Workers concerned about conditions for asylum seekers on Christmas Island

Herald Sun
Last Updated: November 21, 2011

AUSTRALIA has enough illegal immigrants on the loose to populate a large regional city.
A Herald Sun investigation has found that nearly 60,000 people - one in every 390 - is in the country unlawfully, sparking renewed calls for a crackdown.
The 58,400 foreign citizens hiding illegally among us easily outnumber the populations of Mildura or Shepparton - Victoria's fifth and sixth biggest cities.
And they dwarf the 4700 asylum seekers who arrived by boat in 2010-11.
Documents released to the Herald Sun under Freedom of Information also reveal the biggest groups of illegals are Chinese, Americans, Malaysians, Britons and South Koreans.
More than half have been here for five or more years; 20,000 for a decade or more; and two in three have evaded authorities for more than two years. (The figures do not include visitors who overstay visas by less than a fortnight.)
VICTORIANS have every right to be concerned about the fact there are almost 60,000 foreign citizens living illegally in Australia. Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria chairman Sam Afra said illegal residents attracted little of the outrage associated with boat people, despite taking jobs and housing, using public services, and not paying tax.
He said it was far too easy to stay here if you knew how to "work the system".
"It's shocking," he said.
"To have one in three who have been here more than 10 years (suggests) something's wrong with the system."
"Nobody's talking about it. It is a problem, and the question is, don't you think the damage justifies putting more resources in (to find them)?"
He said the involvement of illegals in criminal and other dubious activities also sullied the reputations of legal migrants.
Jailed terrorist cell leader Abdul Benbrika lived illegally for years after arriving on a visitor's visa in 1989. Three months after marrying in 1992, while still an illegal, he successfully applied to stay, living on welfare with his wife and seven children until his arrest in 2005.
Illegal immigrants have also been involved in drug cartels, sexual slavery, and fraud. Illegals accused of guarding marijuana crops in Melbourne and regional Victoria were among 43 people arrested last year in raids focusing on a $400 million crime syndicate.
A charter flight to deport 76 illegal aliens from Malaysia and Indonesia, busted picking fruit in Mooroopna last year, cost taxpayers $100,000.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Catherine Branson, QC, said it was important to remember many more overstayed visas, or arrived by plane and sought asylum, than arrived by boat.
"Another misconception is that people who arrive by boat are illegal immigrants. Australia is obliged to assess asylum seekers' claims."

There were 10,600 more illegals at June 30 last year than in 2005.

they make business out of these poor creation

"Hagar Cohen: In reality, boat traffic barely changed from the time the Malaysia solution was announced, or since it's been stuck down. Nevertheless, the government maintains that the obvious and immediate beneficiaries of the policy impasse are the people smugglers, who charge up to $10,000 for the journey to Australia. People smugglers are now well established at the top of the public enemy list."
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Thought you might be interested in venturing into this. Ie, smuggling Pinoys to Aus.

Know what? For six years, you’ve been receiving better than the average Phil exec pay. Now, you’ve had enough and want to go home and “retire”. Yet, you’re complaining wa kai kwarta. Dakong balikas!
Can only think of two possibilities: 1) you’ve squandered your money on ABS; 2) mahoooooyang kaau kag kasing2X!
So, which one is it?

Peter Mickelburough
From: The Courier-Mail November 21, 2011 1:00AM

THERE are enough illegal immigrants living in Australia to populate a large regional city.
Together, the 58,400 foreign citizens hiding illegally in the community could rival the population of Bundaberg or Hervey Bay.
More than half have called Australia home for five or more years, 20,000 have lived here a decade or more and two in three "illegals" have evaded immigration authorities for more than two years.

Reminds me of a Caviteno illegal immigrant. Been here for 5+ yrs. Became overconfident and blabbed about it. Someone, perhaps a Pinoy too, must have ratted him out. Didn't take long. The machine shop he was working was raided by immigration. He was one of those taken to the detention centre and, eventually, deported. "Hindi na ako magsisi. Mi bahay, lupa't kotse na ako sa Cavite", he said.
Immigation knows, but, normally, keeps a blind eye, until someone reports.

So, felix, after working in Saudi for 6 yrs, don’t tell me hindi ka magkaroon ng bahay, lupa't kotse sa Bohol. Unless, perhaps, mi isang katotak ka na lovely collection.

ABC News Updated December 01, 2011 08:19:27

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen wants Australia's annual refugee intake increased by almost 50 per cent to 20,000 people.
Australia's current humanitarian intake is 13,750 refugees per year, but Mr Bowen wants Labor's national conference to endorse the much higher target of 20,000 people.

"It's an aspiration - there's no timeline that I'm putting on it," he said.
But he says an important condition on that would be reinstating offshore processing of refugee claims under a regional agreement.
"Australia can and should take more refugees, but there's a legitimate community expectation that there be an orderly process to do so," he said.
"And if you do have that orderly process, if you're able to have that regional agreements in place to achieve that, then the sorts of things you can talk about are substantial increases to our refugee intake going further."
The issue is divisive within Labor, with the Left faction arguing all refugee claims should be processed onshore.
Left faction heavyweight Senator Doug Cameron says the proposal is highly unlikely to succeed.
"Yep, let's support an increase in the intake of refugees but it should not be tied to some political ploy that says we'll do the right thing if you give in to the Malaysian solution," he said.
Refugee advocate Julian Burnside QC says he welcomes the proposal to increase the intake of refugees, but questions the idea of sending them offshore.
"Offshore processing as it has been proposed so far, doesn't mean you send people away to be processed somewhere else and returned if they're actually refugees," he said.
"It means sending them away and closing the door behind them, that seems to me to be a very poor policy choice."
The policy will be debated at the ALP's national conference, which starts tomorrow.

Herald Sun by Patrick Lion, Gemma Jones From: AAP June 24, 2012 12:00AM

UPDATE: THE grim task of searching for up to 90 bodies in the asylum seeker boat tragedy has begun.

Six bodies have been found but today, as rescuers gave up hope of finding any more people alive, the rescue operation officially moved into body recovery mode.

Rescuers have managed to find 110 survivors who were on the boat that capsized on Thursday between Christmas Island and the Sunda Strait in Indonesia.

Among the rescued were nine children, all boys, including one 13-year-old boy found in the early hours of the rescue operation, a Border Protection spokeswoman said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (ASMA) said on Saturday that no survivors remained within the extensive search area.

HMAS Larrakia which is at the site is due to resume recovering bodies on Sunday morning if the weather holds.

"At first light they will resume the search," the Border Protection spokeswoman said.

All 110 survivors were now at Christmas Island, she said.

AMSA say there may have been more than 200 people on the boat when it left Indonesia but an accurate figure may never be known.

The cause of the capsize is still unclear.

The search and rescue efforts involved navy and merchant ships and RAAF, civilian and customs aircraft.

Authorities says it is unlikely more survivors will be found.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese briefed reporters on the latest developments in Sydney yesterday afternoon.

Poor weather was hampering yesterday's search, which resumed at first light, Mr Albanese said.

The tragedy prompted Liberal MP Mal Washer to call on Opposition leader Tony Abbott to consider supporting Labor's Malaysia Solution to prevent more asylum-seeker deaths at sea.

Mr Albanese also pushed for a speedy resolution on asylum-seeker policy.
"I note Dr Washer's genuine comments," he said.

"And I think certainly I am of the view, and the Government is of the view, that we want to work together across the parliament to secure an outcome that reduces the possibility of a tragedy like this being repeated."

Labor's plan to process asylum seekers arriving by boat in Malaysia was stalled last year, because it did not get the Opposition's approval, which it needed to make the plan lawful.

Meanwhile, Julia Gillard faces demands to change asylum-seeker policy to avoid further deaths, while 90 people remain missing in the latest tragedy.
The Prime Minister flies home today to a border-protection crisis, with her government under attack for paralysis on how to stop boat arrivals.

Ms Gillard has only next week's parliament sitting as a last chance to break a policy deadlock before a two-month break.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer launched a blistering attack and called for an urgent reinstatement of the Pacific Solution.

"I think what has happened in the past few years is just shameful," he said.

"Labor changed policy for political reasons. They paid an appalling price for changing that policy."

The Coalition has refused to support changes to overcome a High Court rejection of the Gillard Government's plan to send asylum seekers to Malaysia, in return for confirmed refugees.

Liberal MP Mal Washer broke ranks to call on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to accept Labor's compromise offer to reopen Nauru, while also sending asylum seekers to Malaysia.

Labor backbencher Graham Perrett said "the status quo is completely unacceptable", while independent MP Rob Oakeshott said a bipartisan effort was urgently needed.

"How many of these deaths do we need? I'm sick of it. I think the majority of Australians are sick of it," he said.

Ms Gillard said her focus was on the search-and-rescue effort first, while Mr Abbott said there would be time in days ahead to look at policy lessons.

But Mr Abbott did note the Howard government border protection policies had worked.

The political storm comes amid confusion as to why authorities took so long to respond to the tragedy in Indonesian waters.

Former PM Malcolm Fraser questioned why it took 40 hours after the first distress call for the rescue effort to begin.

"Why weren't the distress calls followed up, what communications were there with Indonesia, how much was our fault, how much was theirs?" he said.

Colonel Bambang Pramushinto said the Indonesian Navy did not deploy because Australia was "very, very sufficiently resourced to deal with this kind of emergency situation".

He said Indonesian agencies had responded quickly to the previous major asylum-seeker boat capsize, just off Java in December, which claimed up to 200 lives.

- with Matt Johnston

18 June, 2012 Andrew Duffy

One of Australia's top businesswomen says refugees should help fill empty jobs in the mining industry.

Speaking at the start of International Refugee Week, The Sunday Times reports Janet Holmes a Court said Australia needed to start having a more informed debate about asylum seekers.

She also said instead of being detained in detention centres refugees should be used to help fill vacancies in the resources industry.

"It's astounding in a time when we have labour shortages and skills shortages that there are people in detention centres," she said.

"If they have skills, why not use them? They would be so willing to work and so grateful for the opportunity."

The idea is the latest in the growing trend of looking toward alternative sources of labour to solve the skills shortage in the mining industry.

The Federal Government has already started looking to the United States to fill vacancies, and has developed a new jobs board to ensure Australians are given the first chance to fill empty positions.

Earlier this month Queensland MP Bob Katter and Atlas Iron executive chairman David Flanagan said unemployed people should also be encouraged to apply for mining jobs.