Tamils pay the cost of political expediency
September 5, 2012
Damien Kingsbury
Amnesty International has highlighted human rights abuses in Sri Lanka under the regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Photo: Claire Martin
The treatment of Sri Lankan asylum seekers shows that further punishing victims is deemed acceptable if it can score domestic political points.
At a time of bipartisan support for renewing the Pacific Solution, it is deeply disturbing to see the asylum seeker issue taking a turn for the more extreme. In a world of dog-whistle politics, it appears that further punishing victims is acceptable if it can score domestic political points.
Despite the opposition’s success in the government adopting its Pacific Solution, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop’s call to return Sri Lankan asylum seekers to Sri Lanka without processing their claims reduces policy debate to moral abandonment. Backing her, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has displayed either ignorance or denial of the facts on the ground in Sri Lanka and Australia’s legal obligations.
Ms Bishop’s claims that most Sri Lankan asylum seekers are economic refugees and many pose a security risk are untested. Her claims also assume it is possible to divorce material need from fears for personal safety, while adopting the ‘‘security’’ view from one side of a conflict in which all parties behaved viciously.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/tamils-pay-the-cost-of-political-expediency-20120904-25c0j.html#ixzz25awbIJ8c