Refugees banned from Australia

1KIKI

Thursday, July 25, 2013 4:15 AM

Magons

I think Canada has so far done the best regarding its past history with aboriginals, but it's a very divided effort...

On the one hand Canada set aside Nunavut, which is HUGE, and primarily inhabited by aboriginals. OTOH it doesn't exactly belong to aboriginals either. I think of it as one big-ass almost-reservation. Aboriginals in Nunavut and elsewhere suffer from cultural disruption, OTOH it comes without concomitant full inclusion in the economy and its benefits.

BTW, Canada has its own history of taking aboriginal children from their parents and giving them to white people - or orphanages. The US has a similar history, just far more hidden.

The US 'solved' its Indian problem by creating 'reservations' which are technically independent of the US government, except the people got forced onto the least worthwhile land. (Oil and gas contracts are run 'for' the various tribes by the US government by treaty, which has worked out very, very badly for the people.)

I'm not sure I can find where any country needs to be between 100% making up for past grievous injustices, and shrugging off the problem altogether.


ETA: I wonder if a truth commission process might be helpful.

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MAGONSDAUGHTER

Thursday, July 25, 2013 6:57 AM

There are similar areas in Australia, but they have a dodgy reputation.

One of the local ones were sold off by government when the demand for agricultural land grew, in a typical 'screw you' attitude towards the Koories.

Oh course the Mabo decision has changed a lot of that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Mabo

Rap, I'm not sure why the concept of offering apology for past wrongs by people who carry the same office and who have reaped the benefits of the actions of aforesaid actions appears to be too complex for you to understand.

sometimes people have to apologise on behalf of others. Of course it would be better if the offenders apologised, but that is not always possible. CEO's apologise on behalf of their company, parents on behalf of their children, solicitors on behalf of their clients.

In this case the Australian government apologises for the actions of the Australian government, albeit a government with different members.

The apology did what all effective apologies do"

Acknowledge who is the victim and who is the offender
Acknowledge and give validity to the events
Acknowledge the pain and suffering of the victims
Take steps to ensure such actions do not occur again
Restore dignity to the victims

Such apologies form part of the process of restorative justice

"Restorative justice (also sometimes called reparative justice[1]) is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender. Victims take an active role in the process, while offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm they've done—by apologizing, returning stolen money, or community service".[2] Restorative justice involves both victim and offender and focuses on their personal needs. In addition, it provides help for the offender in order to avoid future offences. It is based on a theory of justice that considers crime and wrongdoing to be an offence against an individual or community, rather than the state.[3] Restorative justice that fosters dialogue between victim and offender shows the highest rates of victim satisfaction and offender accountability.[4]"

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MAGONSDAUGHTER

Thursday, July 25, 2013 9:15 AM

Quote:

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Western countries including the US and Britain may be asked to accept tens of thousands of Syrian refugees because the exodus from the civil war is overwhelming countries in the region, the UN's refugee chief has warned.

With no end to the war in sight, the flight of nearly 2 million people from Syria over the past two years is showing every sign of becoming a permanent population shift, like the Palestinian crises of 1948 and 1967, with grave implications for countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, UN and other humanitarian aid officials say.

One in six people in Lebanon are now Syrian refugees. The biggest camp in Jordan has become the country's fourth-largest city. In addition to those who have crossed borders, at least four million Syrians are believed to have been displaced within their own country, meaning that more than a quarter of the population has been uprooted.

In an interview with the Guardian, António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said the situation was already far more than just a humanitarian crisis. If a resolution to the conflict was not found within months, the UN will look to resettle tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in countries better able to afford to host them, including Britain. Germany has already offered to take 5,000, but other offers have been limited, Guterres said.

"We are facing in the Middle East something that is more than a humanitarian crisis, more than a regional crisis, it is becoming a real threat to global peace and security," Guterres said.

"We are already seeing the multiplication of security incidents in Iraq and Lebanon, and Jordan is facing a very difficult economic situation."

Guterres compared the Syrian refugee issue to that of Iraqis during the last decade, when more than 100,000 were resettled away from the region. "If things go on for a prolonged period of time then resettlement will become a central part of our strategy," he said. "We would like when the time comes … to be able to launch a resettlement programme as massive as the one for Iraqis."

The Syrian exodus has already surpassed almost every other refugee crisis that international organisations have dealt with in the past 40 years. The Yugoslav wars of the 1990s provide the closest parallel, with both conflicts having a strong ethnic-sectarian dimension and the crumbling of state control raising the spectre of partition.

The knock-on effect on regional countries has been telling. Tensions between refugee communities and local populations have increased dramatically in Jordan and Lebanon, as the influx of people piles pressure on local services such as schools and hospitals, and disrupts job markets. The upshot has been a greater effort by Syria's neighbours to manage the flow of refugees into their countries.

"Turkey and Jordan have become so overwhelmed. At the same time there are some very worrying consequences on the security point of view, with the infiltration of armed people, that the border has had to be more controlled. This means refugees are still coming, but they have to come in gradually, which means we have a number of people stranded waiting to cross," Guterres said.

Some refugees have found life so wretched in camps that they have started to return home. But at present this is still a trickle.

"They are not going home, and nor can they be expected to at a time when communities are being slaughtered and Syria is disintegrating," said one Jordanian official who declined to be named. "We are living the reality of a long and devastating war with perhaps unmanageable consequences for us."

"The original expectation was that this was going to be a short wave of people that would quickly recede," said the EU's humanitarian commissioner, Kristalina Georgieva, who has twice visited Zaatari recently. "It has taken more than a year to recognise that this conflict is going to be long. We have been in contact with development organis

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