‘It’s time we were more compassionate towards asylum seekers’

A few years ago, I had come to the conclusion that some people would never really understand what it meant to be an asylum seeker. My opinion remains unchanged. Despite the time that has elapsed, I feel you are wasting your breath with some people when it comes to asylum seekers; they believe the propaganda that has been drummed into them by the media and the governments (the Coalition more stringently than the Labor government though, in my opinion).

An asylum seeker is someone who is fleeing their home country, enters another country and applies for the right to international protection from that country. They are seeking refugee status, but in a lot of instances that claim has not yet been assessed.

It concerns me that some people do not understand that the media is out to get the best angle to a story. It is not strictly the truth, and because asylum seekers flee the horrors of terrorist behaviour, they are often deemed to be terrorists themselves.

In 2014, Man Haron Monis held hostage 10 customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate cafe in Sydney in a violent terrorist attack. There is no doubt he was mentally ill, yet the motives of the lone gunman were debated after the event occurred.

Some people seem to think that an asylum seeker should stand in line and wait for a piece of paper that tells the rest of the world ‘I am an asylum seeker’, but I wonder how easy it would be to do this when you are in danger of being mass murdered, as many of those seeking asylum from their home country are.

When it comes to history, I think it should be compulsory for students at school to learn about the deranged despots — how many they murdered and why, and how people were able to flee — because it might teach the next generation something about compassion. I can recall Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Idi Amin, Mao Zedong, and Bashar Al Assad, and these names come from recent history, yet we have asylum seekers in our country who escaped them all.

The greatest issue with the terrorist movement today, in my opinion, is that it does not have just one name. It is barbaric in nature.

What are your thoughts on asylum seekers and refugees? Do we need to demonstrate more compassion when it comes to those needing a safe haven?

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