Last time I went through an Australian airport I told I was "chosen" to be involved in a trial for a body scanner. (You know those ones introduced by our new Deputy PM Albo.) I then asked what if I didn't want to be chosen? I was then shown a sheet of regulations and told that I would have to miss my flight should I 'object' to be "chosen".
Anyway back to other Australian security matters. I read this in the Brisbane Times today.
The 'problem' as I see it is that closing down one people smuggler enables another to emerge.
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There is one bazooka in the armory that has yet to be exploited.
Everyone entering Indonesia has a passport. But, on advice, they somehow lose that before getting on a rickety boat.
A simple solution is for Australia to say to Indonesia "Look, we'll pay for photographic scanning devices at every (legal) point of entry. And, we'll instal sophisticated facial analysing equipment so that you can reject those you don't want. In return, we want you to provide us with facial matching of tourists/immigrants through your borders for all boat people we receive".
That way, Australia can quickly ascertain who the boat person really is, and quickly assess the merit of a refugee claim.
If, as Bob Carr claims, most are economic migrants seeking to enter via a back door, the above method would soon put an end to people smugglers.
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Methinks the logic of this doesn't suit our politicians who recognise the boat people are a very small proportion of actual immigrants, but are profoundly useful for partisan politics.
Cheers
Commenter Dalliance Location Date and time July 02, 2013, 9:03AM
