Asylum Seeker Politics

I have again been dismayed by the politics of asylum seekers. This blog post was partly inspired by a weekly newsletter that I received from the Law Council of Australia. A quick browse down the list of articles this week in the "immigration section" reveals the following:

Brisbane Times - Aug 01, 2013

The first plane carrying asylum seekers denied all chance of resettlement in Australia under Labor's hardline new refugee policies flew from Christmas Island to Manus Island on Wednesday night. Special Broadcasting Service - Jul 31, 2013 Immigration Minister Tony Burke says the opposition is silly to announce plans to build a 2000-bed asylum seeker centre on Nauru. The Age - Jul 29, 2013 The first group of asylum seekers to be sent to Manus Island under the new deal with PNG are expected to arrive from the end of the week as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd indicated that The surge in boat arrivals sparked by Labor's hardline Papua New Guinea refugee resettlement plan is unlikely to be.... The Daily Telegraph - Jul 28, 2013 ANDREW BOLT: Prime Minister, in 2008 you scrapped our tough border laws. Now, an Australian Federal Police report compiled around September in that same year warned that people smugglers, and I'm quoting, "will market recent changes to Australia's immigration policy to entice potential illegal immig The Age - National - Jul 28, 2013 AAP Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has refused to say when his hardline plan to banish boat asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea will work, as another refugee vessel is intercepted en route to Australia. I am not an expert on the Refugee Convention, but even with my basic knowledge, I am having trouble understanding how the PNG solution (which is obviously politically ingenious)  could not be in breach of the Convention. I am sure there is non-political analysis of this out there, but I refer to the following two articles: International Law Matters - even on Manus (New Matilda 30 Jul 2013) and PNG Policy places politics over principle (Eureka Street 19 July 2013) I wish the game of political table tennis and the race to the bottom to find the harshest policy would stop! Creative commons acknowledgment for the photograph