Indonesia and Illegal Immigration in Australia

[Rorschach]

This article touches on the Elephant in the room I have mentioned on various other sites re Boat people and Illegal Immigration. Let's face the facts, it is Illegal immigration not irregular it's bloody regular. We don't intercept boats, we escort the bloody things.

Why we haven't convinced Indonesia to come on board
September 12, 2012
Tim Lindsey

IT HAS become a cliche of the national debate on asylum seekers that any effective policy response must involve a ''regional solution''. Indonesia has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and its record in dealing with the thousands of asylum seekers within its borders is not impressive. There is, however, no escaping the fact that its arc of 17,400 islands across the seas to our north, and the boundaries it shares with us, are the key to any real regional solution - not Nauru, PNG or even Malaysia.

There is therefore often a sense of resentment towards Indonesia that a regional solution is not already in place: it ''should be doing more''. This stems from an assumption that Australia and Indonesia are partners in dealing with irregular migration in our region.

They are not. Indonesia's role as a transit country and Australia's as the destination mean their interests are entirely different. This has several major implications for policy formation in Jakarta.

The first is the ''not our problem'' perception. Asylum seekers are in Indonesia to get to Australia. Neither Indonesia nor asylum seekers want them to remain there. For many Indonesian officials Australia's calls for Indonesia to ''do more'' are therefore hypocritical - Australia doesn't want to accept asylum seekers but expects that Indonesia should. In return for what? Well that was ok till you get to "but expects that Indonesia should. In return for what?" We don't want Indonesia to accept asylum seekers at all. If they didn't have them, we wouldn't have this problem from indonesia.

On this view, by not accepting asylum seekers, Australia is seen as creating a problem but Indonesia is blamed for it. For many Indonesians, this reeks of a neo-colonial arrogance. It creates resentment, particularly among (often corrupt) local governments in the regions at the pointy end of people smuggling. This is why many are often unenthusiastic when it comes to implementing policies agreed far away in Jakarta. ''You send druggies to us, we send boat people to you.'' Well then we are dealing wit 2 types of ignorant people. Excluding the writers of this article.

A second common view in Indonesia is that Australia has failed to accept moral responsibility for asylum seekers. The US-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan were very unpopular in Indonesia. Many Indonesians argue that by participating in both wars, Australia helped create the ''push factors'' that increased refugee numbers in south-east Asia. Now it expects Indonesia - which warned against these adventures - to fix the problem. In return for what? Yet many people from those countries are leaving 1/ not for real problems of personal danger but economic reasons, 2/ the problems existed before the wars.

Linked to this is a perception that Australia - wealthy, developed and ''empty'' - should not be looking to a poor, developing and overcrowded country to take more poor people. Java, smaller than Victoria, has around 140 million inhabitants and is among the most densely populated islands in the world. Indonesia has its own huge and intractable problems of internal refugees and displaced persons. Empty? More ignorance. What is needed is for Indonesia to have better Immigration/Border control.

On this view, ''Fortress Australia'' is greedy, selfish and inhumane, refusing to take responsibility for a problem it helped create and is better equipped to deal with. yeah we are dealing with it really well aren't we.

While there is truth in some of these perceptions, there are good arguments that can be made in reply. Unfortunately, we have much less leverage than is usually assumed when we try make our case.

Australia and Indonesia have enjoyed close government-to- government relations under President Yudhoyono. This sometimes leads us to forget that both nations historically look north, and, for too long, we looked right past Indonesia. It is an uncomfortable fact that Australia now has relatively less importance for Indonesia than it does for us. Our embassy in Jakarta is our largest overseas post, but that is certainly not true of the Indonesian embassy in Canberra.

It is also not widely appreciated in Australia that asylum seekers are not a big issue in the Indonesian media. They are often covered in Jakarta's small English-speaking press, because many readers are expats and the journalists - as English speakers - know Australia. The vast Indonesian language press is, however, much less interested. This means the massive media pressure that drives government here to try to do the impossible and ''fix'' the unfixable problem of mass global migration is largely absent in Indonesia.

This all gives Australia limited traction on the asylum-seeker issue in dealing with Jakarta, unless we rely on diplomatic credits - and there are lots of competing demands for these, including terrorism, Australians on drugs charges, extradition cases, defence co-operation, trade deals, etc. Our under-resourced diplomats are skilled and committed, but this is a risky way to manage issues of such importance. Whereas there are many thousand illegal immigrants coming from Indonesia there are very few Australian drug smugglers on transit through Indonesia.

Sadly, this reflects wider problems in our relationship with Indonesia caused by a lack of mature frameworks for institutional legal cooperation. This is true, despite being neighbours with borders rendered increasingly porous by tourists in planes and refugees in leaky boats.

We don't have a ''regional solution'' because we are not offering Indonesia incentives to create one. In these circumstances any co-operation won through diplomatic initiatives such as the Bali process is, in fact, remarkable. It is largely a product of goodwill and, to a great extent, Yudhoyono's willingness to look south and take us more seriously than any president of Indonesia before him. The incentive for Indonesia should be the clearing up of the problem. If they clear it up our problem would be cleared up and bingo... we'd both be happy.

The bad news is Yudhoyono is constitutionally not allowed to run for a third term in 2014. None of the crop of candidates seeking to replace him is likely to share his enthusiasm for Australia. In fact, some - like cashiered general and self-confessed human rights abuser Prabowo Subianto - could be very difficult for us.

Time may be running out for a real regional solution unless we can think up a good reason now why Indonesia should come on board - and that will probably come with a big price tag. Then we have to figure out a way to somehow make it work for both our countries - and, most importantly, the desperate people trying to move between them.

Tim Lindsey is Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law in the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politi ... z26EL3Z900" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Black Orchid]

Our foreign aid to Indonesia should be radically slashed. Perhaps they will consider "coming on board" then

[skippy]

I wondered what this thread was about, then I read it, another whiny little bitch fest .It is not illegal to seek asylum in this country.

[Neferti]

I wondered what this thread was about, then I read it, another whiny little bitch fest .It is not illegal to seek asylum in this country.

Really? You want your son to marry a Muslim?

[Black Orchid]

I wondered what this thread was about, then I read it, another whiny little bitch fest .It is not illegal to seek asylum in this country.

Really? You want your son to marry a Muslim?

Or be shot by one?

[Rorschach]

Whiny? No.
Little? No.
Bitch fest? No.

What is it when you discard your id? Why would you? As a mark of good character perhaps?
What is it when you employ people smugglers who are criminals? Another mark of good character perhaps?

Oh yes, nothing illegal going on here officer.

[skippy]

Whiny? No.
Little? No.
Bitch fest? No.

What is it when you discard your id? Why would you? As a mark of good character perhaps?
What is it when you employ people smugglers who are criminals? Another mark of good character perhaps?

Oh yes, nothing illegal going on here officer.

I see you still battle with reality.

[skippy]

I wondered what this thread was about, then I read it, another whiny little bitch fest .It is not illegal to seek asylum in this country.

Really? You want your son to marry a Muslim?

Well that's up to him,Nef. I expect my Catholic grandfather battled with the same dilemma when he married my C of E grandmother, which in those days was hugely frowned upon.

[Rorschach]

I see you still battle with reality.

I see you still fail in; reality, debate and factual refutation.
Why do you bother Skippy you add nothing useful to the debate all you are "good" for, is expletives and ad hom.
Well I suppose at least you are consistent.

[Neferti]

I see you still battle with reality.

I see you still fail in; reality, debate and factual refutation.
Why do you bother Skippy you add nothing useful to the debate all you are "good" for, is expletives and ad hom.
Well I suppose at least you are consistent.

Ah, but Aussie is keeping a book.

Actually, I can understand Skippy. He lives out there in the backwoods and only has the Internet to keep in touch, too. Hoppy does too and so do lotsa other peeps. Or whatever the lingo is these days.

NOBODY fails on Forums such as this.