BY GRAINNE DWYER
PERTH — Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock and his state counterpart Rob Johnson defended Australia's harsh treatment of refugees at a public meeting here on May 12, claiming the policy was not racist.
"Australia of course has been a welcome haven to refugees over a long period of time", Ruddock asserted, "We continue to welcome refugees".
The minister justified the mandatory detention of those who arrive in the country without valid travel documents as being necessary to protect "genuine" refugees from those who "jump the queue", including "economic refugees". Ruddock also claimed that Australia's migrant intake which was the highest per capita in the world.
But despite his claims that the policy he administers is not racist, Ruddock focussed entirely on asylum seekers who arrive by sea, the vast majority of whom are from Third World countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and China. It was not until question time that he was forced to admit that most of those in Australia "illegally" are predominantly from the United States or Britain, who do not face mandatory detention.
Ruddock was challenged from the floor for stating "If you're going to get durable solutions for refugees, a return home in safe conditions is desirable". One speaker pointed out that East Timorese refugees were deported with little more than a bag of rice and a blanket to face the wet season and that an eight-months pregnant woman was deported to China, where she was subjected to a forcible abortion.
Members of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance protested outside the meeting.
Resistance member Amie Hamilton pointed out Australia only takes 0.2% each year of the 21 million people the United Nations High Commission on Refugees lists as "of concern".
"In some African nations, refugees make up 10-20% of the population", she said, "yet we merely erect more barriers to the many people whose unliveable situation in their own countries was partly a result of Australian foreign policy — as with refugees from East Timor and Iraq".
"Pauline Hanson's immigration policies, which were so roundly condemned two years ago, have basically been implemented" by Ruddock and his government, she said.