Australia has become an international pariah. Our policies and treatment of people fleeing persecution, war and torture are infamous for their cruelty and selfishness.
The number of refugees that Australia takes is trifling and shameful when compared with the rest of the world.
Australia hosts 0.3% of the world’s refugees and places 70th when ranked by wealth (2014 figures).
The largest migration of people since the end of the second world war is happening right now. The number of displaced persons has reached 50 million.
Australians will have a lot of explaining to do to future generations on why we stood by idly watching yet another humanitarian tragedy play out.
The paltry offer of 12,000 places for Syrian refugees leaves me incredulous. Commentators praise the government in an attempt to encourage this sudden about-face. They add phrases like “it’s a good start”, like some form of positive reinforcement for a badly behaved child. What a sad reflection of the state of affairs, especially when considered in conjunction with the eager rush to join a bombing campaign. We have all seen, after all, how successful previous bombing campaigns have been in resolving humanitarian crises.
The current crisis has become symbolised by the image of a drowned three-year-old boy, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish beach: an image that has galvanised the western world to acknowledge more must be done.
To this effect, the people of Iceland, by the thousands, are offering to take Syrians into their homes. Germans have thrown the borders open and people are welcoming refugees with cheering on the streets and train stations, with food, and with song. The Pope is calling for Catholics to shelter refugees.
It is a moving spectacle of how humanity should be.
In Australia, there are those that have looked at that same image and used it as an excuse for our barbarous border policies. The repugnant irony is that there could be no stronger counter argument to the “stop the boats” dogma than that image. All our draconian boats policy has succeeded in is having people drown in other oceans, conveniently out of sight of Christmas Island.
But it is worse than that …
