City To Welcome Refugees Here (in Australia--Barf)

Whyalla News ^ | October 25, 2002 | Julia Langford

[Tancred]

Whyalla will become a 'Welcome Town' for asylum seekers if the Federal Government changes the policy to allow them out of detention and into the community while their applications are processed.

Whyalla City Council took a step into the unknown on Monday night when they agreed to support, in principle, to allow two to three asylum-seeking families into the city without any public consultation.

While the gesture is only symbolic at this stage, it will probably become a reality if the Federal Government policy is changed.

The proposal was originally suggested by Whyalla Rural Australians for Refugees, but was brought to the meeting by Councillor Jean Oates.

"There is growing dissatisfaction at the way we, Australia, treat asylum seekers," Cr Oates said.

"The appalling conditions (in detention centres) that inmates, especially children, are subjected to, adds to our sense of shame.

"In the past few years, none of the 6000 asylum seekers processed have found to be a threat to Australia.

"A civilised society does not punish victims like this."

Cr Oates said that the asylum seekers had no choice but to come to Australia illegally, as there were either no embassy in their country or they had to wait up to two years in a terror-stricken area.

"There is no embassy in Iraq and the thing is, these people have fled the regime our government is actually fighting," she said.

Cr Clint Garrett said that in Pakistan, often people waiting for an application had to spend between 18 months and two years in "squalid hell hole".

He agreed with Cr Oates that it was time people ignored the popular attitude of keeping refugees in detention centres and looked deep within themselves to discover what the morally right thing was to do.

Quoting Dr Martin Luther King junior, he said "there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscious tells one it is right".

Cr Garrett believed it was time the council made a decision without consulting the public first.

"A good leader does not follow public opinion, they lead it," he said.

"There was a time when people believed the earth was flat and if you had a public consultation on this, the ignorant would have voted for a flat earth.

"It took real intellectual and moral leadership to get rid of these traditions; the refugee question requires a similar level of leadership.

"The Whyalla Council needs to accept that refugees are human beings who have the potential to enrich our community and should be welcomed."

[Tancred]

Maybe they'll end up changing their minds like the residents of Holyoke, MA and Lewiston, ME.

[Peter Libra]

Some questions for the proponents of these schemes;also starting plans for "new" cities in overcrowded England ,is this.
Where will this end? If room is made and life easy for ten thousand applicants, when is there a cut off? What happens if the whole nature of the host country is compromised. When do you say no? (If you are allowed to have an option). I would like to see a rational answer from the do good fraternity.