Playing God

November 10, 1993
Issue 

Playing God

The announcement that 20,000 Chinese students and their families, living in Australia at the time of the Tienanmen Square massacre, have been granted residency is a welcome one. Australia is doing no more than honouring a moral duty to these people who would otherwise likely face persecution upon returning to China.

But before the minister of immigration, Senator Nick Bolkus, takes too many curtain bows, there's the matter of the 22,000 asylum seekers of different nationalities, all of whom arrived in Australia equally hopeful of obtaining resident status. They now face an uncertain future.

The government does not deny they flee persecution. Nevertheless, Bolkus claims their request for residency should be dealt with individually so as to allow through only those who can make a "contribution" to Australia.

The Australian government's approach to refugees and asylum seekers has been wrongly characterised by the media as a question of immigration — these are two separate categories. But it appears the government intends acquiescing in the fiction of asylum seeker as immigrant.

Bolkus outlined the necessary criteria as: holding a visa prior to March 12, 1992, being under 45 years old, having vocational English, with a tertiary qualification or enrolled in an accredited course, or owning a business employing at least three Australians. Two-thirds of the asylum seekers will fail to meet these requirements.

For three years nearly 300 Cambodians, having committed no crime, have been imprisoned while the government considers their application for asylum. Now 215 Cambodian boat people are to be deported.

Bolkus claims if they stay in Cambodia for 12 months there will be few barriers to their application for permanent residency. But then, what purpose would be served by sending them back? Church and refugees groups have rightly criticised this inhumane decision.

Australia has a duty to play its part in alleviating the personal crisis of some of the world's many refugees — not to play God with the lives of persecuted and desperate people on the basis of their usefulness to Australian business.

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