People smuggler hysteria is really about attacking refugees

In recent weeks, a boat with more than 120 refugees was forced back to Indonesia under Australian orders, 10 Falun Gong members from China docked at Darwin’s wharves and another boat made several distress calls to Australia before vanishing.

The first boat was on its way to Christmas Island when it began taking on water. A Singapore-flagged ship rescued the 120 Afghan and Iranian refugees onboard and took them back to Merak, Indonesia.

They tried to negotiate for Australian assistance, but were eventually coerced into leaving the ship. One asylum seeker onboard told the Refugee Action Coalition: “We cannot go back to Afghanistan, we cannot survive in [an] Indonesia prison. We have asked to see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), but no one has come to us.”

The Jakarta Globe said that as others left the ship two men chanted “we want to die” and banged their heads until they bled.

The Chinese refugees, part of a persecuted religious group, were on their way to New Zealand when they arrived in Darwin on April 9. But after advice, the group apparently chose to claim asylum in Australia. They were taken to the Darwin Airport Lodge, an immigration detention facility for families and children.

Another asylum boat was apparently drifting and taking on water near Sumbawa island in eastern Indonesia when it made several calls for help on April 11 and 12. Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said 60 Afghan refugees were onboard, including families, without engine power and in rough waters.

After a search, Indonesian authorities claimed they found the boat on a Lombok beach, and locals said the passengers had fled.

But Rintoul maintained it could have been a different boat because he was still receiving distressed calls from them at sea on April 13. Despite this, the search was called off.

Political leaders blamed so-called people smugglers for putting people in danger. Immigration minister Chris Bowen said on April 14 that “we need to work together now to prevent another tragedy from occurring”, referring to the Coalition’s refusal to back the Labor government’s failed Malaysia-Australia swap plan.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said “this government provides the people smugglers with a business model”.

“The only way to stop the tragedy is to stop the boats.”

But the reality is if it wasn’t so difficult for asylum seekers to come here safely, there would be no “business model” to break. Huge population displacement is rising around the world, and those who take the risk to come to Australia by boat are taking their final option.

The UNHCR said last year that 43.7 million people were displaced by conflict, poverty, famine and persecution — the highest number in 15 years.

Three million refugees were from Afghanistan alone. Almost three quarters of the world’s refugees lived in neighbouring countries. And a huge four-fifths are hosted in Third World country camps.

But there are only 880,000 UNHCR refugee places worldwide each year. The rest must rely on each country’s “resettlement quotas”, and hope that they get picked in the random lottery of humanitarian visas.

As a result, millions of people are forced into transport without government approval. This is a driving need that “people smugglers” meet.

The people who help refugees reach Australia to claim asylum are portrayed by politicians and most media as career criminals who can stage well-organised border breaches that threaten national security.

But labelling them “scum of the Earth”, as did former PM Kevin Rudd, is a politically convenient lie and another way to bash refugees and stoke racism.

Australia’s “people smuggling” laws are punitive and are designed to prevent refugees from seeking passage to Australia without government permission. Mandatory sentences of at least five years for people smugglers makes no distinction between those at the top of the operation and the impoverished men and boys persuaded to crew the boats.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance has said that as of March last year MAustralia had arrested and charged six organisers of “people smuggling” offences. A further 347 crewmembers were charged with the exact same crime. The alliance said many of these “were not aware of what they were implicated in” and “many have been tricked”.

After Rudd’s amendments to the Migration Act, there does not even have to be a profit made for people to be found guilty of people smuggling. Similarly, if a person sends financial help to family or friends overseas and it is used to pay their way here, they can be charged with “people smuggling” and sentenced to time in prison.

Conviction rates are rising and the government has made calculated moves to obstruct the defence cases of more than 350 people awaiting trial in Australia.

In December, a Victorian court was about to consider the defence of a 20-year-old Indonesian man, who said he had not committed a crime because the people he brought to Australia had been found to be refugees and so had a legal right to enter Australia.

But Labor and the Coalition introduced amendments to the Migration Act that made it illegal to bring people to Australia who had “no valid visa”. This quashed the case, but was also a direct attack on asylum seekers’ lawful right to claim asylum here.

The draconian law was even made retrospective back to 2001, making every crewmember of every boat that reached Australian waters over the past 11 years a criminal.

Exploiting fears about “boat people” will not stop them boarding boats. Toughening laws and locking out the poor does not reduce the war, persecution, rape and torture that they flee.

But increasing the penalties for “people smuggling” means there will be less crew willing to travel, encouraging operators to just cram more people onto boats and hike up prices. This is what has made the journeys more dangerous and led to more people drowned at sea.

Criminal lawyer Edwina Lloyd, who defends Indonesian boys thrown into adult jails as “people smugglers”, says there is an easy way to eradicate people smugglers: organise to bring refugees here for free.

If Australia’s refugee policy were genuinely humane, more people would have the chance to seek refuge safely, knowing they would be welcomed and given the protection to which they are entitled. The Australian government could dramatically raise its intake of refugees and help them resettle.

Diverting the millions now spent on Australia’s detention centres and the ridiculous “border control” system could easily fund this.