I’m neither a pretender nor a know it all person but as an ex-government minister, ex-secondary school principal, ex-secondary school teacher in Victoria and, above all, a migrant to Australia, I wish to have a say in the refugees debate.
Europe is under siege. It is being subjected to the greatest invasion of the 21st century.
Some European leaders like Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande seem to have lost touch with realities.
The UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon is wrong; the EU president Jean-Claude Juncker is wrong too.
Nobody has a right to criticise Hungary’s efforts to protect its borders.
Likewise, no country in the world, whether it’s America or Indonesia, can dictate to Australia its policy on refugees.
One can imagine what would have been the situation in Australia if the Abbot Liberal Government had not taken a bold and courageous decision to stop the boats.
Today many world leaders are sighting Australia as an example in regard to the migrants crisis.
The federal Liberal MP Jason Wood is right.
Of course, the heartbreaking photo of Aylan Kurdi has moved everybody but what about the hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls that were kidnapped by Boko Haram?
They have been compelled to change their religion; they have been raped.
Some have been forced to marry their Islamic captors and others to work as sex slaves.
What about the Iraki Christians that were massacred and their churches burnt down?
Those who escaped the massacre were sold as sex slaves.
Also, what about the great number of migrants that have died already because of unscrupulous people smugglers and due to the failure of European leaders to adopt a bold policy like Australia’s “to stop the boats”?
One has to be naive not to realise that the majority of the refugees are economic migrants.
They have different religions, different cultures and different values.
Many have publicly declared that they are migrating to Europe in search of a better future.
One may ask the question – how can refugees, if they were genuine, choose which countries they want to go to, namely Germany, Austria, UK, France et cetera?
Why don’t rich Arab Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and United Arab Emirates welcome refugees, especially those from Syria?
Why do all Syrian migrants flee westward rather than seek a safe haven in the rich Persian Gulf states? Why not in Iran?
Whether the Gulf states are signatories to the international conventions on refugees or not, is immaterial at this particular juncture.
Many Australians may wonder whether the federal Liberal MP Ewen Jones who said “Australia should take as many 50,000 Syrian refugees” has thought about the family reunion issue that will follow later? Can the Hon. MP Jones not foresee the inevitable problems related to housing, employment, health, education, “integration” and other social, religious and political issues that will follow.
Can the Hon. member guess how many of those 50,000 migrants will not be the supporters of IS and jihadists?
Let us therefore not be overruled by our emotion, instead, let us think with our head not with our heart.
Quote: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” – Rudyard Kipling.
We hope that the government and the Opposition in Australia will have a common bipartisan approach in dealing with this unprecedented migrants’ invasion.
Eliezer Francois,
Endeavour Hills.
