Jessica’s Blog

Recently we have been studying refugees in English and i for one was surprised at how little we know about the treatment of asylum seekers in this country. Upon fleeing war-ton countries such as Afghanistan, these people are locked up for indefinite periods interrogated over and over again, so that the government can “confirm” that really are asylum seekers and not of any threat to Australia. They call Australia the lucky country, because we have large ammounts of open space, some of the most unique terrain in the world, and we boast many other beautiful things that most Australians take one look at and move on. If there is so many “boundless plains to share” like the album suggests, then why are these refugees locked up like criminals? They are victims, not terrorists. They are fleeing violence, not trying to start it. The Government says that it’s for our own protection, but do you really believe that someone that has had so much violence inflicted on them would try to hurt Australians? I, for one, don’t. Sometimes these poor people are locked up for years before they are freed from the looming prescence of the razor-wire fences. And even then, the Government tries to send them back to the country they spent so much time fleeing from. It is also appalling what views most Australians have on refugees from Muslim countries, as seen in the movie ‘Letters To Ali’, where one man thinks that a 15 year old refugee from Afghanistan will kill his children. Australia is meant to be a multi-cultural country, so why all the racism?