Security, People-Smuggling, and Australia's New Afghan Refugees

From “Queue Jumpers” to “Absolute Scum of the Earth”: Refugee and Organised Criminal Deviance in Australian Asylum Policy

“…Non-citizens become illegal entrants. 17 It is also unsurprising that, following the attacks of 9/11, claims were made linking asylum seekers and the threat of terrorism. Illegals in turn become parasites and burdens upon the health and legal systems.…”

“…The queue jumper is understood as an individual who makes a choice to subvert appropriate procedures and hence colludes in their own illegality. 22 Much has also been written about the representations of asylum seeker deviancy more generally by politicians and the media during this period. Instead, "it is those granting compassion that are repositioned as victim".…”

“…16 A primary motivating factor for this rhetorical treatment of asylum seekers may have been the desire to capitalise on rightwing sentiments, which had been excited by Pauline Hanson's One Nation party at the 1998 federal election. 17 It is also unsurprising that, following the attacks of 9/11, claims were made linking asylum seekers and the threat of terrorism. 18 In an interview given to Brisbane's Courier Mail on the eve of the 2001 election, Prime Minister Howard compared the post-9/11 arrival of asylum seekers "to the aftermath of World War II when Nazi war criminals slipped into Australia", and stated that restrictive border protection policies were necessary because in their absence "you don't know who's coming and you don't know whether they do have terrorist links or not".…”

The Liberal Paradox and the Politics of Asylum in Australia

“…At a legal level, they point out a series of contraventions of international treaties and human rights obligations and to Australia's declining reputation as a defender of humanitarian principles (Amnesty International 2002;Crock and Saul 2002;Fonteyne 2002;Human Rights Watch 2002;Mathew 2002). Other commentators have engaged more directly with the politics of asylum to which Sultan's comments allude (Maley 2001;MacCallum 2002;Manne 2002;McMaster 2002;Hage 2003;Marr and Wilkinson 2004;Maddox 2005). They show how asylum policy has played into broader electoral strategies of the Coalition government under Prime Minister John Howard-building a wedge between elite and mainstream Australia, appealing to a tradition of racism, securing a non-traditional base of working-class voters and manipulating traditional security anxieties.…”

Medium of the Oppressed: Folk Music, Forced Migration, and Tactical Media

“…In addition, they are a visible minority of Eastern Turkic origin with strong Asian features that easily distinguish them from the majority of Afghans who look Caucasian. Considered Afghanistan's “heretics and Untermenschen ” (Maley, , p. 357), the Hazaras have been on the run for more than a century, seeking refuge mainly in the neighboring countries of Iran and Pakistan and, in recent years, Europe and Australia.…”