AUSTRALIAN Catholic Social Justice Council chairman Bishop Christopher Saunders has challenged the Federal Government’s claims of “fighting a war” on asylum seekers.
“If it is a war, then it is being fought against wretched and defenceless people,” he said.
“We are ignoring the most important issue – the millions of people in our region and around the world who need protection and security.
“The government’s campaign, like that of its predecessors, has only one purpose: to deter desperate men, women and children from seeking protection from persecution and danger.”
Bishop Saunders (pictured) also said the government “was angering the very nations we need to work with” to solve the issue of asylum seekers.
“The only hope for a solution to the refugee problem is international co-operation,” he said.
“Australia’s policies are undermining and destroying that hope by angering the very nations we need to work with.
“Can we be surprised if Indonesia is offended when Australian naval ships stray into its waters, or when we ignore its protests and force boats to turn back to their sovereign territory?”
Asylum-seeker issues continued to dominate the media as 2014 opened.
Indonesian police recently claimed the Australian Navy had beaten asylum seekers and forced some of them to hold on to parts of a hot engine on a boat being towed back to Indonesia.
Video footage showed asylum seekers receiving medical assessment for burns to their hands.
The government’s border protection operation leader Lieutenant General Angus Campbell confirmed Customs had bought large lifeboats to deploy as part of Operation Sovereign Borders.
He did not comment on how or when the lifeboats would be used.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison recently suggested the Coalition’s border protection policies were leading to a decreased number of asylum seekers arriving in Indonesia.
Mr Morrison said the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia had fallen 80 per cent since Operation Sovereign Borders began four months ago.
Lieutenant General Campbell said it was too early to declare the policies a success.
“It will only be after the monsoon season ends in late March that I’ll be able to be in a position to confidently offer an assessment of how the operation’s going,” he said.
