What's the truth on refugees?

ABC just ran a story on how the libs say australia is a soft target for people smugglers. Instantly the response is back from labour and they are 'tough on people smuggling'. What are the facts?

UNHCR reports on the 2008 statistics on IDP's, Asylum Seekers. To Quote: "Although the overall total of 42 million uprooted people at year's end represents a drop of about 700,000 over the previous year, new displacement in 2009 has already more than offset the decline."

My conclusion: we are getting more people coming into australia due to an OVERALL increase in UNHCR people of interest - all due to those 3 words "new displacement in 2009"

while you are at the link, check out the actual report with numbers in detail showing how many people come to various countries. The tables in excel are avaialble for your analysis. "There were some 42 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2008. This includes 15.2 million refugees, 827,000 asylum-seekers (pending cases) and 26 million internally displaced persons (IDPs)."

Some of the numbers of refugees: Australia - 20,919. Chad - 302,687, Indonesia - 369, New Zealand - 2,716. Italy - 47,061. United Kingdom - 292,097 and USA - 279,548.

Are we taking enough of the 42 million? Why would we? Why should we?

The policy is that we lock them up in various outside detention centres. we don't help asylum seekers at all. Have a look at the asylum seeker resource centre (asrc)'s report http://www.asrc.org.au/uploads/File/Locked%20Out.pdf . they are denied all sorts of housing assistance.

For god's sake. These people are fleeing a conflict. They'll get shot, raped or persecuted in some way (and already have been). The overwhelming reason they come is to relieve their suffering. So, those that do make it through the processing, let's at least treat them well. Let's welcome them and give them what they need to get well, earn a living, contribute back to society here in australia. If they want to go back afterwards - fine. If they want to stay - fine. Contribution is the key - we help them, and they help us.

Hey - here's an idea - let's take a few more.