Abbott, Protect Asylum Seekers From Unscrupulous Border Control Tactics
- by: Lynn Hamilton
- recipient: Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott thinks it's okay to pay human traffickers to turn their boats around when they're carrying starving would-be immigrants to the coast of Australia.
You heard that right. A United Nations investigation confirms that an Australian official bribed an Australia-bound smuggler to turn his boat around. The smuggler was ferrying sixty-five asylum seekers to Australia in May of this year.
Even more appalling is that Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott, has not denied the allegation or even suggested that Australia also investigate the matter. Abbot has effectively said that paying smugglers to turn their boats around may as well be business as usual just off Australia's shores.
Abbot's cavalier attitude toward some of the world's most desperate and vulnerable people is simply unacceptable. Tell Abbot to implement a policy making it illegal to bribe smugglers to turn back with migrants.
Dear Mr. Abbott:
We the undersigned are dismayed to hear that an Australian official has been accused of bribing a human smuggler, with a boat full of Indonesian asylum seekers, to turn his boat around. We are even more dismayed to learn that you have not repudiated such action. Your recent remarks give the impression that, if bribing human smugglers is not yet Australian policy, it could well become policy. This is not the decent or fair way to deal with would-be Australian immigrants. Human smugglers are not trafficking in drugs or weapons. Their cargo is people--people who are desperate and who may have paid all the money they have on the chance of a new life in Australia. We respectfully ask that you reverse your policy on human smuggling and direct your government to write a specific policy that forbids officials to pay human smugglers to reverse course.
