{"id":450,"date":"2012-06-08T13:49:15","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T03:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refugeeadvocacynetwork.org\/?p=450"},"modified":"2016-02-07T17:43:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T06:43:28","slug":"its-the-government-not-the-people-smugglers-that-has-blood-on-its-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refugeeadvocacynetwork.org.au\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s the Government, not the People Smugglers that has Blood on its Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Four Corners\u2019 people smuggling program has only added to the\u00a0demonisation that surrounds the media and politicians\u2019 portrayal of\u00a0people smugglers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Rather than exposing a trans-national criminal network, Four Corners\u00a0has revealed, what is so often the case, that people arranging boats\u00a0for asylum seekers to come to Australia have often been refugees\u00a0themselves, motivated by concerns for the safety of their families or\u00a0asylum seekers from the same country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Ten of 16 people convicted for people smuggling between 2001 and 2006\u00a0were indeed refugees themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt was also clear that there is no \u2018people smuggling business model\u2019,\u00a0only desperate asylum seekers who have no other way of getting to\u00a0safety than to pay to take a boat to Australia,\u201d said Ian Rintoul,\u00a0spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. \u201cIt is the government,\u00a0not people smugglers that \u2018has blood on its hands\u2019. Criminalising\u00a0people smuggling only makes boat travel to Australia more dangerous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cThe result of Australia pressuring Indonesia to systematically detain\u00a0asylum seekers is that there are hundreds locked up for years in\u00a0Indonesian detention \u00a0centres. The February killing of an Hazara asylum\u00a0seeker in Pontianak is only the most recent shocking abuse suffered in\u00a0Indonesia\u2019s detention centres.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cAs long as Australia refuses to resettle UNHCR refugees out of\u00a0Indonesia, people will have no alternative but to get on a boat. Only\u00a017 refugees were resettled by Australia from Indonesia in the first\u00a0three months of 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cRather than \u2018shock-horror\u2019 revelations that arrangements for boats\u00a0were being made in Australia, Four Corners could have more usefully\u00a0looked at the useless AFP prosecutions of Australian refugees\u00a0desperate to get their families to safety.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cJust as was the case with temporary protection visas under the Howard\u00a0government, it is Australian government\u2019s policy of linking the number\u00a0of protection visas with the family reunion through the Special\u00a0Humanitarian Program that is driving the families of refugees onto\u00a0boats. The Department of Immigration are sending letters to refugees\u00a0seeking family reunion saying that the numbers of Special Humanitarian\u00a0visas for 2011-2012 will \u2018be the smallest in 30 years\u2019 and as low as 750.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt is not people smugglers, but the politicians, using asylum seekers\u00a0as political footballs, who are playing with refugees\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For more information contact Ian Rintoul on 0417 275 713.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Four Corners\u2019 people smuggling program has only added to the\u00a0demonisation that surrounds the media and politicians\u2019 portrayal of\u00a0people smugglers. Rather than exposing a trans-national criminal network, Four Corners\u00a0has revealed, what is so often the case, that people arranging boats\u00a0for asylum seekers to come to Australia have often been refugees\u00a0themselves, motivated by concerns for the safety of their families or\u00a0asylum seekers from the same country. Ten of 16 people convicted for people smuggling between 2001 and 2006\u00a0were indeed refugees themselves.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[120,73,115,65,118,123,114,119,116,41,91,117,74,122,121,46],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-press-releases","tag-afp","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-demonisation","tag-department-for-immigration-and-citizenship","tag-detention-centres","tag-family-reunion","tag-four-corners","tag-hazara","tag-ian-rintoul","tag-indonesia","tag-people-smuggling","tag-refugee-action-coalition","tag-refugees","tag-special-humanitarian-program","tag-temporary","tag-unhcr","post-has-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>It&#039;s the Government, not the People Smugglers that has Blood on its Hands - 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