A further note on asylum seekers

By Kat


Asylum seekers- an issue close to heart and especially prevalent in the news recently in Australia, as we watch the government scramble to try and 'stop the boats'. You may recall that the first full post I ever wrote was on the topic of asylum seekers. And we return to it today, to target the ethical side of this argument and delve deeper into this topic.
The below article explores the topic of asylum seekers. It references the story of Amal Basry, a woman who found herself a survivor of the capsized SIEV X boat, who struggled with being caught 'in-between', then was accepted as part of Australia, only to pass away from cancer in 2006.

Read it here: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/anniversary-of-siev-x-sinking-a-time-for-reflection-20141016-116xng.html

And the title is true, because we all  need to reflect. Polls show that 71 percent of Australians support asylum seeker turn-backs. It's funny that we think so, because the amount of countries that almost immediately accept refugees are astounding. We're falling behind on a large scale, because of a government that doesn't accept that as a developed country, our role is not merely to flaunt our status, but to understand the necessity of our role in a wider world context.
Let's return to Amal Basry. Some may call her case tragic- a woman who earned her freedom then lost it before she could truly experience how it felt.
And in many ways it is, because she never got a chance to live the rest of her life here. But isn't there something in her story that represents all of this- the fact that she got to experience one moment of knowing how it felt to be free?
These people aren't just walking into this country carefree, expecting a life to be laid out in front of them. I consider there to be an air of heroism surrounding them, a heroism that is considerably greater in substance than any policy the government may throw out there. In the end, it doesn't matter what they do or what they say, because people will continue to be people, and they will fight for their freedom. I doubt that any of these politicians will ever know how it feels to undergo a life of turmoil in a country that poses an ever-present danger. They will never know the bravery it takes to try and seek a better future, to travel the seas for months on end, risking their lives in the process. They will never understand how it feels to be in-between, nor how it feels to be denied a basic human right- the right to freedom.
The US Declaration of Independence references the human right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." In our case, these are interconnected. The lines between them begin to fade away, and we begin to see that this so-called pursuit becomes especially poignant. These people are pursuing life, liberty and happiness, and we find ourselves playing the role of simply turning them away from the chance of starting again. For a country that calls itself the land of opportunity, the government sure seems to enjoy destroying opportunity.
In many things, we developed countries share our flaws. But this- this is one of the topics that enrages me especially about the state of Australia. It seems we have forgotten what the meaning of human rights is. It seems we have forgotten the role we can, and should, play in a future where we can safely say that freedom is one of the values that defines us.