The Canberra Times EDITORIAL Monday, 12 June, 2000 Shame of Ruddock's gulags LAST WEEK'S breakouts from remote immigrant detention centres again draws attention to the shameful policy of the Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock, over his treatment of refugees and illegal immigrants. Mr Ruddock has had no apology to make for the gulag-style conditions in which he is holding such people - well away from any press or public accountability - but seemed only to promise tougher security and criminal charges, while attempting to scaremonger about the possibility of detainees carrying infectious diseases or having criminal records. The overwhelming majority, of course, are refugees by any standards, and will be found to be so, but, even then, the conditions under which they will eventually be helped into the Australian community will involve a conscious discrimination that will make many Australians, not least those who have benefited from more civilised refugee policies in the past, squirm with embarrassment for our country. It is said that one of the reasons why the minister is attempting to make Australia a fresh hell for those who have fled from intolerable oppression in Iraq and Afghanistan is so as to send a message to people huddling in appalling conditions in countries neighbouring them that it is not worth while for them to ''jump the queue'' and come to Australia by boat. There is little evidence that such a tactic works. Moreover, physical conditions and security in some of the countries of first asylum, such as Pakistan and Iran, have deteriorated because of the lack of practical assistance from countries such as Australia. This has forced many of the refugees into the hands of people-traffickers. The notion that there is a flood of people coming, while good for domestic scaremongering, is false; the overwhelming number of people are heading towards Europe, and, generally, being treated in a rather more civilised manner. Indeed some suspect that the tough talk, and a sequence of mean-spirited actions, is designed as much for domestic consumption as it is to send a message abroad. After all, it is said, many Australian are opposed to immigration, most of all of refugees from nations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, ''invasions'' by boat people raise a host of other worries among Australians, not least about the inviolability of our borders. Add in some resentments about the activities of lawyers, and about the multicultural industry, and one might think that Philip Ruddock could not more perfectly construct a policy calculated to appeal to rednecks. But is there really a constituency for such inhumane treatment? Do ordinary Australians really want other human beings, who have fled their own countries at the risk of their lives, to be placed in austere detention camps in the middle of the desert, subject to extremes of heat and cold? To be denied access to all but screened visitors, legal advice and people who might tell their fellow citizens how the refugees are forced to live? To be given only the most minimal access to telephones, and mocked and derided for wanting luxuries such as shampoo? If there really is such a lobby to punish and persecute boat people, it is odd that so few seem to be articulating the demands. Mr Ruddock is supposed to be from the liberal side of his party, but few of his more hard-line colleagues appear, in public anyway, to be pushing him to his current illiberalism. That Labor has its own shameful reasons for avoiding brawls involving human rights and immigration issues should not mean that Mr Ruddock should think he operates by general consent. Australians should be ashamed of its minister and his policies. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
