READING the letter from Helen Butterworth (CL, Sept 29) left me feeling profoundly disturbed.
While it is certainly true that “boat people” are unlawful arrivals in that they don’t have prior permission to arrive in Australia in the form of a properly issued visa, their arrival is certainly not illegal, since it is not illegal to arrive in Australia and claim asylum.
The constant reference to these human beings as “illegals” is part of the political rhetoric of our contemporary milieu, but unfortunately has the consequence of demeaning these human beings into something less.
The policies of the current government, as well as its predecessor, seek to deny the fundamental humanity of these people who risk everything, including their lives, because they simply have no other option available to them.
I’d like to know how some of the people who flee situations of war and persecution, with a genuine fear for their lives, are able to avail themselves of the legitimate way to gain entry to Australia when a) there may not be an Australian Embassy or Consulate within their country of origin, b) to ‘line up’ might bring them to the attention of those who they are seeking to flee from, and c) their fleeing might be sudden and unplanned because of the circumstances in which they live and are forced to flee.
To insist that those who don’t come here “legitimately” shouldn’t be admitted is simply to fail to understand the nature of those who become refugees and asylum seekers.
While Australia may be “entitled to say who comes to our land, and under what circumstances and by what means” that does not mean we are able to abrogate our moral responsibilities to our fellow human beings, nor our legal responsibilities under the UN Convention on Refugees (see in particular Article 31(1)).
It should also be remembered that the Social Teaching of the Church makes our obligations very clear: “Concern for refugees must lead us to reaffirm and highlight universally recognised human rights, and to ask that the effective recognition of these rights be guaranteed to refugees” (Pope John Paul II, 1990 Message for Lent, 3, as quoted in Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 505).
If seeking to respect our brothers and sisters who are forced by circumstance to arrive in Australia by “unlawful” means, if seeking to uphold their fundamental dignity because they too have been created in the image of God, if seeking to maintain the social teaching of the Church in regard to refugees makes me a member of the “bleeding hearts brigade”, then I am more than happy to wear that label as a badge of honour.
My question to your correspondent is a simple one: why aren’t you a member?
Fr ANDREW DOOHAN
Parish Priest
Parish of Forster Tuncurry, NSW
