So our two main political parties maintain that the asylum seekers on the soon to be closed detention centre on Manus Island should remain in detention or be resettled somewhere else other than Australia. This is despite that at least 400 of these people have been assessed as genuine refugees. Having refugee status indicates that these people have left their country of origin due to persecution and or their lives being in danger.
The people smugglers have ceased their trade in human cargo and with the same deterrents and towing the boats back policy, there is now no need to maintain these asylum seekers in detention. These human beings are now being used as scapegoats in a politicised environment to maintain the votes of the perceived xenophobic section of the Australian population. Some of these asylum seekers have been deprived of their liberty for more than four years.
The inhumane approach to these people is not fitting of an advanced country like Australia and the continued detention of innocent people is a blight on our international standing. The only crime these people have committed is to escape from a threatening environment, in many cases in fear for their lives and to seek a better future for themselves and their families in a safer country. These human beings are being treated less than human. Denied access to their families, denied employment, denied a proper living environment. They are being denied human rights where they were fleeing from such treatment.
With the pending closure of the detention centre on Manus Island there is an opportunity for our politicians who in the main have never suffered in the way some of the refugees have, to show some compassion and indeed some common sense. It makes sense to save the million dollars spent on detaining the refugees in captivity and let them become and contribute to Australian society.
I am proud to be an Australian citizen. I am not proud of these politicians or their lack of humanity in the case of these asylum seekers.