On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 9:59 AM, Rohan McLeod via luv-talk <luv-talk@luv.asn.au> wrote:
Since 'we' seem to be considering some 'brilliant' new ideas concerning the problem of refugees. How about :
- simply eliminating the refugee camps ; this would be both more humane and save money
- in the interim whilst checking identification and refugee status; allow them to seek work or apply for unemployment ; this latter whilst costing more money ie $14K/ year/ person ; is still vastly cheaper than refugee camp costs at ~$100K/year/person (based on the cost of incarceration ) and has fairly onerous identification requirements. Certainly a few will go "off the grid"; but statistically I wouldn't expect this number to be significant; because it will be just too difficuld for most people
- when they are considered non-refugees or undesirable ; just fly them home and advertise the fact ! Certainly this costs money; but is again vastly cheaper than refugee camp costs (see above) ; it also has the effect of putting a ceiling on the proffitablity of people smuggling; which annecdotally may be as high as $50K/ refugee ... How many times would you spend $50K when you know the Australian government can and will fly you home for ~$ 3K ?
-set up 'on-line' self-assessment proceedures and make these services available in refugee origin countries, and 3rd country refugee transit camps, so potential refugees can self-assess the difficulty they will face in achieving; refugee and cityzenship status; this option could also simultaneously reduce the final assessment costs !
Your proposals are quite similar in some aspects to the treatment given to refugees in Germany and other West European countries. E.g. the refugees are housed but not detained. There are temporary visas If somebody's asylum request was rejected but it is not safe to return him to the country of origin. In case it is safe, he can be detained near the airport for up to 4 days. The lawfulness of this is disputed. However, I find it refreshing to talk about 4 days of detention while we mistreat people for 1000 days and counting. I know that media loves to report about the AfD and street rallies against the current refugee politics, but it is worth noticing that the overall votes for anti-refugee parties is somewhere between 10% to 20%. The majority of Germans have concerns but support a human treatment of refugees in principle. I do not think that that is much different here. It is just that, for the time I live here, the politics seem to be targeted to please the 10% to 20% of people who do not care about human solutions. I still consider the article 1 of the German Constitution as the biggest gain I received in the process of unification. It starts with "Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority." It is a constitutional "insurance" I am actually missing here. The German Constitution sets a bar no politician in the country can lower. An independent Constitutional Court can invalidate laws if they found to be incompatible with the constitution. Regards Peter