In the privacy of my own home, I asked "O Captain! My Captain!" some years ago about the boat people but my Captain did not answer, her lips were pale and still.
Not-so-Great-Britain-anymore is alreay considering changing its national anthem; will we soon do the same?
According to my 'Oxford Dictionary' a refugee is someone who 'escaped to a foreign country from religious or political persecution'.
Lets take the case of a Muslim escaping from 'wherever'. They enter Indonesia legally and are now in a country where their religion is widely practiced. They're home! They are refugees living in Indonesia.
They decide to leave the sanctuary of Indonesia (remember they are refugees and they entered Indonesia legally with all their travel documents intact). They destroy all their papers, pay big money to jump on a boat and come to the 'Lucky Country AUSTRALIA' without any papers. Upon arrival in Australia they receive all sorts of handouts from the government and if they don't get everything they want, they get a legal aid lawyer, paid for by us, to sue us. Wonderful!
I have no legal training but my common sense tells me that the moment these people step on the boat in Indonesia, they have chosen to throw their refugee status away. They also chose to break Indonesia's immigration laws by not filling in departure forms (you and I have to). When they arrive in Australia, they are no longer refugees, they are illegal immigrants! Wake up, Australia!
