How war plays in Australia vote

The Australian public has seemingly embraced the government's hard-line tactics, linking illegal arrivals of Afghans to the terrorist attacks.

Talk radio, an influential form of entertainment, has crackled with conspiracy theories about "sleepers" among the refugees, who could be readying themselves for a covert strike against Australia.

At JT's Hair Salon, a popular meeting place in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta, "all the people want to talk about is the asylum seekers," according to owner J.J. Jun. "Some people think they might be terrorists,'' he says. "They believe John Howard did the right thing and should not let them in.

"They used to talk about not having jobs, but now it's just about boat people, and maybe a war."

Defense Minister Peter Reith has implied that the refugees could be a threat. "[Illegal immigration] can be a pipeline for terrorists to come in and use your country as a staging post for terrorist activities."

It is a view that troubles refugee advocates such as Prof. William Maley of the Defence Force Academy in Canberra, the capital, and chairman of the Refugee Council of Australia. "There is a lot of false rhetoric about refugees getting places in a queue," he says. "Our offshore refugee program is far more like getting a ticket in a lottery."

In the border camps of Pakistan, he said, the United Nations is often forced to stop registering new refugees, whose numbers top 1.5 million. "The officials had to ask people to stop presenting themselves for interviews because they could not cope. There is no orderly queue out of Afghanistan," Professor Maley says.

But such views seem to have little support in a nation shocked by terrorism and fearful that reprisals could provoke a flood of new refugees to its shores.

Opposition leader Mr. Beazley is trying to dispel fears that boat arrivals could be terrorists in disguise, saying modern terrorists are well-dressed, carry convincingly forged passports and visas, and "usually travel by airplane in first class."

Beazley is also trying to turn the security issue in his favor by linking it with the fallout from the slowing economy, such as mass layoffs. He is promising ''security at home and abroad."

In the meantime, hostility abounds. Women in Muslim dress have been assaulted on Sydney streets. Last month in Brisbane, a bus carrying Muslim schoolchildren was stoned and a mosque was fire-bombed, in revenge attacks similar to those in the US.

In a move with international implications, the government used the last days of the latest session of Parliament to pass laws barring people who are refused refugee status from appealing to the federal court. Human rights groups argue that the legislation violates the rule of law by curbing judicial review of bureaucratic decisions.

Green Party Sen. Bob Brown says the new laws - which also remove offshore Australian territories from the migration zone, preventing arrivals from claiming asylum there - send a dangerous message to the world. "I believe there is a real danger of a copycat effect in other countries that face a much bigger refugee crisis than Australia," he said.

The Immigration Ministry has confirmed that Britain and Canada are monitoring the new laws, as they consider similar measures.

Page: 1 | 2