Those Darn Boat People!
There are many presumptions that go with the "Boat People" label that do not marry with democratic principles or values, which inadvertently plays right into the hands of those terrorists who seek to dismantle democracy throughout the world.
One of these presumptions is that people fleeing death know full well they're putting their families on unsafe, leaky boats that could sink and kill everyone on board. To fully comprehend reality, consider the following reader contribution submitted last week:
"When we departed at the airport, my friend was so excited to embark on her super-cheap 10 day holiday, as depicted on a glossy brochure she obtained from her local travel agent. And that was the last we heard from her, for nearly 4 months. Eventually, she turned up at an airport tens of thousands of miles from her destination with no passport and no money left to her name, reporting to authorities that a slave-trader had held her captive, along with dozens of others who also fell for the same brochure."
We will publish the whole story shortly, but for now it makes the very valid point: even the least vulnerable Westerner can be sucked into the seedy world of human-trafficking and slavery without realising it. We also know many children, for obvious reasons, are easily fooled too.
As in the recent US arrest of a slave-trader responsible for the deaths of several victims, it's probably safe to say poor people aren't getting their hands on glossy fliers offering "Travel with us in a steel box with no food or water at 45 degrees heat for N days - for a better life".
Another presumption is Boat People pay human-traffickers up front, without a second thought as to where that money might come from. There's a logical disconnect in this theory, since we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars per person per boat trip, compared to a few thousand for a plane ticket and visa application.
What we do know of these people is they're not well-off Westerners making informed decisions about immigration, they're desperate poor people who literally have nothing. They are slaves whose only choice is to work off their debts to the criminals who traffic them. It's as simple as that.
Australians often chant "Send them back!", as if the mobsters who indebted these people for a life-time will somehow waive the debts and not kill them and their families in a sudden display of compassion for their inability to pay up. If a democratic society won't even afford them compassion, what makes us think the mobsters will?
Let's not even consider that "refouling" refugees is 100% unlawful across the globe.
As if to justify their punitive position, Australians also presume Boat People are "illegal immigrants" however, in order for 'illegal' to fit into the equation, each of these HUMANS have a legal right to a fair trial in order to establish if any laws were broken in the first place.
This is a crucial principle of a free democracy, that all humans have basic rights - including slaves - and most especially during times of war. In-arguably, no matter where they came from or how they got here, they are still humans - seeking freedom, no less.
While bobbing around in the ocean on a leaky vessel may be irresponsible, it is not illegal. At the time most of them arrived near the shores of Australia, there were no laws prohibiting genuine refugees from seeking asylum here, nor any laws determining method of travel.
And, since they never landed on the shores of Australia, it is impossible to say whether they were genuine, what their intentions were or even if they had any choice in the matter.
Instead of joining international attempts to dismantle the slave-trade networks that ensnare thousands of vulnerable people every year, including Australians, we strip the victims of their rights to fair trial and put them to 'trial by media' - where we give consent to them being treated like non-humans.
In fact, we have better standards and stronger laws to protect the health and welfare of animals than we have to protect fellow humans.
Additionally, as an invading nation killing other humans in the name of democracy, Australia MUST take some responsibility for those civilians ultimately displaced by our military actions. This is a fundamental military principle, upheld by war-treaties, the pre-planning of which is meant to preceded any decision to invade another country, yet nobody has so much as mentioned it.
If our intention is simply to take care of Australians first and utmost, then we need to withdraw our military from it's destabilization efforts in other countries. Either we're a responsible democratic nation upholding the principles of freedom throughout the world, or we're just looking after ourselves.
In the glossy brochure that we sell to the world, we pay tribute to the fallen who fought and died defending freedom, but in reality - and in almost a cruel irony - we have seemingly become those our fallen fought against.
Just as the slave-traders masquerade as a gateway to a better life, have we become no more than invading dictators masquerading as defenders of freedom?
It is time for Australians to get their own story straight. These are war crimes and they're nothing to be proud of.