THE following is my response to the letter by Alan Lee in The Catholic Leader on March 9.
Any loss of life is to be lamented including those asylum seekers who have tragically drowned in their attempts to reach Australia by boat.
Do we hear anyone asking the questions why people seeking protection are prepared to risk their lives and take these hazardous journeys?
How many refugees do we currently select for resettlement from those waiting in Indonesia/Malaysia?
The answers to these questions may shed light on the need for an urgent rethink of our current policy of “stopping the boats” which punishes those who seek the services of people smugglers in the hope that this will put the latter out of business and so prevent deaths by drowning at sea.
As a signatory of the refugee convention are we acting ethically in punishing one group of people to send a message to others?
The end can never justify the means: the need to prevent deaths at sea does not excuse the harsh conditions, the delays in processing claims and the disregard of human dignity evident in detention centres such as those on Nauru and Manus Island.
No wonder the people now living under these conditions are suffering from depression and other forms of mental illness. They are uncertain of their future, do not know how long they will be in detention and endure the prospect of never being reunited with family.
In the words of a letter writer in another paper “asylum seekers are not dying at sea but they are dying in a sea of hopelessness”. Can we really believe our policy of offshore detention “serves a much greater good”?
Madonna Josey RSM
Greenslopes,
QLD
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