CREATING MODERN PENAL SETTLEMENTS
WHILE much of the media spotlight in recent months has been on the asylum seekers being held in Australian detention centres, hundreds more are being incarcerated in neighbouring countries in the Pacific.
These countries are being paid many millions of dollars by Australia to stop boat people from reaching our shores.
It’s a case of out of sight, out of mind, as far as the Australian Government is concerned.
But, in many cases, the burden is being placed on countries that do not have the economic or social means to support their own people adequately, let alone the asylum seekers.
In essence, these countries are being bribed by Australia to offload a problem that the Australian Government is not prepared to face squarely.
This Pacific Solution, as it is called, is not a solution, and it is not financially sustainable.
It is creating penal settlements on neighbouring countries’ soil, not unlike what the British did when they settled Australia more than 200 years ago.
