Why Do They Come?

Yesterday a boat carrying Afghan asylum seekers was picked up near Ashmore Reef. Stuck in a time warp, and not knowing what else to do, Her Majesty's Opposition have again started shrieking ‘invasion ‘and ‘Labor soft on refugees.’ It is therefore useful for us to have the facts influencing these recent people movements. Below are some of the latest news reports illustrating the push factors behind why people leave everything behind them and flee their homelands.

• Arrests Of Afghan Refugees On The Rise In Pakistan. As Pakistan is dismantling camps which have sheltered Afghan refugees, the Afghans are being trucked to the borders and told to go back. (Radio Free Europe's web site)
http://www.rferl.org/content/Arrests_Of_Afghan_Refugees_On_The_Rise_In_Pakistan/1608934.html

• Hamid Karzai (the West’s man in Kabul) has formed allegiances with fundamentalist warlords by allowing them to implement brutal social laws which deny women any access to basic human rights. Karzai has signed a law which effectively sanctions marital rape.

• In Pakistan, a video surfaced of the Taliban in the Swat Valley publicly flogging a young woman screaming for mercy. From the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/opinion/15wed1.html?_r=1

• Taliban Shoots Afghan Couple Who Eloped
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/14/Taliban-shoots-Afghan-couple-who-eloped/UPI-29721239767329/

• Kabul Pleads With Tehran To Delay Refugee Expulsions. With one-million UN registered refugees and another million unregistered refugees, Iran is rounding up and pushing Afghans refugees back across the border. (Radio Free Europe's web site) http://www.rferl.org/content/Iran_Said_To_Resume_Deportation_Of_Afghan_Refugees/1370585.html
and http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1079328.html

Pamela Curr
Campaign Co-ordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
16 April 2009