Isn’t it amazing how when you haven’t got a leg to stand on you get on your high horse!
The alleged Tamil illegals who headed for Australia but were stopped in Indonesia had threatened to remain on their boat rather than disembark in Indonesia. They then threatened to blow up the boat. When that did not achieve their goals they began a hunger strike. They also used PR by a young girl and an extremely articulate fellow called Alex.
So they don’t want to go to Indonesia, that’s for sure. They had been promised Australia and they weren’t going to accept anything less for the $20,000 (allegedly) they paid for each and every person on that boat.
That’s an awful lot of money, but apparently they are in danger in Sri Lanka because they are Tamils, and so they are willing to hand over that cash to people traffickers.
I can understand that. If your life is in danger then you do anything to survive. What I don’t understand is that they are not prepared to land in Indonesia where at least they would not be facing death as they were back in Sri Lanka.
Both my husband and I together with our parents were refugees following the upheavals in Europe owing to the Nazi regime, so I do understand the plight of refugees. We would have gone to any country which would have opened its doors to us. It so happened that Australia welcomed us and for that we are grateful, but we did it the legal way by asking for permission first.
We would definitely have accepted Indonesia if it meant saving our lives.
The Tamils must have been told that Australia was an easy target. They must also have been told that threatening to hurt themselves would make the government back down. It was a very foolish approach and it backfired.
LiliGans.com 
One quibble: it isn’t just a simple choice between Indonesia and Australia. Indonesia is not a party to the Refugee Convention, so staying in Indonesia would mean an indefinite (and often permanent) stay in a refugee camp. I’m not sure your parents have opted for that (irrevocable) choice, rather than holding out for the possibility of living as a citizen in Australia. Yes, anyone would choose Indonesia imminent death. But not all refugees face imminent death. For example, post-war Jewish refugees didn’t face that.
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In reply to your quibble, they are still queue-jumpers with the financial resources to pay for passage while other refugees miss out on their legal turn to go to the country of their choice. The more queue-jumpers who make it the more it will encourage other queue-jumpers to follow suit, thereby making it impossible for legitimate and poor refugees to find a haven. As for post-war Jewish refugees, they were not welcomed back into the country of their birth. For example, we had to hide from the Poles and I still have nightmares about having to be quiet during the day and only move around at night so that no Pole would attack us. That is why we had to escape and ended up in a Displaced Persons’ Camp. You are correct when you say that not all refugees face imminent death. Some of them are simply economic refugees.
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Post-war was, I believe, some sixty years ago.
Now is now.
Lol
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