 shows that Australia took one
refugee per 1, 000 population. Ranking us just 69th in the world for per
capita refugee intake. In contrast, Tanzania a small developing country
took 75 for every 1000. That is its self puts us to shame. Australia CAN do
better. We SHOULD do better. And MUST to better. Australias national
anthem states that for those who come across the sea, weve boundless
plains to share. We as a school say these words week after week after
week, so how can we extol the values of our country if we are implicitly
going against them? We cannot claim to even have a shred of humanity if
we continue to dish out such cruelty on worlds most vulnerable human
beings.
Imagine this A family of three. A mother. A son. And a father all escaping
from the terrors of a war torn country. The parents are willing to go to
great lengths to give their son a greater standard of life. But how can
they? There is no job security, no safety. Sooner or later members of the
family will be shot down. They will die or worse spend the rest of their
days suffering. Fleeing the country is the only way out of this trench. So
the family packs their bags, sells their lifes earnings and spends it all on a
leap of faith in order to reach a prosperous land. Hardship and turmoil
does not end there. Pirates and scavengers roam the ocean and take
whatever possessions they have left. These refugees take everything
from, ones wedding ring to their very own cloths. After the pirates empty
their pockets, starvation strikes. Children are screaming and many lay
dead on the ground rotting on the very floor of the poorly maintained
vessels. Formidable waves strike the boat hard rocking the boat left, right,
left right, left right All they can do is hold their family close and a pray
for the strength to endure the pain that is yet to come. Upon bumping into
the shores of Christmas Island the family let a sigh of relief having made
the journey in one piece. All is well until they are told a few simple
wordsNo you are not welcome here go back. Now for moment
imagine this is your family So what do you say now?I say let them in.
Thank You