Comments by "Sandy Tatham" (@sandytatham3592) on "Australia's 'sadistic' history of offshore refugee detentions" video.

  1. Wow, "no air conditioners...". Good video though. There are legal avenues to Australian citizenship for genuine asylum seekers, those seeking refuge from torture, certain death or persecution, but those escaping "economic turmoil" or "in search of a better life" should NOT be processed before them. In early 2001 I volunteered to help socialise and teach English to a large group of boat people who arrived in Perth via Christmas Island. After months of hard work I found that most of the asylum seekers had unrealistically high expectations of what they would be offered. They made lots of complaints about how they were treated, even though they had free and independent accommodation in a beautiful heritage house, and were given weekly payments to survive quite comfortably. They hardly showed me any gratitude at all, except for a young Hazara boy from Afghanistan (his life was in danger from the Taliban) and two doctors escaping from Iraq (they had been forced to perform horrific amputations and torture on prisoners). These three were all suffering from mild PSTD, but the rest seemed mentally fine. Without exception, they were all Muslim men and most seemed somewhat resentful that they were being helped by an independent female. I was a 'do gooder' at the beginning of my volunteering, but now I wholeheartedly agree with Australia's policy of stopping the boats. It's not in any way helpful to incentivise people seeking the illegal route to asylum in Australia, or to any country.
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  2. ​ @Tralalalala034 : Can they be returned to their country? Some of these people come from places which are now safe to return to. The group that I taught English to were offered repatriation (flight and money) and some were happy to accept that. Otherwise they are only granted 'temporary residence' status and that doesn't always convert to citizenship so they are left in limbo.
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  3.  @jocicivana : It seems that not many asylum seekers want to stay in Serbia. They consider it a transit country, whereas Australia is popular for economic reasons.
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