In the last of the Trilogy of posts
relating to the Boat People to Australia issue, I will address the wholly
misplaced idea of this establishment of the JWG with Australia to discuss the
whole issue of people getting on a boat to Australia.
What a farce the whole thing is? This is
nothing more than an excuse for a junket so that next year a whole bunch of Sri
Lankans will get a free trip to Australia at someone’s expense to talk about
how successful or not they have been in stopping this smuggling. I cannot think
of a more wasteful way to spend money.
If the Australians, IMMEDIATELY deport any
asylum seeker back to SL upon arrival and the word spreads that there are NO
exceptions, then this will STOP. The people smugglers who have made a packet,
many of whom have links to the Govt. so they can find some protection, will
evaporate and go out of business.
What is the use of a JWG? The most
important issue, that should have been addressed but lies untouched, is the
huge benefit to Australia (as it is a one way deal, no Australians migrate to
Sri Lanka) from the legal migrants. Technically they can take as many as they
want, and there would easily be 200,000 who may wish to go there, only about 10,000
of the best qualified are taken.
There has to some way of acknowledging the
huge level of assistance given by Sri Lanka to Australia from these migrants
who contribute immensely to their economy. They DO NOT remit money back to Sri
Lanka, and in that respect are distinctly different to the workers who go to
the Middle East, Singapore, and Korea who remit funds monthly to their families
back home. The latter are on fixed term contracts, whereas the migrants to Australia
go to live permanently.
As is normal this Government to Government tamasha,
did not address this most important of issues, namely the value of this benefit
to Australia and some way for the state to obtain relief in the form of a payment
for the value of the Human Resource that the Australians receive. Whilst I have
valued it at US$500M, even an annual payment of US$100M would be fine. However as
the Govt. of Australia will not bribe any Sri Lankan govt. official who wishes to
instigate this demand, there is no effort on the part of Sri Lanka to rectify this
huge anomaly.
I therefore challenge the Government to put
aside personal gain, and put the Country forward, by insisting that the Australian
Government recognize and compensate for the value of the Human Resource it takes
annually from Sri Lanka.
1 comment:
this blogger is beginning to earn his political stripes. way to turn this serious and unacknowledged problem into an attack on the government (even though no previous UNP government in recent memory did anything, nor any opposition politician proposed anything)!
it's a serious problem and you are correct in seeking recompense.
there is no way a country can develop properly if its leading human resources are skimmed away every year.
Why so much corruption in SL? Where are the accountants? Why are the roads deteriorating? Where are the engineers? Why are the hospitals screwing up so much and undiagnosed diseases and mental afflictions abound? Where are the doctors? The only ones that stay in SL are the lawyers and politicians!!
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