July 31, 2013 - 12:10PM
First Word: Letter of the Morning
Vietnamese asylum seekers spent many years in camps where conditions were rough and personal freedom was restricted. Photo: supplied Photo: Jason South JPS
Malcolm Fraser's claims regarding his government's record in managing asylum seekers are becoming increasingly extravagant ("Vietnamese refugees were a boon, not a burden", July 29). I was a health officer in UNHCR resettlement camps in South East Asia at this time. Certainly I was junior, but I was definitely on the front line, so I can raise some issues that Mr Fraser regularly omits.
Only a tiny proportion of Vietnamese asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat. This is partly because the Australian government at this time had an active program of physically disabling boats so they could not travel beyond Malaysia or Indonesia. This was undertaken mainly because Australia did not want boats of asylum seekers arriving – but it was also an attempt to prevent further deaths at sea.
The Agreement on Orderly Departure, commenced in 1979 when Mr Fraser was prime minister, gave priority resettlement to the families of Vietnamese-Australian residents who had stayed in Vietnam. Thousands of people who were classed as refugees languished for years in camps in South East Asia waiting to be resettled in a third country. It was not a benign system, and humanity was often lacking.
Mr Fraser should be well aware of the dangers to asylum seekers when they travel by sea with people smugglers. The number of Vietnamese asylum seekers who died at sea trying to ultimately reach countries like Australia during his period as prime minister was appalling; hundreds of thousands of people. A whole criminal trade in violent piracy developed.
During the period of Mr Fraser's government, Australia contributed to the maintenance of several UNHCR refugee camps in Malaysia and Indonesia. All the camps were rough settlements with basic infrastructure. Infant mortality was high and there was no personal freedom. Essentially, it was a system of offshore processing.
Australia's intake of Vietnamese asylum seekers from these camps during this period was acceptable – but not excessive. Other countries who had not been involved in the Vietnam War resettled more people per head of population.
Of course, the Vietnamese asylum seekers who have resettled have made great Australians. However, to suggest, as Mr Fraser does, that the policies of his government were more benign than now, is just rewriting history. I also find it a little insulting to the large numbers of Vietnamese who died at sea during this period or spent decades living in miserable refugee camps waiting to be resettled.
Kim McKenzie Rapid Creek (NT)
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