As soon as we have asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat, there is a knee-jerk reaction into a political battle over border protection and how to best prevent people arriving here “illegally”.
It becomes too easy to forget the ones caught in the middle – the people seeking refuge, people just like the rest of us, sometimes whole families or families torn apart, leaving their homeland for fear of their lives.
We can have all the arguments about the rights and wrongs of their decision, about people smugglers, about immigration queues, and due processes, but would we trade places and behave any differently if we faced the same choices they have faced?
PETER BUGDEN
Editor
