A fear of boats?

1 boat, 2 boats, 3 boats...4. 5 boats, 6 boats...Please no MORE! 

I figured, since I am a law and justice student, I have the right to go on a rant about a a particular legal issue that really gets to me, that is, Australia's seemingly unwarranted fear of asylum seekers. 

FYI: Refugee: a person who has been granted refugee status by the UN and has a fear of being persecuted in their home country
Asylum Seeker: a person who flees their country from fear of being persecuted and has yet to be granted status as a 'refugee'

As a member of the international community and a signatory to numerous conventions, Australia has an obligation to provide for a reasonable number of asylum seekers. Although the news reports constantly claim we are being flooded by "boat people", the reality is, Australia takes in one of the smallest amounts of asylum seekers in the world. European countries take in hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers that flee across borders every year....yet here, Australia embarrassingly complains about a mere 20,000? According to UNHCR 2011 statistics, Australia took a piddly 0.98 refugees per 1,000 population (OR 21, 805). Compare this to intake of the following countries for that year:

Germany: 594, 269

France: 200,687

United Kingdom: 238,150 

United States: 264,574

Thailand: 96,675

(All these stats can be found here)

Like I said...embarrassing. 

These so called "boat people" have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict and a fear for their lives. I dont know about you, but living in Australia, I wouldn't have a clue what it felt like to wake up one morning, drop everything and run. Life as a refugee or asylum seeker is horrifying enough, why must Australia make this journey even harder for them? Just because these people are arriving in Australia by boat, does not make them any less of a refugee than those people who have the time to go through the correct channels of the United Nations to be granted refugee status. In fact, I believe they have more courage and fear of persecution than most. They come to Australia seeking refuge...and they are given nothing.

Life in these origin countries must be terrifying to risk you and your family's life on a boat so overflowing with people that the chances of it surviving to your destination are slim. Coming to Australia knowing that the boat has a higher than 50% chance of not making it seems insane...but I guess I have never been faced with the alternative. These people give up their life savings to pay the people smugglers to get them here. When they arrive, they are faced with mandatory detention centers and years of waiting to be processed. To me, that seems hardly worth the life threatening journey across the ocean. Yet, hearing the stories of what they were facing in their own country....detention in Australia seemed like heaven.

The news reports here never give you the stories about how and why these terrified people risked their lives to come to Australia via a rickety old boat. They don't tell you of the stories about how their families were blown to pieces in front of their eyes, or how their children were taken away to join the army, or how they were tortured. No, all Australia seems to be concerned about is the influx of "boat people" contaminating our somewhat "multi-cultural" society. They say we are the lucky country...i wouldn't say that's true in the eyes of many refugees.  

What I don't understand is that Australia as a "lucky" developed nation has the potential to save so many lives, yet we push them away. We don't understand how lucky we are until we hear the stories of people who had no other choice but to abandon family and drop everything just to stay alive.

Well that is the end of my social political rant.