To be Free — or not to be Free?

The persecuted deserve Somewhere to run to — Pussycat Tale

A Pussy Cat Tale

Lady Donga Diaries

Words & Pictures — Lady Donga

Meow 257

Its just after midnight and the Indonesian fishing boat had just dropped off over half its human cargo at one muddy mangrove bay, before taking the remainder of its illegal human export around the headland to drop them near a muddy coast elsewhere.

There were 39 men overall who muttered in Pakistani Urdu and Bangladeshi Bengali about how rough the conditions were with mangrove mud up to their thighs — not to mention the crocodile eyes they could see glinting under the crescent moon glowing from above.

And there is a standing joke around in these parts — if the sharks don’t get you — the crocodiles will.

The mosquitoes can be bad depending on rainfall — and sometimes the sandflies during the day will carry you away.

One man injures his leg on a mangrove branch covered in oyster shells — and his blood mixes in with the muddy water swirling around the other dozens of legs looking for a safe place to step ashore amongst the crocodiles.

And on top of that — this is the monsoon season — with cyclones that will redesign your hired boat from Indonesia into matchstick wood — like a blow away hat worn by a wet and wild pussycat.

MeoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooW!

Welcome to Australia — or is it?

PM Anthony Albanese described the recent arrival of a boat load of asylum seekers as unfortunate.

There are now arguments in Australian Parliament over adequate border surveillance levels.

Speaking on Perth radio, Prime Minister Albanese trashed suggestions from the opposition and elsewhere saying his government had not cut funding to Australian Border Force — and maintained offshore processing programs.

“People who arrive by boat get sent offshore…. that is the measure we have in place.

“It is working. That’s why they are in Nauru — that’s the whole point,” PM Albanese stated on the Perth Radio Program.

It’s true dear readers Nauru Airlines arrived in Broome on Saturday to collect the 39 men — and now they are in Nauru.

Beforehand, the 39 men who arrived in Western Australia’s North West were dropped at Beagle Bay and Pender Bay on Friday by a boat from Indonesia.

One man told the ABC the trip was organized in Indonesia by a man who promised to take them to Darwin (around 2000km by road from where the asylum seekers/illegal immigrants were dropped by the boat).

“In Pakistan the situation is very bad. They tortured me,” he said.

“I don’t want to go back to Pakistan.”

Well dear readers, we pussy cats might get stroppy with each other now and then.

But we don’t treat each other so bad that we make our fellow felines flee their country for the safety of another country elsewhere.

But humans treat each other so bad in some parts of the world — leaving people with no choice but to flee persecution.

And according to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights everyone has that right:

Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

Most fair-minded countries are signatory to the UDHR and articles therein — including the Refugee Convention:

A key legal document that defines a refugee as: “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or a political opinion.”

However, many countries who are signatory to the UDHR and the Refugee Convention often ignore their signatory duty and re-export the refugees elsewhere.

For example:

The UK sends them to Rwanda.

Australia sends them to Nauru (an island in the Pacific Ocean).

Asylum seekers are usually sent offshore to be processed as to determine whether they are genuine refugees — or illegal economic migrants (fleeing their country for economic opportunity).

Meanwhile, refugees who have been positively identified by the UNHCR as genuine, wait patiently in refugee camps (sometimes decades) for relocation in other countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand, and Europe.

So most governments view dimly the so called cashed up asylum seekers who pay organized crime to help them jump the queue ahead of assessed refugees in camps around the world.

Dear Readers — Lady Donga has readers from around the globe — including some of the South Asian countries mentioned herein.

Please feel free to offer your opinion or solution on how you think illegal immigrants (economic migrants) or genuine asylum seekers should be treated and housed in their chosen destination and country etc.

MeooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooW for now dear readers

Until next time

With Love — Lady Donga Diaries — © Meow 257–2024