This once proud country, my second home, built on the labour of migrants, has now become a fortress, determined to repel any invasion from desperate refugees fleeing from persecution and human-created hell in their own country.

Against all humane counsel and contrary to international law, the current Australian government has become the proud initiator of a horrendous policy of turning back the boats to where they came from.

Those who were persecuted in their own country may now have to face their persecutors again. All this in an effort to ensure that no boat people will ever set foot on virgin Australian soil again.

The Minister for Immigration, Scott Morrison, has massaged this message by declaring that his aim is to prevent loss of life at sea. He is proud of his record that in the last six months since this policy has become de rigueur, there has been not a single death by drowning. The price that has to be paid for this is locking up thousands of desperate asylum seekers in ghettoes on neighbouring Pacific islands, resulting in untold misery, including serious deterioration of physical and mental health, as attested by self-harm and threatened suicide.

The world is awash with displaced persons seeking refuge from persecution or merely searching for a more tolerable life. The south-north axis across the Mediterranean has resulted in a deluge which is engulfing islands like Malta and Lampedusa that happen to be in its path. Another south-north torrent is flooding the Mexico-US border. The upheaval in the Middle East has resulted in millions being displaced trying to find safety in places like Turkey or Jordan. The Far East is no exception, with many people fleeing countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and adjoining countries hoping to reach the safer havens further south.

There is no solution to this problem, but one action which is certainly not a solution is turning back the boats to where they came from. It is also most unfortunate that children of all ages are caught in this confusion and suffer the consequences.

The latest development in this saga is the decision to pick up boatloads of refugees (153 in the last incident) by the Australian navy from international waters and detaining them pending a decision by the High Court as to their ultimate fate. This event highlights the miserable state that this effort at ‘border protection’, described by some as an act of piracy, has descended to.

Many Australians are currently in a state of shock, wondering where this country of ‘milk and honey’ is actually heading

A number of other current issues give rise to anxiety including:

The role Australia is playing in international affairs, which many consider to be a blatant effort to assist the US in surrounding China. Allowing bases for American troops in Darwin, as well as the recent emphasis on friendship with Japan, can be and have been seen by China – our biggest importer of Australian goods – as efforts in this direction;

The ignoring of the problem of global warming, against the advice of the vast majority of experts that a human catastrophe is in the offing;

The watering down of the concept of multiculturalism which has served Australia so well over the past half century. Associated with this is the effort to ease out any ethnic specific services, particularly relating to older people and pensioners;

A budget that has been roundly condemned as anti-social, where the biggest burden has fallen on those with the lowest incomes;

Withdrawal of subsidies which now allows universities a free reign in increasing fees, making it more difficult or impossible for poorer members of the community to receive a higher education. In Australia, tertiary education is not free and students have the option of being given loans, which they have to repay when their salary reaches a certain level. What a difference from the lavish cornucopia Maltese students benefit from!

For all these reasons, many Australians are currently in a state of shock, wondering where this country of ‘milk and honey’ is actually heading. One would be forgiven for thinking that many concepts we have prioritised in the past and which reasonable people believe are essential to maintain an equal and a thriving society seem to have become destroyed for short-term gains.

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