WHO ARE THEY?
‘Everyone has the right to
seek and enjoy in other
countries, asylum from
persecution.’
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)
Article 14
‘Refugee’: a person with a
“well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of
race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular
social group or political
opinion...”
Convention, article 1a (2)
IN WAVES:
1976 –1982: ~2000 Vietnamese ‘boat people’ + 15,000
Vietnamese refugees settled directly from refugee camps
1989 –1993: ~3,000 asylum seekers,
mostly from China, Vietnam and Cambodia
1999 –2001: ~12,000 from Afghanistan and Iraq
(Tampa August 2001 then Sept 11 …)
2008 –present: 18,000 + from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka
ALLOCATION OF PLACES:
WHO ARE WE?
Recent study (585 responses to survey of 3,000; skewed toward
older adults, av. 58 yo; 72% born in Australia:
Attitudes on how asylum seekers should be treated on arrival:
1) With caution, but respect (n = 207);
2) With humanitarian values (n = 161); or
3) That they should be ‘sent back’ (n = 158).
… e.g. of 3):
‘Turn the boat around and tell them to go back to where they
come from—should they fail to respond—fire shots across the
bow—should they fail to respond fire shoot at the ship.’
‘LEFT’
VS.
‘RIGHT’:
‘Let them come’
human rights
compassion
‘asylum seekers’
‘refugees’
‘Turn them back’
border protection
security
‘illegal immigrants,’
‘queue jumpers’
Greens
Fairfax/ABC
Liberal/NP
NewsCorp
Act:
‘unauthorized maritime arrivals’
http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au
Angus
Houston
Paris
Aristotle
Michael
L’Estrange
EXPERT PANEL:
IMAs
irregular
maritime
arrivals
‘The common and principal focus of activity … must
be to shift the balance of risk, predictability and
incentive in favour of the use of regular pathways of
international protection and migration, and against
the need to resort to irregular and dangerous boat
voyages to Australia for those purposes.’ (3.1 p. 37)
Address root causes
Help countries of first asylum
Regional cooperation
and capacity building
Quicker RSD, but using
regional processing
Disrupt
smugglers
Removals
and returns
&
Raise to 20,000
Allow some skilled
IMAs: no SHP families
Distribute
resettlement
Excise
mainland
More research
CHRISTIAN RESPONSE (PART 1):
1. Conflict of goods → peacemaking
2. Truth telling admits complexity
3. Truth telling acknowledges falleness
4. Christian alert for government failure:
‘an avenger .. on the wrongdoer’ (Rom. 13:4)
… can’t also be the wrongdoer.
‘punish those who do evil’ (1 Pet. 2:14)
.. can’t also do evil.
… ‘best friends’ of government
5. Truth telling acknowledges government expertise
UNHCR JAKARTA
• 4000+ people
• Australia 50/yr
• Expert Panel:
‘substantial
increase in
additional places
from Indonesia’
• $$$$
EXCISION AND REGIONAL PROCESSING
NAURU
NAURU: PANEL EXPECTS/REQUIRES -human rights standards
(including no arbitrary detention);
appropriate accommodation;
appropriate physical and mental health services;
access to educational and vocational training programs;
application assistance during asylum claims;
an appeal mechanism
monitoring of care and protection arrangements
NAURU: MINISTER BOWEN REPORTS -2. freedom of movement : ‘anticipated, but not
legally required, that they will ordinarily return to
their accommodation by sunset’.
8. more permanent accommodation
within 6 months
4. education of children
15. training courses
18. church participation
19. minibuses around country.
TOWARD A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE (PART 2):
God’s
Character

‘The people of the land … oppress the

poor and needy and mistreat
the alien,
denying them justice. ... So I will pour out
my wrath on them and consume them
with my fiery anger …’ [Ezek. 22:29,31].
God’s
Character
Creation

Peter: ‘I truly understand that God
shows no partiality,
but in every

nation anyone who fears him and
does what is right is acceptable to
him.’ (Act 10:34–35)
God’s
Character
Creation
John: ‘After this I looked, and
there was a great multitude that
no one could count, from every
nation, from all tribes and
peoples and languages, standing
before the throne and before the
Lamb …’ (Rev. 7:9)
New
future
God’s
Character
Creation

Community
‘in Christ’
New
future
Jew vs. Gentile: ‘he is our peace… [he] has broken down the dividing
wall, that is, the hostility between us.’ (Eph. 2:14)
Israel: ‘when an
God’s
alien lives with you
Character in your land, do not
mistreat him. The
alien living with
Community you must
New
Creation
‘in Christ’ be treated
future
as one of
Fall / ‘Flesh’ :
disordered desires
your native-born.
false belonging
Love him as
Commands yourself, for you
were aliens in Egypt”
(Leviticus 19:33-34).
 ‘Xenophilia is commanded of us: the neighbour
whom we are to
whom we en-
Creation
God’s
Character
Community
‘in Christ’
Fall / ‘Flesh’ :
disordered desires
false belonging
Commands
love is the foreigner
counter on the road.’
[Oliver O’Donovan]
Christ’s Spirit:
reordered desires,
true inclusion
(‘love’)
New
future
A CONSERVATIVE RESPONSE FOR CHRISTIANS
Ask the government to do what it says
- regional money
- good conditions on Nauru
- increased places
- faster RSD
- more places from Indonesia
- good SAR
… etc
Requires more openness to press
Letters to MP
www.sie.org.au
A MORE RADICAL RESPONSE
Question ‘deterrence’: unlikely that it works, and a bit wrong.
Train yourself in love: smile at ‘foreigners’
Question your neighbour’s fears about scarcity
Push for generosity … e.g.:
Ask for 3000+ places p.a. direct from Indonesia, separate
from other humanitarian
Ask for increase in foreign aid (to 0.7 % GDP)
to be spent on DIPLOMACY then REGIONAL TEAMWORK
then MORE UNHCR
‘Community sponsorship’: consider it & stay tuned …