AUSSIE SHAME: When is an Australian not an Australian? When they're born in detention!

Andrew P Street wrote:When is an Australian not an Australian? When they're born in detention!

People like babies. They're small and helpless and cute and it's very hard to accuse them of having been born for economic reasons or because they're queue jumpers that just want to steal our jobs. That's not stopping the government from threatening to send 26 infants to Nauru, mind, because their parents are in detention - and if a baby doesn't want to be treated like a criminal, then maybe it should have made more of an effort to be informed about Australia's immigration policies, right?

There's currently a case before the High Court regarding the status of baby Ferouz, born to parents in detention. His mother, Latifar, is diabetic and developed serious complications late in her pregnancy and was flown to Brisbane to give birth. Ferouz has respiratory problems and requires medical attention, although that didn't prevent him and his parents being shipped off to a detention camp in Darwin.

The family are Rohingya Muslim, which the UN describes as "one of the most persecuted minorities in the world". In fact, so persecuted are they that the Burmese government not only doesn't protect them but refuses to consider them citizens: they're deemed "illegal immigrants", regardless of whether they've lived there their entire lives.

They're regular targets of violence and hundreds have been murdered by mobs in the last few years, to the point where Bangladesh have been turning back thousands of Rohingya refugees attempting to cross the border. When you're fleeing to Bangladesh for safety, it's a fair bet you're in deep trouble.

So: the argument goes that the parents were stateless and Ferouz was born in Australia. Thus, he's Australian, right? Case closed.

Not so fast, says the immigration department: he came by boat, therefore he's illegal.

What, says the lawyers acting for the family, so "coming by boat" counts and you're seriously considering someone to be a person with free agency and legal culpability when they're a clump of cells in someone's uterus?

Yep, says the department. Stop the fetuses!

Alright, says the lawyers, we'll see you in court.

That case is having another hearing at the end of the month, but there are 26 other cases of children born in detention on Australian soil (24 on Christmas Island, two in Melbourne) who it could be argued have a claim to being Australian citizens. Except, as you might recall, our government has a zany habit of taking detainees with legal claims and mysteriously moving them far from their lawyers at short notice, as the detainees attempting to sue for having their personal details leaked online discovered when they were moved to remote WA the day before their trial began in Sydney.

And Christmas Island families live in terror of being moved in the middle of the night (specifically, 3am on Fridays) to Nauru, which is not part of Australia and therefore not required to worry about piddling stuff like "laws".

Hence there's currently a legal challenge to guarantee that no family will be moved pending the outcome of the Ferouz trial. To which Scott Morrison - your immigration minister and human Grinch - has said "“As this issue is being considered by the high court it is not appropriate to say anything further at this point.” Which sounds awfully like "how quickly can we move these people somewhere their lawyers can't find them?"

And hey, who better to demonise than sick babies? They knew the risks when their parents had sex, right?

BigAndy9 wrote:Most countries of the world aren't as "tolerant" as England.

Most countries protect their own citizens - what can you do eh?

Ben_Reilly wrote:

BigAndy9 wrote:Most countries of the world aren't as "tolerant" as England.

Most countries protect their own citizens - what can you do eh?

Like I say, babies are trying to take over, they must be shot down.

veya_victaous wrote:@andy
and this is why the xenophobic side here is being cut to ribbons, the opinion of those that oppose migration and try to vilify asylum seekers is untenable.  and is being exposed for the Ridiculousness that it is. The RW stand against immigration is really quite absurd, it is unfair and unjust and no Decent human being can honestly stand by such xenophobic attitudes.  



And we don't have guns either  

veya_victaous wrote:@andy
and this is why the xenophobic side here is being cut to ribbons, the opinion of those that oppose migration and try to vilify asylum seekers is untenable.  and is being exposed for the Ridiculousness that it is. The RW stand against immigration is really quite absurd, it is unfair and unjust and no Decent human being can honestly stand by such xenophobic attitudes.  



And we don't have guns either  

Ben_Reilly wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:@andy
and this is why the xenophobic side here is being cut to ribbons, the opinion of those that oppose migration and try to vilify asylum seekers is untenable.  and is being exposed for the Ridiculousness that it is. The RW stand against immigration is really quite absurd, it is unfair and unjust and no Decent human being can honestly stand by such xenophobic attitudes.  



And we don't have guns either  

Apparently the Brits need guns to defend themselves from infants -- at least that's what BA would have everyone think.

veya_victaous wrote:@andy
and this is why the xenophobic side here is being cut to ribbons, the opinion of those that oppose migration and try to vilify asylum seekers is untenable.  and is being exposed for the Ridiculousness that it is. The RW stand against immigration is really quite absurd, it is unfair and unjust and no Decent human being can honestly stand by such xenophobic attitudes.  



And we don't have guns either  

veya_victaous wrote:@sassy
it has taken a bit of effort from the 'new LW' to get traction here, but we try and hit them were it hurts    'think of the children' and 'bad for the economy'   

A glimmer of hope for The Children

And in very, very positive asylum seeker news, the immigration department have agreed not to deport any of the 26 children born to parents in detention on Australian soil - as we discussed yesterday - until their status has been clarified by the outcome of the current High Court case regarding the Brisbane-born Baby Farouz.

The lawyer representing the case, Jacob Varghese of the law firm Maurice Blackburn, got the written undertaking yesterday after threatening legal action. "I’m pleased because it gives these families a degree of piece of mind, at least for the next little while, that they are not going to get that knock on the door in the middle of the night and be whisked off to Nauru."

It's a step in the right, sane, compassionate direction, at least. Now, here's hoping the little stateless tyke Farouz can be given the nod to stay here. You know, as per a country that's not run by and filled with monsters.