What is the definition of a refugee?

Australia gave a refugee $98k to move to Cambodia. He says it's not enough

Australia should be returning all economic (as opposed to Political refugees) to their countries to dissuade others who believe that Australia is the best chance to make it big.

I have verified stories of "boat people" who were completely safe and reasonably well off in their country who successfully came to Australia to make more money.

Another question, if someone makes it out of their country for safety, what is the intention of the continued journey including boat trip to Australia? This man is from Afghanistan. If he was truly seeking safety why didn't he just stay any if the other countless stops along the way? I don't think he got on the boat in Afghanistan.

Our tax money is better spent than creating incentives for more refugees.

Political refugees are welcomed.

 

How have you ‘verified’ the stories? Are these refugees members of your family or your close friends?

 

*shakes head* What is a Refugee? Definition and Meaning | USA for UNHCR
Close this thread - nothing but ignorance, racism and bigotry will be the result IMO.

 

Don't feed the troll.

 

Known to family.

 

Let me rephrase my question more clearly:

Is it fair for someone to jump the queue of people trying to get into Australia for the purpose of economic gain?

PS:
If I changed the term "boat people" to "asylum seeker" does that change the meaning?

Have the statistics about boat arrivals been impacted by diversions to offshore detention?

 

You mean rephrase it so its a more leading question?

You seem to have come here with an agenda in mind. Why not just state what you think instead of pretending to be impartial about it.

There's plenty of information out there on Australia's refugee intake scheme. What don't you like about it exactly?

 

A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
How they arrive on our shores is a different question again, obviously.

 

The last statement on my first post: "Political refugees are welcomed" translates to "I welcome "political" refugees, that is those that are valid asylum seekers".

The post was supposed to garner thought about how we define the word "refugee" and whether it should include people who only seek economic gain.

If a person only after economic gain seeks asylum as a refugee then by definition they are taking the place of a valid refugee / asylum seeker.

What I believe is that "economic refugees" should not be part of the set of refugees, referring back to the original question - its definition, because they take the place of others, wasting time and money.

That's how I hoped people would interpret my original post.

 

When I read the ABC article, I interpreted it to be suggesting that the man was given almost $100k by the Australian Govt to start a life in Cambodia, and he used a lot of it to repay relatives for looking after his family. Then he didn't have as much for his family's expenses in Cambodia. The journalist also appeared to be suggesting that the Australian Govt hasn't paid up all the cash they originally negotiated for him to agree to go to Cambodia.

This leads us to think that maybe he should be back in the country where his relatives live. Why did he travel to Australia when he could have gone to Lebanon or Turkey?



Here's a different article to consider. It is somewhat relative due to discussing conditions in refugee or displacement camps. @Simon Hampel may want to put it into it's own thread.

'I'm an Australian — get me out of here': Mother makes urgent plea from Syrian detention camp

Can the Australians be legally repatriated to Australia after the law was brought in a few years ago to cancel citizenship for those leaving to join ISIS? An Australian "woman" aged 18 or over, now in 2019, could well have been a child taken out of Australia many years ago by her father and later married to another ISIS fighter.

 

Discussing refugee or asylum seeker issues in a forum always invite emotive responses as your posts have received.

You mentioned that there seems to be a glaring need to define 'asylum seeker' or 'refugee'. I agree. In previous discussions on these issues perhaps in the preceding Somersoft forum I mentioned that too.

'Asylum seekers' in times past (maybe 50 years) were mentioned occasionally and invariably publicised persecuted individuals of conscience, especially with non violent beliefs. Globalisation has seen the ascendancy of the economic migrant and its disorderly variant, the economic refugee. Where migration by asylum seekers would be few, migration by economic refugees would be by the multitudes.

Often, people just band all categories of potential migrants as worthy of the same appraisal process, but with vastly different economic impact on the country, different appraisal process and merits are more appropriate. Fortunately, our federal government and immigration department has a more sophisticated process for governing immigration with differentiating priorities for categories of migrants, such as humanitarian, family, spouse, work, business, etc.

Most times I believe the government has got immigration right and it is reflected broadly in the non recessionary economy in the past. We only know that the government is doing a good job when there is no problem from the actions of the migrant intake.

There is always opportunity to improve the immigration process to cater to an evolving humanitarian crisis, such as that of Saudi woman Rahaf Al Qunun, who ultimately managed to secure acceptance by Canada.

 

Well you should be happy to know that what a "refugee" is has been clearly defined in both international and domestic law, and doesn't include anything to do with being an "economic refugee" or anything resembling that category.

You only have to read any of the tribunal cases on these issues to see how rigorously tested these matters are.

Does that end the thread now? You really could have googled that.

 

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=refugee+asylum+seeker+difference